May 13, 2024 • 59 mins
This week on the Black Perspective, Vanessa Tyler talks with the creative force behind New Jersey’s annual love and unity fest; we check in with the only meteorology department at the collegiate level in the state of Mississippi and one of only a few in the country available at an HBCU; and Roland Martin, Esther Dillard, and Andrea Coleman join us for a variety of discussions on topics impacting the Black community.
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(00:00):
It's Mother's Day, May twelfth,and today Vanessa Tyler talks with the creative
force behind New Jersey's annual Love andUnity fest. We check in with the
only meteorology department at the collegiate levelin the state of Mississippi and one of
only a few in the country availableat an HBCU and Roland, Martin,
Esther Dillard, and Andrea Coleman joinus for a variety of discussions on topics
(00:22):
impacting the Black community. All thatand more coming your way next. Welcome
to the Black Perspective. I'm yourhost, Mike Island. Welcome to the
Black Perspective, a weekly community affairsprogram on the Black Information Network featuring interviews
and discussions on issues important to theBlack community. Good Sunday to everyone,
and Happy Mother's Day to all themoms joining us for today's broadcast. Welcome
(00:44):
to another edition of The Black Perspective. In line with Mother's Day, we
definitely need more Love and Unity,which is the name of a week long
event coming up in New Jersey theBlack Information Networks. Vanessa Tyler speaks to
the Grammy winning nominated singer songwriter behindthe big event. The country is Fighting
(01:07):
is anyone listening to the pain.If ever there was a time to unite,
that time would be now. Ifever there was a time for all
voices to be heard, that timewould be now. We need love and
unity, which is why it isright on time. Love and Unity Week
(01:27):
Fest is coming up. CEO ofMusic Village and founder of Love and Unity
Fest is Grammy nominated artist Carl Brister. Carl welcome, Thank you, thank
you, thank you. How canyou bring love and unity to our fractured
world? You know, I thinkto coin our theme for this year.
(01:49):
It starts with me, It startswith you. It starts with each of
us individually sharing love, valuing oneanother, being kind, respectful, appreciating
our differences, and embracing the thingsthat connect us. I think if each
(02:12):
of us makes those steps, thenwe can make an impact throughout the world.
Why is it that people today,I wonder, just are not hearing
each other. It's a good question. I think it's human nature to be
to self preserve, and we canbe so interested in our own part of
(02:37):
the conversation that we forget to tuneinto the other person on the other end.
And what happens is each person isspeaking, but no one's listening,
and in that case, we don'tget the progress and the results that we
hope to. I think if wewould allow our selves to hear the other
(03:01):
person's perspective, we might have alittle more empathy and find our way to
unity and through love. His lovesongs show his passion finding love for each
other to tell you something I thinkthought you should know. So he's created
(03:24):
a full week focused on bringing peopletogether in his hometown of West Orange,
New Jersey, starting tomorrow. TheLove and Unity Fest is an initiative that
I began nine years ago. Thisis our ninth annual Love and Unity Fest
and it started from a conversation,a conversation across the fence with my neighbor
(03:47):
who is white. We have childrenwho are of the same age, and
the nation was going through racial uprisingsand violence, and we had mutual concerns
(04:08):
and I felt that a way toget through to one another was love.
Events like Chalk the Walk, wherechildren write and create art on the steps
of city Hall set for tomorrow topanel discussions to get people to talk to
each other. One of the paneldiscussions is called a conversation across the fence,
(04:30):
where we deal with conflict resolution.How do we have productive conversations where
we may disagree yet find our wayto unity and love for one another.
And so we're teaching our students howto do that in the midst of Israel
(04:53):
and Gaza and Ukraine and Haiti andeverything that we're seeing, how do we
have conversations about these and still movetowards love and unity. Also poetry readings
and a big dance event, anythingwhere we can find common ground. And
Friday is our International Night of Dance. It's called Love in Motion and it's
(05:15):
hosted by Alvin Ellie director Freddie Moore, And this is a new event that
we're having that we're including and thepremise is to show how we're all connected
through dance. That every culture hasmovement, but throughout each culture you can
find that way that we move thatis similar to one another and connects us
(05:40):
all. Because right now this countryis pulling further and further apart. We're
looking at the Supreme Court that's makingdecisions. It's taken away affirmative action and
rights that we have enjoyed for many, many years. And these things are
realities for our children who are duringcolleges and need those provisions in order to
(06:03):
have an equal opportunity to education andhigher education. And in addition to hiring
practices by by businesses. These arerealities that we still need to talk about,
not to mention policing. We stilldon't have a George Floyd bill.
(06:23):
We still need to look at theway we're doing that and how it affects
African Americans. You've always, withyour music brought people together. You've also
jumped in to what many are claimingas our own, and that's country music.
Yeah. I'm having fun too.I love it every days. One
(06:46):
step of su frame they again mom, and now when you contained the blow
where you went and now remember thislong it will and it's such a hot
genre now. It's just amazing howeveryone is now gone country. Ah.
(07:10):
Yeah, you know, honestly,I like to say great minds think alike
exactly. So, Yeah, Iwrote this song a year and a half
ago. I had been working onthe video throughout the winter of this year,
and I shot the music video theday before Beyonce dropped her country single,
(07:39):
so we were already on track.And again I say, great minds
think alike. If people want toattend the annual Love and Unity Fest.
What should they do? Ah?Well, first, you can visit music
Village dot live and there you willsee all of the events for the Love
(07:59):
and Your Unity Fest, and you'llalso see ways to give and you can
support. One of the things I'mreally proud about is that we will be
awarding five students who are pursuing thearts scholarships this year, and they will
be performing and presenting their art atthe fest. So you come on down,
(08:24):
get there early RSVP at Music Villagedot live so you can save your
spot. It's free for the entirefamily. Come on out. It's going
to be the biggest block party ofthe year. I will be there and
I hope to see everyone there too. Yes, we are excited for you
to come. I can't wait foryou to help present these scholarships to these
(08:48):
amazing, amazing students from New Jersey. Again. Go to Music Village dot
live see the full week long agendafrom tomorrow up to the big concert Saturday,
which will be held at the LibertySchool in West Orange, New Jersey.
(09:11):
The finale will include one hundred voicessinging Carl's song about Love. Oh
and one more thing before he goes. Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing
moms out there from Carl Brister,I hope that you enjoy your wonderful day.
Carl Brister, CEO of Music Village, Thanks for the love, Thank
(09:31):
you, thank you so much.Thanks Vanessa, and for more information on
the twenty twenty four Love and UnityFest, visit Music Village dot live.
That's Music Village dot live. Fromour family to yours. Happy Mother's Day
(09:52):
weekend. This is Esther Dillard andyou're listening to the Black Information Network.
The Black Information Network has as anamazing team of commentators who bring their unique
perspectives hand opinions on stories impacting theblack community. Today we check in with
news commentator Roland Martin. Not sureif you saw the news, but Byron
Allen's The Grio announced that they arelaying off their video and podcast staffs,
(10:18):
which means that their daily shows hostedby Mark Lamont Hill and Ebony Williams no
more. In fact, all oftheir shows on the GREOTV except for Terrey's
show, have all been canceled.This means that we are losing more black
owned media voices. I talk aboutthis all the time. The dearth of
(10:41):
places where we can get information thatare specific to African Americans is dwindling.
I have been saying for years weshould be concerned about what's happening in black
owned media and the loss of thesevoices when you look at the stories that
are critically important, when you lookat these police shootings that rarely get the
(11:01):
attention of mainstream media, when youlook at the voting rights cases. Sure,
sometimes they're talked about in mainstream media, but the reality is the emphasis
is not on them. That you'vegot to have black old media platforms that
are speaking to our issues. That'swhy what we do at rolland Martin Unfiltered
is critically important. For six years, in September, this is what we've
(11:24):
done every single day, five daysa week, streaming on the weekends,
covering events, covering live news,conferences and rallies, you name it,
that's what we've been doing because webelieve in exactly with the nation's first black
newspaper, Freedom's Journal, wrote onMarch sixteenth, eighteen twenty seven, we
wish to plead our own cause tolong have others spoken for us, and
(11:48):
that's why we tell people to goto Rollandmartin Unfiltered dot Com or the Black
Study Network to support what we do, because we've got to have our own
voices, and that means we gotto fund it. I'm Roland Martin on
the Black Information Network. Be sureto catch Roland Martin, Moe Kelly,
and James T. Harris for theirdaily commentary on the Black Information Network.
(12:09):
This is Free Wood from the BlackInformation Network taking a moment to wish my
mom Irma Wood and my sisters Kiraand Brookwood are very happy and blessed Mother's
Day weekend. I love you dearly. Jackson State University is a proud at
HBCU and a community partner of theBlack Information Network. I spoke with doctor
Lauren White at jsu's Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Atmospheric Sciences about their
(12:33):
meteorology and Weather Studies program. Now, you have a very complex role,
so I want you to describe pleaseyour role with the meteorology program at Jackson
State University. Well, my primaryrole, of course is as a professor
here in the meteorology program. Dependingon what people's exposure to universities is,
they may think professors only teach classesand then go home. And relax,
(12:56):
But we are involved with a lotmore of that, especially at a research
university like Jackson State University is.So I am involved with research projects as
well as leadership with helping the meteorologyprogram and the rest of the university to
move forward. So I've been doingthat for twenty five years here at Jackson
State. Quarter of a century.Congratulations. It sounds longer when you say
(13:18):
it that way, right. JSUis known for having the only meteorology department
in the state. So what setsyour department apart from the other meteorology programs
in the region. Besides being theonly and being in Mississippi. Really,
because of meteorology being a relatively smallfield, any meteorology program that you look
(13:41):
at at the university will be fairlyunique. We're all kind of having our
different specialties. Of course, beingat an HBCU, we're unique in that
sense that gives us a uniqueness asidefrom everything else, and being particularly at
an HBCU that is here in Mississippiat a public university as opposed to some
(14:01):
others. So we have been aroundlonger than I have in terms of teaching,
since nineteen seventy five, so twiceas long as I've been teaching here
at fifty years almost. So theprogram was developed through partnership with the National
Weather Service with Noah in order togive opportunities and encouragement to African Americans to
(14:22):
have more awareness of opportunities in meteorologyand with the National Weather Service and has
kept that partnership throughout that time.So we have a long term, very
long term partnership with the National WeatherService as well as several other partners and
research and developing our students opportunities.We're talking with doctor Lauren White, a
(14:45):
professor of Jackson State University's very uniquemeteorology program here on the Black perspective on
the Black Information Network, and ittakes a village, and you have a
village of industry partners like government agenciesand other institutions to get students real world
experiences and networking opportunities. Do youfind the interest of students very high on?
This? Interesting thing about meteorology ispeople that pursue it tend to have
(15:09):
a very strong passion for it.It's something that is a standard field to
go into, so people have tobe very excited about what they're doing,
why they're doing it, in orderto go through the hard work. That
may mean that they're very much focusedon the service part of that. National
Weather Service is one of the agenciesthat really is service oriented to help people,
(15:30):
protect people and be concerned with thatfor their communities and others. The
other part is that it is verymuch a matter for many people excitement about
high impact weather and unusual or dangerousconditions that may occur, and it is
a difficult field, so it isalso challenging in that sense. What resources
(15:54):
and facilities does the Meteorology Department thatJackson State offer to student. Yes,
we always have to be upsdating things, so we have computing facilities, We
have equipment for making measurements and forexposing students to the opportunities. A lot
of times we leverage things also withother entities that we will have for example,
(16:18):
adopper radar mold up the radar thatvisits occasionally to give students experience with
what that's like in terms of doingmeasurements that would be used in a field
program studying tornadoes, for example.So we have those. We have partnerships
with the National Center PRACTICSPIRIT Research,who recently came and visited and gave a
(16:38):
workshop to our students. Of course, we have the partnerships with the National
Weather Service, the local office herein Jackson often will give opportunities to train
our students in their operations. Beyondwhat the academic opportunities are. What advice
would you give to aspiring meteorologists whoare interested in joining the program at JSU.
