00:00is it on hey how's it going you got a bunch of bags hello everyone I am Linda Wilson
00:20executive director of fun to foundation and we are very pleased to be here I'd
00:25like to introduce my group here at least some of my team I've got Wendell Lane the
00:30fourth I've got Keith Schultz I've got Mambo Sherman and I've got Ivana Jackson now why
00:37we are here is because we know about a New Orleans hometown hero that we're very proud
00:43about his name is Brandon Garrett so early this year we didn't even know who Brandon
00:55Garrett was quite frankly he's a New Orleans hometown hero we are so grateful
01:00to have met his accolades and accomplishments are many but as a
01:06former Black Panther Party member I am forever grateful for his utter
01:10devotion to the people and his understanding of what it takes to serve
01:14the people with a military mind and a missionary heart I witness how hard he
01:20works for all types of equity in our community Brandon is the vice chair of
01:25the board of trustees for Xavier University of Louisiana give it up please he
01:32attended all of their summer programs and is very proud to have done so as such he
01:39has designated Xavier as the organization deserving of our twenty thousand dollar
01:44gift this will allow ten students to attend free we were overjoyed to learn
01:55that because of its stellar academic reputation especially preparing our
02:00african-american young people to excel in a tech world a fact that our founder
02:05Robert Frederick Smith knows how this is this is how we will close the wealth gap it
02:11is an honor to present this check to Curtis Wright vice president of student
02:17affairs at Xavier University and those are students give please a big round of
02:28applause and we're out
02:35when I wake up
02:38when I wake up
02:40I don't need nobody telling me the time no
02:47the world is mine, mine, mine, mine
02:51I don't need no nigga
02:57rolling over
02:58looking after me
03:01No, no, no.
03:31And then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and then you slip me up and
04:01Oh, oh, no, oh, hey
04:10Double thing, double thing
04:15What's nothing, it was no love
04:18Double thing, double thing
04:34Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
29:08We are you.
31:38Ane but I want to want to say
31:39anything I can?
31:46functional employee schoolwork.
31:48they know about how they can access those resources to grow their businesses.
31:53And in some cases, make sure your businesses survive or you got an idea.
31:57This is an opportunity for you to be looking at how you can grab a hold of some of those resources.
32:02So tell us how we make some money off of our tax dollars that we pay.
32:06Because understand this, this is our money.
32:08And I know this is not a political conversation, but the way we got the money,
32:13the way these billions of dollars got there for our companies to be able to access those dollars,
32:18to build our broadband was because we voted in 2022, 2020 and 2022.
32:25So let's be real clear how we got here and how we got this money so we can build that business around.
32:32So the federal government usually paints this broad brush of minority programs.
32:37It has not worked for our community.
32:40For the first time, the president of the United States, President Biden,
32:42went to Tulsa, Oklahoma, the birthplace of our Black Wall Street.
32:47And for the first time in this country's history, we disaggregated the numbers.
32:52The minority spend, as they call it, was actually 1.8% went to the Asian community,
32:591.76% went to the Hispanic community, and 1.5% went to Black businesses.
33:071.5%, that's it.
33:09You want to ask, well, where is the money going?
33:1278% of all of the federal dollars, all of the contracts went to white women.
33:18So when women have the conversation about women's programs, women's rights,
33:23when we as collectively say minority programs, understand we've got to be intentional.
33:28We've got to say black and get away from saying minority because it has not worked for us.
33:35The second thing is we've got to be transparent.
33:38We want to know what's behind those conversations and what is it doing for our community specifically.
33:44And the third thing, it's got to be about accountability.
33:48This is an election conversation.
33:50For the last eight years, we heard a lot about making America great again.
33:54And we as black people say we want America to be great as well.
33:58But in order for there to be a great America, there must be a great black America.
34:03And in order for there to be a great black America, we must have great black businesses.
34:08And in order for there to have the great black businesses, we need great black chambers, and we need your support.
34:14If you have a black business, get certified, free of charge.
34:19Write this down, B-Y-B-L-A-C-K dot U-S.
34:24Corporations and federal governments are saying, Ron, we want to do more business with black firms, but we can't find them.
34:29We now have a program that allows you to be found free of charge across the country.
34:35And the second one is they say, well, we don't have the size and scale.
34:38We don't need more new businesses.
34:41We need our businesses to do more mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and where and when it makes sense, we've got to be talking about consortiums.
34:52The opportunities are large, and they're today.
34:54We've got to be prepared to take advantage of them today, and we've got to start making plans right now.
35:00Thank you, Ron.
35:01I know we're out of time, but we want to ask Reverend Al to just close us out.
35:06What should folks do when they go home?
35:09Well, I think first thing you need to do is clearly organize in your area to not only tell them to vote,
35:17but to have an agenda that says that the black community, given this under siege point that we're at, must be specific about access to broadband,
35:28must support what Reverend Schafon is talking about.
35:32Many of us are going to be in Washington August 26th, raising these issues for the anniversary of the March on Washington.
35:38Sixty years later, look at where we are.
35:41Sixty years after Dr. King went to Lincoln Memorial, we're going back saying they've just killed affirmative action.
35:48They've just killed student loans.
35:50We are not fulfilling the dream yet.
35:55We need to be—we can't let them outmarch us.
35:58People talk about what we got from marching.
36:01The fact you checked in a hotel in New Orleans and didn't have to go to the college side of town.
36:05That's what we got out of marching.
36:06And we need to stop talking about what we can't do, remember what we have done, and go forward.
36:13We came inside of 100 years from walking off plantations in 1865, January 1st, when it went into effect, the Emancipation Proclamation.
36:27We walked off plantations with no money, no literacy, because it was against the law for us to read and write,
36:34and didn't know our families because we couldn't marry.
36:36In 100 years, we went from there to the march on Washington in 63, and then from there, we went from putting a black man with a black wife with two black kids and the mom-in-law in the White House.
36:50Don't tell us what we can't do if we get up and do it and stop telling ourselves that we're going to be measured by other people's rule stick, measured by ourselves.
37:02Look how far we've come.
37:04Yes, we took a downside or we took a back-up or we took a retreat yesterday and today, but we've taken worse than this, and we fought through it.
37:16We've got to keep fighting.
37:18Thank you, Reverend Allen.
37:19I'm Melanie Campbell, convener of the Black Women's Roundtable, and I'm going to do, like George Bailey, approve of all of your messages.
37:27Thank you, Essence, and thank you, AT&T.
37:30Thank you, Reverend Allen.
38:00It's meant to be
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