(16:59):
The first step to find us,of course, to be aware that
we exist. The challenge really isto be ready. And in terms of
the challenges for the math and theother academic challenges, math that is always
a difficult thing. It is importantso that you not only can talk about
weather, but you can understand what'sreally going on, so that the math
(17:22):
is required to understand what's going onwith the physics. The other thing that
I think it's important is to understandthe need to communicate clearly. And so
you know a lot of times thereare people that are very good at maths
and maybe you think of them asthe geeks, and then you have those
people that are really good at communicating, and the challenge is to be good
at both of those because we don'twant to only have people who can understand
(17:45):
what's going on in atmosphere. Weneed to be able to communicate that,
whether it's with other scientists or tothe public, in a way that it
is clear and it enables us tomake progress and moving the needle on our
understanding. To get the best ofboth worlds from a single individual would be
a grand achievement, for sure.There's a lot of great talent out there.
(18:06):
We're talking with doctor Lauren White,a meteorology professor at Jackson State University,
and he's looking to shine a lighton the department by highlighting some little
known elements of meteorology, and he'sdone that so well. In today's discussion,
doctor White, where can prospective studentsfind out more about the meteorology program
at JSU. So we're in theprocess of revamping a lot of things on
(18:30):
the Jackson State website, in particularfor our program. We are also in
the process that developed into brochure themeteorology program. The main website for the
university is js U MS dot edu. That gets a little confusing because its
not just JSU. JSU, ofcourse, is the easy part. MS
(18:52):
means that we're in Mississippi, Soget JSU MS dot edu. Within that,
if you put you can search onacadem So you can go to c
S E T two. That's ourcollege that were located in C SETS and
within that is the department that we'rehoused in, which is a very long
name, the Chemistry, Physics andAtmosphere Science program. Within that is our
(19:15):
meteorology program. They can email meas well. My name is l O
R E N dot D dot yylike the color w h I T E
at J s U M S doteed U and doctor White. Just so
you know, you do have braggingrights on this show, So can you
give us some highlights on your pastsuccesses with your meteorology program and its students
(19:38):
who have come through. We estimatethat approximately one quarter of all African Americans
that do have a degree in meteorologycame through our program. Of course,
that's over a long period of time, over one hundred graduates. So we
are a small program in the sensethat we are able to get personal attention,
but we do have a large footprintin terms of where our students go
(20:00):
with the levels that they go,both in broadcasts and within research and within
other related fields within the federal services. And may that success continue, Doctor
Lauren White, Professor of Meteorology,at Jackson State University. Go to jsums
dot edu, slash c s Ttwo or C set two for information about
(20:22):
Jackson State University's meteorology program. Thisis Doug Davis from the Black Information Network
taking a moment to wish my mom, Vivian Black Taylor, a happy and
blessed Mother's day. We can loveyou, Mom. Approximately four million adults
practice some sort of meditation, accordingto a twenty seventeen study by the National
Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.Many use meditation to heal the mind,
(20:47):
body, and spirit. Gracie Awardwinning news anchor Esther Dillard is back on
today's show. Esther Dillard speaks withan author who wrote a book about healing
using meditative practice, but with aunique connection to boot I'm Aster Dillard on
the Black Information Network chatting with writersand authors who offer an added perspective for
(21:11):
our listeners. This is the Colorbetween the Lines. In this edition of
The Color Between the Lines, We'retalking about a book that is talking about
how black women heal and how womenof color he heals. It's called Healing
Our Way Home. Black Buddhist teachingson ancestors, joy and liberation and here
(21:34):
to talk about it as one ofthe three authors. And her name is
doctor Marcella B. Gomez. Welcomedoctor Gomez to the Bion. Thank you,
sir, thanks for having me.Well, this book caught my attention
because it was connecting black folks toBuddhism, which we don't often see and
is something that's not talked about alot. And then three women who are
(21:57):
black women who are just seeing Buddhistsworking on a book together, I thought
was quite unique. So I'm soglad that you're able to talk to me
a little bit about this. Firstof all, I wonder did you find
in many ways that you all,you three were kind of like unicorns and
the practice of Buddhism. How didyou find each other? That's funny.
(22:19):
Uh, it's not funny actually atall. Uh So within our tradition,
so you know, in Buddhism,like it like Christianity, there's different traditions.
You know, in Christianity there's Catholicismand like you know, like that
Baptism Baptists and Protestants. So inBuddhism it's very similar. There's different traditions.
(22:42):
So within our tradition, which isthe Plumb Village community of Engaged Buddhism.
All three of us are practitioners andteachers in that tradition, and so
within that tradition, yes, there'snot a whole bunch of black a blacks
in the tradition. So I've neverheard of unicorn. I've never heard it's
(23:03):
been called unicorne within that context.But when you said it, I'm like,
yeah, it's true. Well,the book is called Healing Our Way
Home, and it includes Black Buddhistteachings on ancestors. I love the way
that's connected to ancestors because you oftenthink within the African diaspora about you know,
African tradition and such, and thenconnecting it to Buddhism was kind of
(23:26):
a different thing, for a differentway of looking at things. And for
those who are generally Christians. Howdo they connect all these three things together
in this book? Yeah. Soyou know, I grew up Catholic,
and all of us, all threeof us, didn't start as Buddhists,
right, we're what they call convertBuddhists, and yet ancestors was so integral
(23:56):
to all of our traditions and liberation. I mean, I don't know if
we can talk about blackness without talkingabout liberation actually ancestors and enjoy and joy,
right, Like, you know,this whole explosion of the importance of
black joy. This is something thatwe bring from our I think, not
(24:19):
just maybe our historical religious religious tradition, but from just our culture. Right.
I noticed in the book there werea lot of sections where people can
kind of write their own thoughts andand kind of like a meditation of sorts,
as well as music lists and recipes. Why did you all kind of
(24:41):
include these sections like this? Yeah, so you know this book is not
this book is a there there's somedifficulties and and and and uh, traumas
and suffering in this book, right, because we're talking about our journey of
(25:02):
healing, and so it's healing this. It's about healing this this stuff that
we've been living with. And itcan look different for each one of us.
And so in the process of healing, we have to really cultivate joy
and spaciousness to hold the suffering.If we don't have a real foundation of
(25:22):
the ability to hold it, wecan't take care of the suffering. We
can't look at it. That's whywe all run away from our suffering.
And we get a you know,we consume stuff, or we call somebody,
or we turn the TV on,or we eat or we drink or
whatever we do because we don't havethe spaciousness and enough joy to look into
(25:44):
the hard stuff, so we runaway from it. And so that's why
joy is in the title as well. And so the music is to really
help people cultivate, like hold thatspaciousness. The journaling is to invite in
some reflection and to try not tojust read through the book to finish it,
but really heal with the book.Let the book be this way of
(26:08):
seeing where some of the things wediscussed maybe the stuff that the reader is
holding as well as something they wantto transform. And what we learn in
our practice is that being able toreally sink in to reflection, to be
able to really pause, take somebig breaths in and just situate your body
(26:30):
in this time and this space.Not stay in the head, not stay
heeady. We all like to stayin the head, but really come into
our body. Notice what's going onin our body, what's showing up,
what needs to be tended to andtaken care of. So all the practices
in there. The pause is atthe end of each chapter, and a
practice that's offered, either a meditationor a practice to help us ground ourselves
(26:53):
and reflect. Because it's a healingbook, it's a conversation about healing and
how each one of us have foundways to heal ourselves. And everything that's
offered in the book, especially thepractices are things that we practice regularly.
Over the last fifteen twenty thirty yearswe've been doing this collectively, we've been
(27:17):
practicing for some good between the threeus, more than sixty years of practice,
and so we want to share whatwe have found to be helpful to
help us free, get free forthe things that really keep holding our hearts
tight and making it on, makingus unable to open to really everything that's
(27:38):
possible in ourselves, the most trueauthentic selves that we all know we have
sometimes is really lockdown because of ourtraumas, or lockdown because of not even
our trauma, but our ancestors trauma. And so we want people to be
able to find ways to to freethemselves and find that spaciousness. We're not
(28:02):
trying to free anybody. Everyone's gotto free themselves, and that the practices
and the words are offering, Heythis was our journey. This is how
we did it. Is there somesimilarity for you? Does this touch you?
Do you think you might like todo this way or that way?
And so the large number of practices, the the recipes are fun, like
we all put stuff in there thatthat we like to eat and mixing them
(28:29):
together and enjoy. Right. Andalso we come around, people come around
together around food. It really bringspeople together. I think that's a it's
not just you know, Black culture, but certainly finding ways to enjoy a
meal and being together in silence beforewe eat, to to acknowledge the food
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and the earth and the people's handsthat went to prepare it. It's also
a very I think the tradition thatwe all come out of. So yeah,
it's mindfully eating is something that wepractice as well. I guess I'll
let you finish up with the finalword about you know, healing with many
(29:15):
many folks and regardless of your ethnicbackground. Is it's something that's sometimes a
process that is not easy. Yeah, that's a really that's a really good
question. Because we are friends already, we're and we we understand this connection
(29:37):
that we have. So just comingtogether as black people, right, that's
already healing, you know what Imean, Like when you when you come
together and you're like you can putdown the some of the armor that we
have in the world. So andthen we love each other because we we've
known each other for years and weknow some of our history. I think
(30:00):
that held it, that that couldhold what came up, what came up,
and some of the healing that happened. So we healed just in doing
this book together. So things cameup for each of us that hadn't come
up in that way before. Andso we so we were talking about our
healing journey, and in the processof talking about it with these three people
(30:22):
who love each other, we're inthe process of healing as well. And
I think it's a We've heard commentsfrom people that it's almost a new type
of new genre of writing because it'svery active. It's like listening in on
three people talking with each other andwe're not just talking a toxic We're talking
(30:44):
about healing and how we did it. And so I think what what could
hold it was this deep friendship inour In Buddhism, one of the deep
teachings of Buddhism is that one ofthe Buddhist disciples asked him one day if
spiritual friendship was a big part orhalf of the path of liberation, and
(31:06):
the Buddha told him, don't saythat, because it's wrong. Spiritual friendship
is all of the path of liberation, it's the entire path. And so
I think this book really epitomizes andreally lives into that teaching because the healing
that has come out of us beingtogether in this way as spiritual friends was
(31:29):
big for each of us. Eachof us testify to going deeper and revealing
and transforming something that's been a realsuffering for us. Is there any other
websites that if they're interested in gettingmore information about Buddhism and connection to others
who are African American or of theAfrican diaspora, you know, making that
(31:52):
connection. Is there anything that theycan go to? So, as you
said, any place you buy books, it's there. And then if you
want to get more specific and learna little bit more about the tradition and
what the way we may be practicingit, you can go to the publisher's
(32:12):
website, which is Parallax, that'sa publisher of Parallax, and there it
will open up a different or moretypes of books similar in Buddhism. And
if you're interested in mindfulness, right, you can practice mindfulness without being Buddhist.
You don't have to. You know, many Christians come to our retreats
(32:34):
and learn about mindfulness and practices thathelp the heal and take it back to
their tradition, So one doesn't haveto become a Buddhist. And we've been
saying, don't get caught up inthe Buddhist word. You know, it's
just a label that gives respect tothe tradition that we are practicing in,
and we want to honor the tradition. But we say, don't get caught
(32:57):
up in Buddhism. Think you gotto be Buddhist to practic dislike to to
read this because it would be sadif that happened. Because you can practice
these every one of these things offeredin here, you can practice without being
a Blues Thank you, doctor marSalagomez for joining us on the BIM.
Thank you for having me well.The book is called Healing Our Way Home,
(33:19):
Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joyand Liberation. I'm Ester Dillard on
a Black Information Network. Thanks EstherDoug Davis returns with Ashley Fox on another
segment of Your Black Business, Howthe wealthy stay wealthy and how you can
(33:43):
be a part of the investment community. Get your pen and pad out.
I guarantee this will be a goodone. Doug, Hey, Thanks Mike.
My name is Doug Davis, andwelcome back to Your Black Business,
where we feature inspiring stories of blackentrepreneurs, organizations and perspectives surrounding black business.
We are back with Ashley. Iwas former Wall Street executive, now
owner of her financial investment and educationapp called Amplify. She's giving back her
(34:06):
priceless knowledge that has positioned her asone of the leading financial influencers and experts
in the country. Ashley, again, welcome back. Tell us a bit
about your past and what brought youto this point in your life where you're
at right now. So I wantedto major in finance because I personally wanted
to make a lot of money,and so I figured I major in a
subject of money. I love mathand I love business. I'm from Philadelphia.
(34:28):
When I graduated high school, Iwent to college at Howard University and
I majored in finance. But myvision was to work on Wall Street.
I wanted to be a profound blackwoman working on Wall Street. I wanted
to have one of the highest fanjobs out of school. And I really
liked what Wall Street represented and Iwanted to be in that environment. So
while at Howard, I had fourinternships and three of them were at Wall
Street investment banks. When I graduatedHoward, I landed my dream career working
(34:51):
at one of the largest banks inthe world in asset management. And my
job essentially was to work with millionairesand millionaires. If you had at least
twenty five million dollars or more,it was our job to help you grow
your wealth, protect your wealth,and preserve it. And so every day
I was in a bank accounts ofmillionaires and billionaires, and I saw a
lot, I learned a ton,and I truly believe that successfully is coooled.
So I essentially just started to followthe blueprint and I started to do
(35:13):
what wealthy people did. But whenI would come home to Philly, being
the first person in my family tograduate from college, I was making more
money than both my parents. Justin my environment, the things I saw,
the things I did with my money, the things I was learning,
it wasn't common, and I feltlike, for something we're using every day
of our life, why is itnot taught in our school system? Why
are we not talking about it atthe dinner table. You shouldn't have to
(35:35):
major in finance and work on WallStreet to get exposed to the information I
got exposed to, and so Iwanted to be able to create a company,
create something that could financially empower theworld and give them the Wall Street
knowledge, but you didn't have tobe on Wall Street to do it.
So essentially I went from working onWall Street getting exposed to everything that I
saw, from where they invested,to where they shop traveled, how they
avoided taxes, how they built wealthfor their children. I wanted to create
(35:59):
that myself, but I also wantedto be that voice to be able to
translate that Wall Street knowledge to targetthe ninety nine percent that Wall Street often
overlooks. So over ten years ago, I ended up leaving my Wall Street
job to create my company. Whatis known today is Amplify em pify,
which is the word in power andmodify merge together, and we are a
fintech startup that revolutionizes how adults andchildren learn how to build wealth. We've
(36:22):
created financial programs and school systems,prison systems. We have a membership app,
the Wealth Builders Community, where peoplefrom all over the world currently in
twenty two different countries have accessed tofinancial tools, resources, classes to help
them start as beginners to effectively learnhow to build wealth the way I saw
on Wall Street. If you canshare a couple of nuggets, one of
the three basic steps that people cantake to position themselves to build wealth quickly.
(36:45):
I think one of the simplest thingsto do is to accept the fact
that you can't save a work yourway to well. You have to invest.
Yes you can save, yes youcan spend, but you have to
invest. And one of the easiestways to do it is to open a
Borkens account. You can put asmuch money as you want, you put
as little money you want, butyou can start small. I don't care
if you only have ten dollars,but really start to take inventory of where
(37:05):
am I spending my money, whatcompanies are constantly generating revenue off of what
I use, what I spend mymoney on, and who I give my
time to. From the clothes youwear, the food you eat, the
places you like to have fun.There are companies out there that make money
because of you, So start reallydoing research. You don't have to pick
the random company you see on theinternet. Start to think about what makes
a stock a valuable company is ifthey are making money, if they are
(37:30):
growing revenue, and if you area contribution to a company's bottom line,
then you definitely want to start consideringcan I own a small piece of this
company so as that company grows,I can grow with it as well.
So how do you create a brokeraach? So when you open a brokeg account,
you just go online. You canI personally can use companies like Fidelity,
Vanguard, Charles Schwab, e Trade's, there's companies that been around for
(37:53):
years. And essentially a brokege accountis the account you use that connects the
buyer of an investment to the seller. It's literally the middle man and it
doesn't cost anything to open a brokerageaccount. And what you would do is
connect your checking account to the brokerageaccount. So the same way use a
checking account to spend money, usea brokelege account to invest money. But
you can simply go online. Takesless than five minutes to open a brokerage
account, and essentially you would justconnect your checking account, transfer money,
(38:15):
small amounts, whatever you're comfortable with, and start building from there. Wow.
Okay, second tip because that wasone. Yes. The second thing
I would do is one of thethings that I used to live by when
I was really really starting my careerwas if you can't buy it twice,
you can't afford it. So questionevery single thing that you're spending money on
(38:39):
and that you want. Can youbuy it twice? If you cannot,
that means you can afford it,because I think it'll cause you to start
thinking about where your money is going. We feel like, you know,
sometimes I feel like we're robbing Peterto pay Pal. We wake up one
day we have money, next thing, you know, we don't know where
it goes. You have to giveyour money a job. You have to
give your money a job. Andone of the ways you can do that
(38:59):
and to take inventory is how youspend your money. But when you think
about those things you want to buy, those things you may not need,
ask yourself, can I purchase thistwice? And if I can, that
means I can actually afford it.If I have to borrow for it,
if if I don't have the moneylike that means you essentially can't afford it.
And I would say the third thing. The third thing would be and
(39:21):
this is for individuals who feel likethey spend money on They spend a lot
of money on food. One anotherthing I used to do is every time
I spend money on food, Iwould take half of it and I would
either save it or invest it.And a couple of things will happen if
you do that. Let's just sayyou go out and you go to the
you go to the restaurant, youspend fifty dollars, take you spend fifty
dollars, but you take twenty fivedollars and you invest that money. Two
(39:43):
things will happen. One will youwill start investing your money, your portfolio
will grow because you're adding to it. Or two you're gonna question every time
you spend money on food. Andso I think we have to get more
conscious of where our money is going, how we are utilizing it and putting
it to good youth. And evenif you don't necessarily do that, I
would say setting money aside small amountsautomatically we pay everybody. We just like
(40:07):
I said, we spend money,we go out to eat, we pay
our rent, we pay the bartenders, we paid, give money to our
kids, we pay our mortgage,we pay our rent, and we look
up and we have nothing. Soone of the things you can do is
pay yourself first, make you apriority, big or small, and then
take care of everybody else. Andall these rich tricks we can learn on
Implify from you. Yes, youcan go to our website, implify dot
(40:29):
com, our Wealth Builders community appImpify dot com slash WB you can download
it in the app store. Butyes, we have a lot of free
classes, free resources. There's aton that we offer and we cover things
like retirement planning, starting out asan investor, investing for your children,
learning more about legacy planning, andensuring that your family is set up while
you're here and if you're not here. So there's honestly no aspect of money
(40:51):
that we don't cover from a holisticperspective. But no matter where you are,
you have to have the confidence toknow that you can start big or
small. Wealth does not have acolor. Therefore where it looks like all
of us and we all deserve tocreate it and obtain it. You are
such a wealth of knowledge. Youhave such an amazing spirit. You have
so much to offer the world.And can we follow you on social media?
Are you also out there on LinkedIn? How can people communicate with you?
(41:13):
Yes? So on Instagram, I'munderscore Ashley and Fox LinkedIn I am
Ashley M. Fox. You canfollow us also well filtered community on all
platforms as well. But yes,I'm very active. You can learn a
lot from me in small little tibitson both Instagram and LinkedIn and TikTok.
So yes you can follow me,but also on our website implify dot com,
empify dot com, our resources,guides and tools you need to get
(41:36):
started as a beginner. I'm allthere, all is there for you,
Ashley Fox. Thank you so much. This is Doug Davis for listening to
the Black perspective on the Black InformationNetwork. Thanks Doug. May is Foster
Care Awareness Month. It's also thestart of a fundraising season for a nonprofit
that works to make sure some HBCUstudents who have aged out of the foster
care system get the support they needto succeed in college. The Black and
(42:00):
Information Networks Andrea Coleman has more.Mike T. Mercer who is also known
as TJ, found it move Into Mafia just a few years ago,
but already the need for the assistantshe and a group of volunteers provide has
been made clear. She is nowdetermined to help as many HBCU students as
possible who have aged out of thefoster cure system continue their education with support
(42:21):
and great fanfare, but she needsthe communities help to reach her. Gole,
TJ, thank you so much forjoining us. Now, what is
move In Day Mafia? Move InDay Mafia is a nonprofit that I founded
back in twenty twenty two, andI like to call us a mob of
volunteers that descend upon HBCU, whichis historically Black college and universities. But
(42:45):
we descend upon HBCUs with the solepurpose of providing dorm room makeovers and monthly
care packages for those scholars who haveeither aged out of foster care, they're
experiencing housing insecurity, or they grapplewith financial hardships, and so we go
in and we take them as ourfamily. So there's a team of us
(43:07):
there so that these scholars are notgoing through this huge transition alone. Where
did this idea come from? Soback in twenty twenty. You know,
I am a you know, awardwinning TV editor and producer. I lived
in Los Angeles, but I hadmoved to Atlanta right before the lockdown,
and I created this virtual bingo gamethat took off during the lockdown, and
(43:30):
being a graduate of the Howard University, I stand hard for HBCUs and when
I saw that graduations were being snatchedfrom these grads, my prayer to God
was, can you show me howI can help. So we turned that
bingo game that had taken off,and we turned it into TJ's HBCU Bingo
(43:52):
and it was epic. We raisedover a million dollars in cash and prizes
in less than four weeks, andwe gave it away to the twenty twenty
grads of HBCUs. We had madeso much noise that CBS Evening News picked
us up and did an interview onus. And that's when I met one
of the grads who shared a storyabout her being aged out of foster care
(44:15):
when she started her HBCU journey,and her social worker pulled up to school,
let her unload her stuff, andthen just left her to go through
this next transition alone and so onceagain I asked, God, can you
show me what I can do tohelp and move in DEI Mafia was born.
And I'm so pleased because Andrea,we moved in thirteen scholars at Paul
(44:39):
Quinn College in Dallas, Texas forour first year. Last year we doubled
that and ended up moving about thirtyone scholars at five HBCUs. So we're
growing and we want to move inforty four scholars this year. That's incredible.
How great is the need? Theneed is like my and my Tony
(45:01):
the Tanker Boys. It costs usabout two thousand dollars to move in the
scholar and cover their first semester ofmonthly care packages. It's three thousand to
cover the entire year. So weneed funding. We need corporate partners,
we need volunteers to be boots onthe ground. Because here's the thing,
(45:21):
Andrea, we don't just do youknow a cookie cutter. These students rooms
are designed by celebrity interior designer NikiKlug of Nikki Klug Design Group, so
their rooms are customed to their livesbecause often this is the first time these
students have had a say so,and what goes into their space. We
(45:42):
don't go bunk by, you know, press two pasts. We actually find
out what do these scholars like,you know, what are their favorites.
So we may have two cress,two paints, and two codegates, you
know, what have you. Sowe are really customed to what makes them
feel seen, what makes them matter. So it does get pretty costly,
but that is the mission and thegold and the intent behind moving a mafia.
(46:07):
Talk about that a little bit,TJ if you can, because we're
talking about young adults who are comingout of some very difficult situations. Why
is that level of care so important? What does that speak to them personally
and directly? Oh? I lovethis question. It just gave me chills.
I'm still learning about this demographic.But what I have learned is,
(46:29):
you know a lot of these scholarswhen we see on TV, like every
single horrible thing that have happened asthey're in their foster families and group homes
has happened to some of our scholars. And so it is important for me,
as the founder and as the quoteunquote godfather, that they know that
they matter to us, that thisis a safe space, this is a
(46:51):
safe community. We want to makesure you understand that we don't want anything
from you except for you to graduateand realize your dream. The statistics say
that a seventy percent of foster carekids dream of going to college, yet
only three percent get to see theirdreams started and one percent graduate. So
(47:13):
we are dedicated to disrupting what Icall the foster care to prison pipeline and
disrupted and changed it to the fostercare to HBCU graduate pipeline. And that
starts with letting them know that theymatter. So when we are picking out
their favorite study candy, like oneyoung lady, she loved her room,
(47:36):
Andrea, but it was when Ishowed her we had bought her stacks of
kit kats. That's when this babylost her mind and it just started crying
because we took the time to learnwhat she liked. One of our scholars
at Prayer of You loved the room. When I revealed it, Nikki did
an amazing job in the room.But the tears started falling when I opened
(47:59):
up her bathroom and she saw thatwe had bought her a bulk pack of
Always Maxi pads. That's what senther into tears. So when you ask
me Why does this matter? Thisis the thing. They need, their
basic needs taken care of so theycan focus on being students and ultimately graduating.
(48:20):
TJ. William is just an issuewe should care about. Well,
one, because they're human beings,you know, we must care about our
brothers and sisters. And two,these kids are the next MLK. These
kids are the next Gladys West whocreated GPS. These kids. It sounds
corner, but these kids really areour future and we don't know the potential
(48:44):
that they're sitting on unless we helpthem. And helping them actually then creates
this domino effect where they go onto discover their own greatness. And it
starts with just making sure they gotdetergent, making sure they got soap.
I cannot stress that part enough ofwhat I've learned in the last two years
of doing this, that is socrucial to just meet their basic needs where
(49:07):
they don't have to worry and makechoices of am I going to study an
extra you know a couple of hours, or I gotta go to work to
make sure I can actually wash myclothes. We want to make sure that
they have the setup that they needto walk into an incredible future. And
how much support do you provide Onceyou move them in and the room has
(49:30):
set and all the needs are met, what happens after that? So they
get monthly care packages from US.Plus we have an entire student support team
that we need you know, volunteersfor that checks with them regularly to be
a listening ear, to be youknow, a guiding wisdom. But mostly
the mission is to make sure theydon't have the pressure of not knowing if
(49:54):
they smell okay. You know,that kind of thing can impact your bill
to concentrate and to study. Sowe want to make sure that their basic
needs are taking care of on amonthly basis. That's why I was saying
it costs us you know, twothousand to move them in and a semester
worth of monthly care packages three thousandfor moving them in, and then the
(50:15):
entire freshman year. But we're walkingthem through with southhomore, junior, and
senior year. So we're walking themthrough, you know, all the way
to graduation. But it really justboils down to making sure they feel seen
throughout the year to overcome the hurdlesthat may come up, you know,
in your normal college matriculation. That'svery good. What can you tell us
(50:37):
about these young adults that you're meeting, What have their lives been like?
And who are they? Sounds likethey're young adults of promise and hope who
really are just trying to live agood life. Oh I love that.
So they vary because you know,we do have the ones that are,
you know, coming out of fostercare. But then we have the ones
that should be designated foster care,but they are not. You know,
(51:00):
they may be CouchSurfing or bouncing fromfamily member to family member, or you
know, a seven year old grandmother, eighty year old grandmother is raising them.
And so one example is one ofour scholars that was based in Los
Angeles. She was so committed togo into an HBCU that she was willing
to lead the Foster Care Protections ofCalifornia system and venture across the country to
(51:24):
an HBCU on the East Coast.And she had been in foster care her
whole life. So much had happenedto her, sexual assault, abuse,
like it was so much that ithappened. She was CouchSurfing when we interviewed
her, and when she got toher HBCU, she flew with her social
(51:44):
worker. But her social worker waslike, well do I have to go
up? And so once again shemay have had to navigate this you know,
transition alone, but moving Dey mafiawas there and we were able to
get her taken care of. AnotherAllah comes to mind down at prairie View.
She has been in foster care herentire life. She was dropped off
(52:06):
at prairie View. And this isthe most considerate, kind, compassionate young
lady that you would ever meet.Like her sponsor at Prayerview had to actually
appeal to us on her behalf becauseshe wouldn't apply. She was headed into
her senior year and as such shedid not want to take a spot from
(52:30):
a freshman. And so when shesat down on an interview, she was
like, well, first thing Ijust need y'all to know is that I'm
a senior and I don't want totake a spot from a freshman. And
she had lived such a life,you know, in this environment that she
was used to everyone letting her down, and she just did not believe that
a group of strangers were going tobe coming down to Prayerview want nothing from
(52:53):
her but to actually love on herdecorate her room and make her senior year
the best it can. She askedme so many questions that she stopped short
of asking me my flight information,and because she just did not believe that
I was coming. And yet whenI got there, the baby jumped in
my arms. She has been sucha dream to support and to help,
(53:16):
and I know that she's going todo great things. Wow, that's tremendous.
You refer to your army of volunteersas a mafia. And why you
said so? I couldn't give youa really deep, you know answer andream,
but that would be a lie.It's called you know, I told
you I'm a woman of faith,and so you know, pretty much all
(53:37):
of my life assignments are tied to, you know, an answered prayer.
And so when I was given themission of solving this problem, that was
the name that the divine gave me. The move in de mafia. And
you know, we get, youknow, side eyes like why the mafia
teach? You know what? Youjust got to take it up with the
higher power because I didn't, youknow, just sit and decide what would
(53:59):
be a good name. That thatwas not how this came about. It
really was literally God, how doI solve this problem? And the very
next thing that hit my heart wasmoving de Mafia. That is so beautiful.
How has this changed your life?I don't know now. Look I
said, I want to go cry, and I see when you ask me
questions like that, I'm trying tobe professional, make me tear up?
(54:22):
How has this changed my life?Unless you get to see a student light
up when you have done something thatreally has changed the trajectory of their lives,
it's hard to put into words thejoy that that brings me. About
(54:43):
fifteen years ago, I prayed acrazy prayer, Lord, I want to
travel the world, hug a bunchof people and surprise them. I had
no idea what that looked like.I didn't know if I was supposed to
take a class in hugonomics or surpriseology, but I knew that that was my
prayer of what I wanted to doand what I get to wake up in
with Moving de Mafia is I getto travel to these HBCUs, I get
(55:09):
to hug the scholars that need hugsthe most, and then I get to
surprise them. And so I'm livingin an answered crazy prayer and doing good
and knowing that we're making an impact. And if I may, you asked
me who are these scholars. Oneof our scholars just recently made news because
(55:34):
and the headlines was from homeless tohistory, and he's one of our scholars
at FIST, Jeremiah Armstead. Jeremiahwe had to hunt down because the dorm
director told us about his situation.He was homeless, his mother is battling
cancer, and he's on the basketballteam at Fisk and just recently at the
(55:54):
men's Final four. I forget whatthe prestigious award is called, but he
was honored with this prestigious award becausehe was the first HBCU athlete to get
it. That's the kind of thingsof knowing. When I met, you
know, Jeremiah, he was timid. He didn't believe, you know,
we would do all the things wewould do. We decorated his room,
(56:15):
and you know, in this six' four giant towering over me is grinning
and hugging me. And then helooks over and sees that I had bought
him his favorite cereal, just boxesof Honeysmacks. You can pay for that
feeling, Andrea, So when youask me how this has changed my life.
(56:36):
I can't really articulate it. It'sjust the knowledge of knowing that we're
upsetting trajectories that is beautiful. Andso what's next for movingde Mafia. The
mission Andrea is to have a Mafiachapter on every single remaining HBCU, so
one hundred and one HBCUs. Sothat the mission is to just focus on
(56:58):
our steady growth and our careful growthbecause like I said, we take care
of these kids for four years,so we have to be mindful of,
you know, how fast we growso that no one falls through the crass,
because that's what's been happening, youknow, their whole lives. And
so we want to have more corporatepartners where there is a buy in and
a support of sustainability so that wecan expand and grow. So I would
(57:22):
say just to focus on getting onehundred and one chapters of Moving Day Mafia
as well as great pace, sustainablegrowth, and how do we find out
more not only about the mafia,but opportunities to journey with you and just
see as you go in and startthe change in these young adults' lives.
(57:43):
You can donate your time, yourtalent, your skills, whatever we need
organizational structure. Help we need everything, and you can go over to Movingdaymafia
dot org and donate and fill outthe volunteer form. We are looking forward
to moving in forty four new scholarsthis upcoming move in Day season. TJ
(58:05):
or TJ. Mercer, We thankyou so much, not only for what
you're doing, but for sharing yourstory and this hope that you're providing for
all of these young people. Thankyou for that. Thank you, Thank
you so much for helping us getthe word out. Thank you. Andrea.
Statistics show more than twenty five thanteens and young adults between the ages
of eighteen and twenty one age outof the foster care system each year.
(58:27):
And that's our program for this weekand for more on these stories, listen
to the Black Information Network on theiHeartRadio app or log onto bionnews dot com.
You can hear this program and thelatest news affecting the black community.
Also follow us on social media atBlack Information Network and on x formerly known
as Twitter. At black Info Neton behalf of the entire team at the
(58:49):
Black Information Network. I'm your host, Mike Island. Thanks for listening and
be sure to join us next weekat this time for another edition of the
Black Perspective right here on the BlackInformation Network. The Black Information Network and
six time Emmy nominated news anchor VanessaTyler, Welcome you to black Land,
a podcast about the ground on whichthe Black community stands right now. From
(59:10):
stories about salvation and loss, Ilove the person who had any Charvy diagnosis,
the dreams achieved or yet unfulfilled,from people who have made it.
I sat down with a therapist,and I begin my journey to those left
behind. Listen to black Land onthe iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your
podcasts. This is Ray Hers,this is Morgan Wood, this is Amber
(59:31):
Payton from the Black Information Network.Taking a moment to wish my mom,
my mom, and my mother inlaw a happy and blessed Mother's Day weekend.
Happy Mother's Day weekend from the BlackInformation Network. Love y'all,
It's Mother's Day, May twelfth,and today Vanessa Tyler talks with the creative
force behind New Jersey's annual Love andUnity fest. We check in with the
only meteorology department at the collegiate levelin the state of Mississippi and one of
only a few in the country availableat an HBCU and Roland, Martin,
Esther Dillard, and Andrea Coleman joinus for a variety of discussions on topics
(00:22):
impacting the Black community. All thatand more coming your way next. Welcome
to the Black Perspective. I'm yourhost, Mike Island. Welcome to the
Black Perspective, a weekly community affairsprogram on the Black Information Network featuring interviews
and discussions on issues important to theBlack community. Good Sunday to everyone,
and Happy Mother's Day to all themoms joining us for today's broadcast. Welcome
(00:44):
to another edition of The Black Perspective. In line with Mother's Day, we
definitely need more Love and Unity,which is the name of a week long
event coming up in New Jersey theBlack Information Networks. Vanessa Tyler speaks to
the Grammy winning nominated singer songwriter behindthe big event. The country is Fighting
(01:07):
is anyone listening to the pain.If ever there was a time to unite,
that time would be now. Ifever there was a time for all
voices to be heard, that timewould be now. We need love and
unity, which is why it isright on time. Love and Unity Week
(01:27):
Fest is coming up. CEO ofMusic Village and founder of Love and Unity
Fest is Grammy nominated artist Carl Brister. Carl welcome, Thank you, thank
you, thank you. How canyou bring love and unity to our fractured
world? You know, I thinkto coin our theme for this year.
(01:49):
It starts with me, It startswith you. It starts with each of
us individually sharing love, valuing oneanother, being kind, respectful, appreciating
our differences, and embracing the thingsthat connect us. I think if each
(02:12):
of us makes those steps, thenwe can make an impact throughout the world.
Why is it that people today,I wonder, just are not hearing
each other. It's a good question. I think it's human nature to be
to self preserve, and we canbe so interested in our own part of
(02:37):
the conversation that we forget to tuneinto the other person on the other end.
And what happens is each person isspeaking, but no one's listening,
and in that case, we don'tget the progress and the results that we
hope to. I think if wewould allow our selves to hear the other
(03:01):
person's perspective, we might have alittle more empathy and find our way to
unity and through love. His lovesongs show his passion finding love for each
other to tell you something I thinkthought you should know. So he's created
(03:24):
a full week focused on bringing peopletogether in his hometown of West Orange,
New Jersey, starting tomorrow. TheLove and Unity Fest is an initiative that
I began nine years ago. Thisis our ninth annual Love and Unity Fest
and it started from a conversation,a conversation across the fence with my neighbor
(03:47):
who is white. We have childrenwho are of the same age, and
the nation was going through racial uprisingsand violence, and we had mutual concerns
(04:08):
and I felt that a way toget through to one another was love.
Events like Chalk the Walk, wherechildren write and create art on the steps
of city Hall set for tomorrow topanel discussions to get people to talk to
each other. One of the paneldiscussions is called a conversation across the fence,
(04:30):
where we deal with conflict resolution.How do we have productive conversations where
we may disagree yet find our wayto unity and love for one another.
And so we're teaching our students howto do that in the midst of Israel
(04:53):
and Gaza and Ukraine and Haiti andeverything that we're seeing, how do we
have conversations about these and still movetowards love and unity. Also poetry readings
and a big dance event, anythingwhere we can find common ground. And
Friday is our International Night of Dance. It's called Love in Motion and it's
(05:15):
hosted by Alvin Ellie director Freddie Moore, And this is a new event that
we're having that we're including and thepremise is to show how we're all connected
through dance. That every culture hasmovement, but throughout each culture you can
find that way that we move thatis similar to one another and connects us
(05:40):
all. Because right now this countryis pulling further and further apart. We're
looking at the Supreme Court that's makingdecisions. It's taken away affirmative action and
rights that we have enjoyed for many, many years. And these things are
realities for our children who are duringcolleges and need those provisions in order to
(06:03):
have an equal opportunity to education andhigher education. And in addition to hiring
practices by by businesses. These arerealities that we still need to talk about,
not to mention policing. We stilldon't have a George Floyd bill.
(06:23):
We still need to look at theway we're doing that and how it affects
African Americans. You've always, withyour music brought people together. You've also
jumped in to what many are claimingas our own, and that's country music.
Yeah. I'm having fun too.I love it every days. One
(06:46):
step of su frame they again mom, and now when you contained the blow
where you went and now remember thislong it will and it's such a hot
genre now. It's just amazing howeveryone is now gone country. Ah.
(07:10):
Yeah, you know, honestly,I like to say great minds think alike
exactly. So, Yeah, Iwrote this song a year and a half
ago. I had been working onthe video throughout the winter of this year,
and I shot the music video theday before Beyonce dropped her country single,
(07:39):
so we were already on track.And again I say, great minds
think alike. If people want toattend the annual Love and Unity Fest.
What should they do? Ah?Well, first, you can visit music
Village dot live and there you willsee all of the events for the Love
(07:59):
and Your Unity Fest, and you'llalso see ways to give and you can
support. One of the things I'mreally proud about is that we will be
awarding five students who are pursuing thearts scholarships this year, and they will
be performing and presenting their art atthe fest. So you come on down,
(08:24):
get there early RSVP at Music Villagedot live so you can save your
spot. It's free for the entirefamily. Come on out. It's going
to be the biggest block party ofthe year. I will be there and
I hope to see everyone there too. Yes, we are excited for you
to come. I can't wait foryou to help present these scholarships to these
(08:48):
amazing, amazing students from New Jersey. Again. Go to Music Village dot
live see the full week long agendafrom tomorrow up to the big concert Saturday,
which will be held at the LibertySchool in West Orange, New Jersey.
(09:11):
The finale will include one hundred voicessinging Carl's song about Love. Oh
and one more thing before he goes. Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing
moms out there from Carl Brister,I hope that you enjoy your wonderful day.
Carl Brister, CEO of Music Village, Thanks for the love, Thank
(09:31):
you, thank you so much.Thanks Vanessa, and for more information on
the twenty twenty four Love and UnityFest, visit Music Village dot live.
That's Music Village dot live. Fromour family to yours. Happy Mother's Day
(09:52):
weekend. This is Esther Dillard andyou're listening to the Black Information Network.
The Black Information Network has as anamazing team of commentators who bring their unique
perspectives hand opinions on stories impacting theblack community. Today we check in with
news commentator Roland Martin. Not sureif you saw the news, but Byron
Allen's The Grio announced that they arelaying off their video and podcast staffs,
(10:18):
which means that their daily shows hostedby Mark Lamont Hill and Ebony Williams no
more. In fact, all oftheir shows on the GREOTV except for Terrey's
show, have all been canceled.This means that we are losing more black
owned media voices. I talk aboutthis all the time. The dearth of
(10:41):
places where we can get information thatare specific to African Americans is dwindling.
I have been saying for years weshould be concerned about what's happening in black
owned media and the loss of thesevoices when you look at the stories that
are critically important, when you lookat these police shootings that rarely get the
(11:01):
attention of mainstream media, when youlook at the voting rights cases. Sure,
sometimes they're talked about in mainstream media, but the reality is the emphasis
is not on them. That you'vegot to have black old media platforms that
are speaking to our issues. That'swhy what we do at rolland Martin Unfiltered
is critically important. For six years, in September, this is what we've
(11:24):
done every single day, five daysa week, streaming on the weekends,
covering events, covering live news,conferences and rallies, you name it,
that's what we've been doing because webelieve in exactly with the nation's first black
newspaper, Freedom's Journal, wrote onMarch sixteenth, eighteen twenty seven, we
wish to plead our own cause tolong have others spoken for us, and
(11:48):
that's why we tell people to goto Rollandmartin Unfiltered dot Com or the Black
Study Network to support what we do, because we've got to have our own
voices, and that means we gotto fund it. I'm Roland Martin on
the Black Information Network. Be sureto catch Roland Martin, Moe Kelly,
and James T. Harris for theirdaily commentary on the Black Information Network.
(12:09):
This is Free Wood from the BlackInformation Network taking a moment to wish my
mom Irma Wood and my sisters Kiraand Brookwood are very happy and blessed Mother's
Day weekend. I love you dearly. Jackson State University is a proud at
HBCU and a community partner of theBlack Information Network. I spoke with doctor
Lauren White at jsu's Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Atmospheric Sciences about their
(12:33):
meteorology and Weather Studies program. Now, you have a very complex role,
so I want you to describe pleaseyour role with the meteorology program at Jackson
State University. Well, my primaryrole, of course is as a professor
here in the meteorology program. Dependingon what people's exposure to universities is,
they may think professors only teach classesand then go home. And relax,
(12:56):
But we are involved with a lotmore of that, especially at a research
university like Jackson State University is.So I am involved with research projects as
well as leadership with helping the meteorologyprogram and the rest of the university to
move forward. So I've been doingthat for twenty five years here at Jackson
State. Quarter of a century.Congratulations. It sounds longer when you say
(13:18):
it that way, right. JSUis known for having the only meteorology department
in the state. So what setsyour department apart from the other meteorology programs
in the region. Besides being theonly and being in Mississippi. Really,
because of meteorology being a relatively smallfield, any meteorology program that you look
(13:41):
at at the university will be fairlyunique. We're all kind of having our
different specialties. Of course, beingat an HBCU, we're unique in that
sense that gives us a uniqueness asidefrom everything else, and being particularly at
an HBCU that is here in Mississippiat a public university as opposed to some
(14:01):
others. So we have been aroundlonger than I have in terms of teaching,
since nineteen seventy five, so twiceas long as I've been teaching here
at fifty years almost. So theprogram was developed through partnership with the National
Weather Service with Noah in order togive opportunities and encouragement to African Americans to
(14:22):
have more awareness of opportunities in meteorologyand with the National Weather Service and has
kept that partnership throughout that time.So we have a long term, very
long term partnership with the National WeatherService as well as several other partners and
research and developing our students opportunities.We're talking with doctor Lauren White, a
(14:45):
professor of Jackson State University's very uniquemeteorology program here on the Black perspective on
the Black Information Network, and ittakes a village, and you have a
village of industry partners like government agenciesand other institutions to get students real world
experiences and networking opportunities. Do youfind the interest of students very high on?
This? Interesting thing about meteorology ispeople that pursue it tend to have
(15:09):
a very strong passion for it.It's something that is a standard field to
go into, so people have tobe very excited about what they're doing,
why they're doing it, in orderto go through the hard work. That
may mean that they're very much focusedon the service part of that. National
Weather Service is one of the agenciesthat really is service oriented to help people,
(15:30):
protect people and be concerned with thatfor their communities and others. The
other part is that it is verymuch a matter for many people excitement about
high impact weather and unusual or dangerousconditions that may occur, and it is
a difficult field, so it isalso challenging in that sense. What resources
(15:54):
and facilities does the Meteorology Department thatJackson State offer to student. Yes,
we always have to be upsdating things, so we have computing facilities, We
have equipment for making measurements and forexposing students to the opportunities. A lot
of times we leverage things also withother entities that we will have for example,
(16:18):
adopper radar mold up the radar thatvisits occasionally to give students experience with
what that's like in terms of doingmeasurements that would be used in a field
program studying tornadoes, for example.So we have those. We have partnerships
with the National Center PRACTICSPIRIT Research,who recently came and visited and gave a
(16:38):
workshop to our students. Of course, we have the partnerships with the National
Weather Service, the local office herein Jackson often will give opportunities to train
our students in their operations. Beyondwhat the academic opportunities are. What advice
would you give to aspiring meteorologists whoare interested in joining the program at JSU.
(16:59):
The first step to find us,of course, to be aware that
we exist. The challenge really isto be ready. And in terms of
the challenges for the math and theother academic challenges, math that is always
a difficult thing. It is importantso that you not only can talk about
weather, but you can understand what'sreally going on, so that the math
(17:22):
is required to understand what's going onwith the physics. The other thing that
I think it's important is to understandthe need to communicate clearly. And so
you know a lot of times thereare people that are very good at maths
and maybe you think of them asthe geeks, and then you have those
people that are really good at communicating, and the challenge is to be good
at both of those because we don'twant to only have people who can understand
(17:45):
what's going on in atmosphere. Weneed to be able to communicate that,
whether it's with other scientists or tothe public, in a way that it
is clear and it enables us tomake progress and moving the needle on our
understanding. To get the best ofboth worlds from a single individual would be
a grand achievement, for sure.There's a lot of great talent out there.
(18:06):
We're talking with doctor Lauren White,a meteorology professor at Jackson State University,
and he's looking to shine a lighton the department by highlighting some little
known elements of meteorology, and he'sdone that so well. In today's discussion,
doctor White, where can prospective studentsfind out more about the meteorology program
at JSU. So we're in theprocess of revamping a lot of things on
(18:30):
the Jackson State website, in particularfor our program. We are also in
the process that developed into brochure themeteorology program. The main website for the
university is js U MS dot edu. That gets a little confusing because its
not just JSU. JSU, ofcourse, is the easy part. MS
(18:52):
means that we're in Mississippi, Soget JSU MS dot edu. Within that,
if you put you can search onacadem So you can go to c
S E T two. That's ourcollege that were located in C SETS and
within that is the department that we'rehoused in, which is a very long
name, the Chemistry, Physics andAtmosphere Science program. Within that is our
(19:15):
meteorology program. They can email meas well. My name is l O
R E N dot D dot yylike the color w h I T E
at J s U M S doteed U and doctor White. Just so
you know, you do have braggingrights on this show, So can you
give us some highlights on your pastsuccesses with your meteorology program and its students
(19:38):
who have come through. We estimatethat approximately one quarter of all African Americans
that do have a degree in meteorologycame through our program. Of course,
that's over a long period of time, over one hundred graduates. So we
are a small program in the sensethat we are able to get personal attention,
but we do have a large footprintin terms of where our students go
(20:00):
with the levels that they go,both in broadcasts and within research and within
other related fields within the federal services. And may that success continue, Doctor
Lauren White, Professor of Meteorology,at Jackson State University. Go to jsums
dot edu, slash c s Ttwo or C set two for information about
(20:22):
Jackson State University's meteorology program. Thisis Doug Davis from the Black Information Network
taking a moment to wish my mom, Vivian Black Taylor, a happy and
blessed Mother's day. We can loveyou, Mom. Approximately four million adults
practice some sort of meditation, accordingto a twenty seventeen study by the National
Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.Many use meditation to heal the mind,
(20:47):
body, and spirit. Gracie Awardwinning news anchor Esther Dillard is back on
today's show. Esther Dillard speaks withan author who wrote a book about healing
using meditative practice, but with aunique connection to boot I'm Aster Dillard on
the Black Information Network chatting with writersand authors who offer an added perspective for
(21:11):
our listeners. This is the Colorbetween the Lines. In this edition of
The Color Between the Lines, We'retalking about a book that is talking about
how black women heal and how womenof color he heals. It's called Healing
Our Way Home. Black Buddhist teachingson ancestors, joy and liberation and here
(21:34):
to talk about it as one ofthe three authors. And her name is
doctor Marcella B. Gomez. Welcomedoctor Gomez to the Bion. Thank you,
sir, thanks for having me.Well, this book caught my attention
because it was connecting black folks toBuddhism, which we don't often see and
is something that's not talked about alot. And then three women who are
(21:57):
black women who are just seeing Buddhistsworking on a book together, I thought
was quite unique. So I'm soglad that you're able to talk to me
a little bit about this. Firstof all, I wonder did you find
in many ways that you all,you three were kind of like unicorns and
the practice of Buddhism. How didyou find each other? That's funny.
(22:19):
Uh, it's not funny actually atall. Uh So within our tradition,
so you know, in Buddhism,like it like Christianity, there's different traditions.
You know, in Christianity there's Catholicismand like you know, like that
Baptism Baptists and Protestants. So inBuddhism it's very similar. There's different traditions.
(22:42):
So within our tradition, which isthe Plumb Village community of Engaged Buddhism.
All three of us are practitioners andteachers in that tradition, and so
within that tradition, yes, there'snot a whole bunch of black a blacks
in the tradition. So I've neverheard of unicorn. I've never heard it's
(23:03):
been called unicorne within that context.But when you said it, I'm like,
yeah, it's true. Well,the book is called Healing Our Way
Home, and it includes Black Buddhistteachings on ancestors. I love the way
that's connected to ancestors because you oftenthink within the African diaspora about you know,
African tradition and such, and thenconnecting it to Buddhism was kind of
(23:26):
a different thing, for a differentway of looking at things. And for
those who are generally Christians. Howdo they connect all these three things together
in this book? Yeah. Soyou know, I grew up Catholic,
and all of us, all threeof us, didn't start as Buddhists,
right, we're what they call convertBuddhists, and yet ancestors was so integral
(23:56):
to all of our traditions and liberation. I mean, I don't know if
we can talk about blackness without talkingabout liberation actually ancestors and enjoy and joy,
right, Like, you know,this whole explosion of the importance of
black joy. This is something thatwe bring from our I think, not
(24:19):
just maybe our historical religious religious tradition, but from just our culture. Right.
I noticed in the book there werea lot of sections where people can
kind of write their own thoughts andand kind of like a meditation of sorts,
as well as music lists and recipes. Why did you all kind of
(24:41):
include these sections like this? Yeah, so you know this book is not
this book is a there there's somedifficulties and and and and uh, traumas
and suffering in this book, right, because we're talking about our journey of
(25:02):
healing, and so it's healing this. It's about healing this this stuff that
we've been living with. And itcan look different for each one of us.
And so in the process of healing, we have to really cultivate joy
and spaciousness to hold the suffering.If we don't have a real foundation of
(25:22):
the ability to hold it, wecan't take care of the suffering. We
can't look at it. That's whywe all run away from our suffering.
And we get a you know,we consume stuff, or we call somebody,
or we turn the TV on,or we eat or we drink or
whatever we do because we don't havethe spaciousness and enough joy to look into
(25:44):
the hard stuff, so we runaway from it. And so that's why
joy is in the title as well. And so the music is to really
help people cultivate, like hold thatspaciousness. The journaling is to invite in
some reflection and to try not tojust read through the book to finish it,
but really heal with the book.Let the book be this way of
(26:08):
seeing where some of the things wediscussed maybe the stuff that the reader is
holding as well as something they wantto transform. And what we learn in
our practice is that being able toreally sink in to reflection, to be
able to really pause, take somebig breaths in and just situate your body
(26:30):
in this time and this space.Not stay in the head, not stay
heeady. We all like to stayin the head, but really come into
our body. Notice what's going onin our body, what's showing up,
what needs to be tended to andtaken care of. So all the practices
in there. The pause is atthe end of each chapter, and a
practice that's offered, either a meditationor a practice to help us ground ourselves
(26:53):
and reflect. Because it's a healingbook, it's a conversation about healing and
how each one of us have foundways to heal ourselves. And everything that's
offered in the book, especially thepractices are things that we practice regularly.
Over the last fifteen twenty thirty yearswe've been doing this collectively, we've been
(27:17):
practicing for some good between the threeus, more than sixty years of practice,
and so we want to share whatwe have found to be helpful to
help us free, get free forthe things that really keep holding our hearts
tight and making it on, makingus unable to open to really everything that's
(27:38):
possible in ourselves, the most trueauthentic selves that we all know we have
sometimes is really lockdown because of ourtraumas, or lockdown because of not even
our trauma, but our ancestors trauma. And so we want people to be
able to find ways to to freethemselves and find that spaciousness. We're not
(28:02):
trying to free anybody. Everyone's gotto free themselves, and that the practices
and the words are offering, Heythis was our journey. This is how
we did it. Is there somesimilarity for you? Does this touch you?
Do you think you might like todo this way or that way?
And so the large number of practices, the the recipes are fun, like
we all put stuff in there thatthat we like to eat and mixing them
(28:29):
together and enjoy. Right. Andalso we come around, people come around
together around food. It really bringspeople together. I think that's a it's
not just you know, Black culture, but certainly finding ways to enjoy a
meal and being together in silence beforewe eat, to to acknowledge the food
(28:52):
and the earth and the people's handsthat went to prepare it. It's also
a very I think the tradition thatwe all come out of. So yeah,
it's mindfully eating is something that wepractice as well. I guess I'll
let you finish up with the finalword about you know, healing with many
(29:15):
many folks and regardless of your ethnicbackground. Is it's something that's sometimes a
process that is not easy. Yeah, that's a really that's a really good
question. Because we are friends already, we're and we we understand this connection
(29:37):
that we have. So just comingtogether as black people, right, that's
already healing, you know what Imean, Like when you when you come
together and you're like you can putdown the some of the armor that we
have in the world. So andthen we love each other because we we've
known each other for years and weknow some of our history. I think
(30:00):
that held it, that that couldhold what came up, what came up,
and some of the healing that happened. So we healed just in doing
this book together. So things cameup for each of us that hadn't come
up in that way before. Andso we so we were talking about our
healing journey, and in the processof talking about it with these three people
(30:22):
who love each other, we're inthe process of healing as well. And
I think it's a We've heard commentsfrom people that it's almost a new type
of new genre of writing because it'svery active. It's like listening in on
three people talking with each other andwe're not just talking a toxic We're talking
(30:44):
about healing and how we did it. And so I think what what could
hold it was this deep friendship inour In Buddhism, one of the deep
teachings of Buddhism is that one ofthe Buddhist disciples asked him one day if
spiritual friendship was a big part orhalf of the path of liberation, and
(31:06):
the Buddha told him, don't saythat, because it's wrong. Spiritual friendship
is all of the path of liberation, it's the entire path. And so
I think this book really epitomizes andreally lives into that teaching because the healing
that has come out of us beingtogether in this way as spiritual friends was
(31:29):
big for each of us. Eachof us testify to going deeper and revealing
and transforming something that's been a realsuffering for us. Is there any other
websites that if they're interested in gettingmore information about Buddhism and connection to others
who are African American or of theAfrican diaspora, you know, making that
(31:52):
connection. Is there anything that theycan go to? So, as you
said, any place you buy books, it's there. And then if you
want to get more specific and learna little bit more about the tradition and
what the way we may be practicingit, you can go to the publisher's
(32:12):
website, which is Parallax, that'sa publisher of Parallax, and there it
will open up a different or moretypes of books similar in Buddhism. And
if you're interested in mindfulness, right, you can practice mindfulness without being Buddhist.
You don't have to. You know, many Christians come to our retreats
(32:34):
and learn about mindfulness and practices thathelp the heal and take it back to
their tradition, So one doesn't haveto become a Buddhist. And we've been
saying, don't get caught up inthe Buddhist word. You know, it's
just a label that gives respect tothe tradition that we are practicing in,
and we want to honor the tradition. But we say, don't get caught
(32:57):
up in Buddhism. Think you gotto be Buddhist to practic dislike to to
read this because it would be sadif that happened. Because you can practice
these every one of these things offeredin here, you can practice without being
a Blues Thank you, doctor marSalagomez for joining us on the BIM.
Thank you for having me well.The book is called Healing Our Way Home,
(33:19):
Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joyand Liberation. I'm Ester Dillard on
a Black Information Network. Thanks EstherDoug Davis returns with Ashley Fox on another
segment of Your Black Business, Howthe wealthy stay wealthy and how you can
(33:43):
be a part of the investment community. Get your pen and pad out.
I guarantee this will be a goodone. Doug, Hey, Thanks Mike.
My name is Doug Davis, andwelcome back to Your Black Business,
where we feature inspiring stories of blackentrepreneurs, organizations and perspectives surrounding black business.
We are back with Ashley. Iwas former Wall Street executive, now
owner of her financial investment and educationapp called Amplify. She's giving back her
(34:06):
priceless knowledge that has positioned her asone of the leading financial influencers and experts
in the country. Ashley, again, welcome back. Tell us a bit
about your past and what brought youto this point in your life where you're
at right now. So I wantedto major in finance because I personally wanted
to make a lot of money,and so I figured I major in a
subject of money. I love mathand I love business. I'm from Philadelphia.
(34:28):
When I graduated high school, Iwent to college at Howard University and
I majored in finance. But myvision was to work on Wall Street.
I wanted to be a profound blackwoman working on Wall Street. I wanted
to have one of the highest fanjobs out of school. And I really
liked what Wall Street represented and Iwanted to be in that environment. So
while at Howard, I had fourinternships and three of them were at Wall
Street investment banks. When I graduatedHoward, I landed my dream career working
(34:51):
at one of the largest banks inthe world in asset management. And my
job essentially was to work with millionairesand millionaires. If you had at least
twenty five million dollars or more,it was our job to help you grow
your wealth, protect your wealth,and preserve it. And so every day
I was in a bank accounts ofmillionaires and billionaires, and I saw a
lot, I learned a ton,and I truly believe that successfully is coooled.
So I essentially just started to followthe blueprint and I started to do
(35:13):
what wealthy people did. But whenI would come home to Philly, being
the first person in my family tograduate from college, I was making more
money than both my parents. Justin my environment, the things I saw,
the things I did with my money, the things I was learning,
it wasn't common, and I feltlike, for something we're using every day
of our life, why is itnot taught in our school system? Why
are we not talking about it atthe dinner table. You shouldn't have to
(35:35):
major in finance and work on WallStreet to get exposed to the information I
got exposed to, and so Iwanted to be able to create a company,
create something that could financially empower theworld and give them the Wall Street
knowledge, but you didn't have tobe on Wall Street to do it.
So essentially I went from working onWall Street getting exposed to everything that I
saw, from where they invested,to where they shop traveled, how they
avoided taxes, how they built wealthfor their children. I wanted to create
(35:59):
that myself, but I also wantedto be that voice to be able to
translate that Wall Street knowledge to targetthe ninety nine percent that Wall Street often
overlooks. So over ten years ago, I ended up leaving my Wall Street
job to create my company. Whatis known today is Amplify em pify,
which is the word in power andmodify merge together, and we are a
fintech startup that revolutionizes how adults andchildren learn how to build wealth. We've
(36:22):
created financial programs and school systems,prison systems. We have a membership app,
the Wealth Builders Community, where peoplefrom all over the world currently in
twenty two different countries have accessed tofinancial tools, resources, classes to help
them start as beginners to effectively learnhow to build wealth the way I saw
on Wall Street. If you canshare a couple of nuggets, one of
the three basic steps that people cantake to position themselves to build wealth quickly.
(36:45):
I think one of the simplest thingsto do is to accept the fact
that you can't save a work yourway to well. You have to invest.
Yes you can save, yes youcan spend, but you have to
invest. And one of the easiestways to do it is to open a
Borkens account. You can put asmuch money as you want, you put
as little money you want, butyou can start small. I don't care
if you only have ten dollars,but really start to take inventory of where
(37:05):
am I spending my money, whatcompanies are constantly generating revenue off of what
I use, what I spend mymoney on, and who I give my
time to. From the clothes youwear, the food you eat, the
places you like to have fun.There are companies out there that make money
because of you, So start reallydoing research. You don't have to pick
the random company you see on theinternet. Start to think about what makes
a stock a valuable company is ifthey are making money, if they are
(37:30):
growing revenue, and if you area contribution to a company's bottom line,
then you definitely want to start consideringcan I own a small piece of this
company so as that company grows,I can grow with it as well.
So how do you create a brokeraach? So when you open a brokeg account,
you just go online. You canI personally can use companies like Fidelity,
Vanguard, Charles Schwab, e Trade's, there's companies that been around for
(37:53):
years. And essentially a brokege accountis the account you use that connects the
buyer of an investment to the seller. It's literally the middle man and it
doesn't cost anything to open a brokerageaccount. And what you would do is
connect your checking account to the brokerageaccount. So the same way use a
checking account to spend money, usea brokelege account to invest money. But
you can simply go online. Takesless than five minutes to open a brokerage
account, and essentially you would justconnect your checking account, transfer money,
(38:15):
small amounts, whatever you're comfortable with, and start building from there. Wow.
Okay, second tip because that wasone. Yes. The second thing
I would do is one of thethings that I used to live by when
I was really really starting my careerwas if you can't buy it twice,
you can't afford it. So questionevery single thing that you're spending money on
(38:39):
and that you want. Can youbuy it twice? If you cannot,
that means you can afford it,because I think it'll cause you to start
thinking about where your money is going. We feel like, you know,
sometimes I feel like we're robbing Peterto pay Pal. We wake up one
day we have money, next thing, you know, we don't know where
it goes. You have to giveyour money a job. You have to
give your money a job. Andone of the ways you can do that
(38:59):
and to take inventory is how youspend your money. But when you think
about those things you want to buy, those things you may not need,
ask yourself, can I purchase thistwice? And if I can, that
means I can actually afford it.If I have to borrow for it,
if if I don't have the moneylike that means you essentially can't afford it.
And I would say the third thing. The third thing would be and
(39:21):
this is for individuals who feel likethey spend money on They spend a lot
of money on food. One anotherthing I used to do is every time
I spend money on food, Iwould take half of it and I would
either save it or invest it.And a couple of things will happen if
you do that. Let's just sayyou go out and you go to the
you go to the restaurant, youspend fifty dollars, take you spend fifty
dollars, but you take twenty fivedollars and you invest that money. Two
(39:43):
things will happen. One will youwill start investing your money, your portfolio
will grow because you're adding to it. Or two you're gonna question every time
you spend money on food. Andso I think we have to get more
conscious of where our money is going, how we are utilizing it and putting
it to good youth. And evenif you don't necessarily do that, I
would say setting money aside small amountsautomatically we pay everybody. We just like
(40:07):
I said, we spend money,we go out to eat, we pay
our rent, we pay the bartenders, we paid, give money to our
kids, we pay our mortgage,we pay our rent, and we look
up and we have nothing. Soone of the things you can do is
pay yourself first, make you apriority, big or small, and then
take care of everybody else. Andall these rich tricks we can learn on
Implify from you. Yes, youcan go to our website, implify dot
(40:29):
com, our Wealth Builders community appImpify dot com slash WB you can download
it in the app store. Butyes, we have a lot of free
classes, free resources. There's aton that we offer and we cover things
like retirement planning, starting out asan investor, investing for your children,
learning more about legacy planning, andensuring that your family is set up while
you're here and if you're not here. So there's honestly no aspect of money
(40:51):
that we don't cover from a holisticperspective. But no matter where you are,
you have to have the confidence toknow that you can start big or
small. Wealth does not have acolor. Therefore where it looks like all
of us and we all deserve tocreate it and obtain it. You are
such a wealth of knowledge. Youhave such an amazing spirit. You have
so much to offer the world.And can we follow you on social media?
Are you also out there on LinkedIn? How can people communicate with you?
(41:13):
Yes? So on Instagram, I'munderscore Ashley and Fox LinkedIn I am
Ashley M. Fox. You canfollow us also well filtered community on all
platforms as well. But yes,I'm very active. You can learn a
lot from me in small little tibitson both Instagram and LinkedIn and TikTok.
So yes you can follow me,but also on our website implify dot com,
empify dot com, our resources,guides and tools you need to get
(41:36):
started as a beginner. I'm allthere, all is there for you,
Ashley Fox. Thank you so much. This is Doug Davis for listening to
the Black perspective on the Black InformationNetwork. Thanks Doug. May is Foster
Care Awareness Month. It's also thestart of a fundraising season for a nonprofit
that works to make sure some HBCUstudents who have aged out of the foster
care system get the support they needto succeed in college. The Black and
(42:00):
Information Networks Andrea Coleman has more.Mike T. Mercer who is also known
as TJ, found it move Into Mafia just a few years ago,
but already the need for the assistantshe and a group of volunteers provide has
been made clear. She is nowdetermined to help as many HBCU students as
possible who have aged out of thefoster cure system continue their education with support
(42:21):
and great fanfare, but she needsthe communities help to reach her. Gole,
TJ, thank you so much forjoining us. Now, what is
move In Day Mafia? Move InDay Mafia is a nonprofit that I founded
back in twenty twenty two, andI like to call us a mob of
volunteers that descend upon HBCU, whichis historically Black college and universities. But
(42:45):
we descend upon HBCUs with the solepurpose of providing dorm room makeovers and monthly
care packages for those scholars who haveeither aged out of foster care, they're
experiencing housing insecurity, or they grapplewith financial hardships, and so we go
in and we take them as ourfamily. So there's a team of us
(43:07):
there so that these scholars are notgoing through this huge transition alone. Where
did this idea come from? Soback in twenty twenty. You know,
I am a you know, awardwinning TV editor and producer. I lived
in Los Angeles, but I hadmoved to Atlanta right before the lockdown,
and I created this virtual bingo gamethat took off during the lockdown, and
(43:30):
being a graduate of the Howard University, I stand hard for HBCUs and when
I saw that graduations were being snatchedfrom these grads, my prayer to God
was, can you show me howI can help. So we turned that
bingo game that had taken off,and we turned it into TJ's HBCU Bingo
(43:52):
and it was epic. We raisedover a million dollars in cash and prizes
in less than four weeks, andwe gave it away to the twenty twenty
grads of HBCUs. We had madeso much noise that CBS Evening News picked
us up and did an interview onus. And that's when I met one
of the grads who shared a storyabout her being aged out of foster care
(44:15):
when she started her HBCU journey,and her social worker pulled up to school,
let her unload her stuff, andthen just left her to go through
this next transition alone and so onceagain I asked, God, can you
show me what I can do tohelp and move in DEI Mafia was born.
And I'm so pleased because Andrea,we moved in thirteen scholars at Paul
(44:39):
Quinn College in Dallas, Texas forour first year. Last year we doubled
that and ended up moving about thirtyone scholars at five HBCUs. So we're
growing and we want to move inforty four scholars this year. That's incredible.
How great is the need? Theneed is like my and my Tony
(45:01):
the Tanker Boys. It costs usabout two thousand dollars to move in the
scholar and cover their first semester ofmonthly care packages. It's three thousand to
cover the entire year. So weneed funding. We need corporate partners,
we need volunteers to be boots onthe ground. Because here's the thing,
(45:21):
Andrea, we don't just do youknow a cookie cutter. These students rooms
are designed by celebrity interior designer NikiKlug of Nikki Klug Design Group, so
their rooms are customed to their livesbecause often this is the first time these
students have had a say so,and what goes into their space. We
(45:42):
don't go bunk by, you know, press two pasts. We actually find
out what do these scholars like,you know, what are their favorites.
So we may have two cress,two paints, and two codegates, you
know, what have you. Sowe are really customed to what makes them
feel seen, what makes them matter. So it does get pretty costly,
but that is the mission and thegold and the intent behind moving a mafia.
(46:07):
Talk about that a little bit,TJ if you can, because we're
talking about young adults who are comingout of some very difficult situations. Why
is that level of care so important? What does that speak to them personally
and directly? Oh? I lovethis question. It just gave me chills.
I'm still learning about this demographic.But what I have learned is,
(46:29):
you know a lot of these scholarswhen we see on TV, like every
single horrible thing that have happened asthey're in their foster families and group homes
has happened to some of our scholars. And so it is important for me,
as the founder and as the quoteunquote godfather, that they know that
they matter to us, that thisis a safe space, this is a
(46:51):
safe community. We want to makesure you understand that we don't want anything
from you except for you to graduateand realize your dream. The statistics say
that a seventy percent of foster carekids dream of going to college, yet
only three percent get to see theirdreams started and one percent graduate. So
(47:13):
we are dedicated to disrupting what Icall the foster care to prison pipeline and
disrupted and changed it to the fostercare to HBCU graduate pipeline. And that
starts with letting them know that theymatter. So when we are picking out
their favorite study candy, like oneyoung lady, she loved her room,
(47:36):
Andrea, but it was when Ishowed her we had bought her stacks of
kit kats. That's when this babylost her mind and it just started crying
because we took the time to learnwhat she liked. One of our scholars
at Prayer of You loved the room. When I revealed it, Nikki did
an amazing job in the room.But the tears started falling when I opened
(47:59):
up her bathroom and she saw thatwe had bought her a bulk pack of
Always Maxi pads. That's what senther into tears. So when you ask
me Why does this matter? Thisis the thing. They need, their
basic needs taken care of so theycan focus on being students and ultimately graduating.
(48:20):
TJ. William is just an issuewe should care about. Well,
one, because they're human beings,you know, we must care about our
brothers and sisters. And two,these kids are the next MLK. These
kids are the next Gladys West whocreated GPS. These kids. It sounds
corner, but these kids really areour future and we don't know the potential
(48:44):
that they're sitting on unless we helpthem. And helping them actually then creates
this domino effect where they go onto discover their own greatness. And it
starts with just making sure they gotdetergent, making sure they got soap.
I cannot stress that part enough ofwhat I've learned in the last two years
of doing this, that is socrucial to just meet their basic needs where
(49:07):
they don't have to worry and makechoices of am I going to study an
extra you know a couple of hours, or I gotta go to work to
make sure I can actually wash myclothes. We want to make sure that
they have the setup that they needto walk into an incredible future. And
how much support do you provide Onceyou move them in and the room has
(49:30):
set and all the needs are met, what happens after that? So they
get monthly care packages from US.Plus we have an entire student support team
that we need you know, volunteersfor that checks with them regularly to be
a listening ear, to be youknow, a guiding wisdom. But mostly
the mission is to make sure theydon't have the pressure of not knowing if
(49:54):
they smell okay. You know,that kind of thing can impact your bill
to concentrate and to study. Sowe want to make sure that their basic
needs are taking care of on amonthly basis. That's why I was saying
it costs us you know, twothousand to move them in and a semester
worth of monthly care packages three thousandfor moving them in, and then the
(50:15):
entire freshman year. But we're walkingthem through with southhomore, junior, and
senior year. So we're walking themthrough, you know, all the way
to graduation. But it really justboils down to making sure they feel seen
throughout the year to overcome the hurdlesthat may come up, you know,
in your normal college matriculation. That'svery good. What can you tell us
(50:37):
about these young adults that you're meeting, What have their lives been like?
And who are they? Sounds likethey're young adults of promise and hope who
really are just trying to live agood life. Oh I love that.
So they vary because you know,we do have the ones that are,
you know, coming out of fostercare. But then we have the ones
that should be designated foster care,but they are not. You know,
(51:00):
they may be CouchSurfing or bouncing fromfamily member to family member, or you
know, a seven year old grandmother, eighty year old grandmother is raising them.
And so one example is one ofour scholars that was based in Los
Angeles. She was so committed togo into an HBCU that she was willing
to lead the Foster Care Protections ofCalifornia system and venture across the country to
(51:24):
an HBCU on the East Coast.And she had been in foster care her
whole life. So much had happenedto her, sexual assault, abuse,
like it was so much that ithappened. She was CouchSurfing when we interviewed
her, and when she got toher HBCU, she flew with her social
(51:44):
worker. But her social worker waslike, well do I have to go
up? And so once again shemay have had to navigate this you know,
transition alone, but moving Dey mafiawas there and we were able to
get her taken care of. AnotherAllah comes to mind down at prairie View.
She has been in foster care herentire life. She was dropped off
(52:06):
at prairie View. And this isthe most considerate, kind, compassionate young
lady that you would ever meet.Like her sponsor at Prayerview had to actually
appeal to us on her behalf becauseshe wouldn't apply. She was headed into
her senior year and as such shedid not want to take a spot from
(52:30):
a freshman. And so when shesat down on an interview, she was
like, well, first thing Ijust need y'all to know is that I'm
a senior and I don't want totake a spot from a freshman. And
she had lived such a life,you know, in this environment that she
was used to everyone letting her down, and she just did not believe that
a group of strangers were going tobe coming down to Prayerview want nothing from
(52:53):
her but to actually love on herdecorate her room and make her senior year
the best it can. She askedme so many questions that she stopped short
of asking me my flight information,and because she just did not believe that
I was coming. And yet whenI got there, the baby jumped in
my arms. She has been sucha dream to support and to help,
(53:16):
and I know that she's going todo great things. Wow, that's tremendous.
You refer to your army of volunteersas a mafia. And why you
said so? I couldn't give youa really deep, you know answer andream,
but that would be a lie.It's called you know, I told
you I'm a woman of faith,and so you know, pretty much all
(53:37):
of my life assignments are tied to, you know, an answered prayer.
And so when I was given themission of solving this problem, that was
the name that the divine gave me. The move in de mafia. And
you know, we get, youknow, side eyes like why the mafia
teach? You know what? Youjust got to take it up with the
higher power because I didn't, youknow, just sit and decide what would
(53:59):
be a good name. That thatwas not how this came about. It
really was literally God, how doI solve this problem? And the very
next thing that hit my heart wasmoving de Mafia. That is so beautiful.
How has this changed your life?I don't know now. Look I
said, I want to go cry, and I see when you ask me
questions like that, I'm trying tobe professional, make me tear up?
(54:22):
How has this changed my life?Unless you get to see a student light
up when you have done something thatreally has changed the trajectory of their lives,
it's hard to put into words thejoy that that brings me. About
(54:43):
fifteen years ago, I prayed acrazy prayer, Lord, I want to
travel the world, hug a bunchof people and surprise them. I had
no idea what that looked like.I didn't know if I was supposed to
take a class in hugonomics or surpriseology, but I knew that that was my
prayer of what I wanted to doand what I get to wake up in
with Moving de Mafia is I getto travel to these HBCUs, I get
(55:09):
to hug the scholars that need hugsthe most, and then I get to
surprise them. And so I'm livingin an answered crazy prayer and doing good
and knowing that we're making an impact. And if I may, you asked
me who are these scholars. Oneof our scholars just recently made news because
(55:34):
and the headlines was from homeless tohistory, and he's one of our scholars
at FIST, Jeremiah Armstead. Jeremiahwe had to hunt down because the dorm
director told us about his situation.He was homeless, his mother is battling
cancer, and he's on the basketballteam at Fisk and just recently at the
(55:54):
men's Final four. I forget whatthe prestigious award is called, but he
was honored with this prestigious award becausehe was the first HBCU athlete to get
it. That's the kind of thingsof knowing. When I met, you
know, Jeremiah, he was timid. He didn't believe, you know,
we would do all the things wewould do. We decorated his room,
(56:15):
and you know, in this six' four giant towering over me is grinning
and hugging me. And then helooks over and sees that I had bought
him his favorite cereal, just boxesof Honeysmacks. You can pay for that
feeling, Andrea, So when youask me how this has changed my life.
(56:36):
I can't really articulate it. It'sjust the knowledge of knowing that we're
upsetting trajectories that is beautiful. Andso what's next for movingde Mafia. The
mission Andrea is to have a Mafiachapter on every single remaining HBCU, so
one hundred and one HBCUs. Sothat the mission is to just focus on
(56:58):
our steady growth and our careful growthbecause like I said, we take care
of these kids for four years,so we have to be mindful of,
you know, how fast we growso that no one falls through the crass,
because that's what's been happening, youknow, their whole lives. And
so we want to have more corporatepartners where there is a buy in and
a support of sustainability so that wecan expand and grow. So I would
(57:22):
say just to focus on getting onehundred and one chapters of Moving Day Mafia
as well as great pace, sustainablegrowth, and how do we find out
more not only about the mafia,but opportunities to journey with you and just
see as you go in and startthe change in these young adults' lives.
(57:43):
You can donate your time, yourtalent, your skills, whatever we need
organizational structure. Help we need everything, and you can go over to Movingdaymafia
dot org and donate and fill outthe volunteer form. We are looking forward
to moving in forty four new scholarsthis upcoming move in Day season. TJ
(58:05):
or TJ. Mercer, We thankyou so much, not only for what
you're doing, but for sharing yourstory and this hope that you're providing for
all of these young people. Thankyou for that. Thank you, Thank
you so much for helping us getthe word out. Thank you. Andrea.
Statistics show more than twenty five thanteens and young adults between the ages
of eighteen and twenty one age outof the foster care system each year.
(58:27):
And that's our program for this weekand for more on these stories, listen
to the Black Information Network on theiHeartRadio app or log onto bionnews dot com.
You can hear this program and thelatest news affecting the black community.
Also follow us on social media atBlack Information Network and on x formerly known
as Twitter. At black Info Neton behalf of the entire team at the
(58:49):
Black Information Network. I'm your host, Mike Island. Thanks for listening and
be sure to join us next weekat this time for another edition of the
Black Perspective right here on the BlackInformation Network. The Black Information Network and
six time Emmy nominated news anchor VanessaTyler, Welcome you to black Land,
a podcast about the ground on whichthe Black community stands right now. From
(59:10):
stories about salvation and loss, Ilove the person who had any Charvy diagnosis,
the dreams achieved or yet unfulfilled,from people who have made it.
I sat down with a therapist,and I begin my journey to those left
behind. Listen to black Land onthe iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your
podcasts. This is Ray Hers,this is Morgan Wood, this is Amber
(59:31):
Payton from the Black Information Network.Taking a moment to wish my mom,
my mom, and my mother inlaw a happy and blessed Mother's Day weekend.
Happy Mother's Day weekend from the BlackInformation Network. Love y'all,
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