WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 music 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Hello, good evening, 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:11.000 all of you lovely lovely, and beautiful people. 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:13.000 Thank you for being here tonight. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:16.000 My name is Mike Wilson, and I'm Professor of Psychology 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:19.000 here at Western Oregon University. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:23.000 I'm born and raised Oregonian, 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:25.000 just down the road in Salem. 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:30.000 Being a part of the black community here in this state, 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:32.000 we are very small group, 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:38.000 but we are a very very very special and important group. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.000 Unfortunately, we don't always get 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:45.000 the platforms to demonstrate our value, 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:52.000 our beauty, our courage, motivation, strength. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:55.000 It's opportunities like these, 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:58.000 where we do get to demonstrate that. 00:00:58.000 --> 00:00:61.000 Before we get started with anything, 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:04.000 I want everybody to acknowledge that 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:06.000 this space right here between 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:10.000 these four walls is a safe space. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:15.000 Everybody is welcome at our table, 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.000 until you give us a reason not to. 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:20.000 I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.000 Here's here's what's going to go down tonight. 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:27.000 I'm going to introduce my special guests because we got to get rolling. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:30.000 They're going to share their story, 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.000 their lived reality, their truth. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:37.000 This isn't about setting agendas. 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:42.000 This isn't about political correctness. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:45.000 This is about sharing reality, 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:48.000 and acknowledging that reality. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:51.000 We need to have your help here in 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:55.000 creating a psychologically safe environment. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:58.000 These guys are going to be very vulnerable with us. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:01:60.000 After that, you can meet with them 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:03.000 and have your discussions or ask them any 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:05.000 of the questions that we may not get 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:08.000 to during the course of this discussion. 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:17.000 I want all of you to know that right here and right now, 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:21.000 this is a moment of history for this campus. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:25.000 You all get to be a part of that history. 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.000 Some years now down the road, 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:34.000 you all get to say that I was there when it all started. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:37.000 We're bringing transformation and 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:40.000 revolution to our Oregon. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:43.000 We want you to be a part of that journey. 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:50.000 Can we please welcome our guests, DeAngelo and Teres. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:55.000 I'm going to grab a chair. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.000 I've been driving for awhile. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.000 to hurt a little. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:06.000 I got enough room. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:13.000 I want to say it's a pleasure to be here. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:15.000 My name is DeAngelo Moaning. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:18.000 I carry a lot of roles in Portland. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:22.000 I'm the first vice president and the chair 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:26.000 of economic development for our Portland branch at the end of LACP. 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:29.000 I've served as the Chief of Staff for Raimore Construction, 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:31.000 which is a black own construction company, 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:33.000 one of the largest in Oregon, 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:36.000 and the second, I believe, largest in Portland. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:41.000 With 22 years of history, we specifically serve black and minority communities. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:45.000 Our workforce is 70% black all women, 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:47.000 with our entire leadership role or 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:50.000 leadership staff being about 80% black or a woman. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:53.000 The irony is not lost on me. 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:58.000 Twelve years ago, I actually had graduated high school in 2009. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:03:60.000 I'd come here two years later in 2011, 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:03.000 because I was looking for somewhere to go to college. 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:05.000 When I came out here, 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:07.000 the reason for me not 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:09.000 attending Western Oregon at the time, 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:11.000 was that, I didn't see any black faces. 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:14.000 For me the irony is not lost that, 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:17.000 participate in something of 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:20.000 this magnitude with black faces front 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:22.000 and center. This is incredible. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:25.000 Black women of all things is incredible to me. 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:28.000 I'm just happy to be here. Happy to share my story. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:30.000 I'll definitely want to talk 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.000 about what we can do with black people. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.000 The things that we are doing is black folk in 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:38.000 Portland that will affect the Greater Oregon region, 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:41.000 and how everybody can be involved. It's you. 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:45.000 different. This is my guy. 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:48.000 But I went to the penitentiary at 19. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:51.000 I came home at 33. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:53.000 My story can play out a 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:55.000 little different as we talk about it. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:58.000 I feel my stuff play out 00:04:58.000 --> 00:04:61.000 way easier when we dialogue about it. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:04.000 If you hear me say something, you'd like, "What is he talking about?" 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:07.000 Please raise your hand up unless talk about it. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:09.000 I always say when I go speak like, 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:11.000 if there's something you want to ask me that might 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:14.000 feel the same a little racist acts in any way, 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:16.000 because it might only feel that way 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.000 because you've been taught to see it like that. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:22.000 Now we're ready to deal with those things, 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.000 and talk about some of those things, 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.000 then for you to walk out of here, and not get some of the tough questions 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:31.000 asked or my point of view or from DeAngelo's. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:33.000 Again, I came home, 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:36.000 I think, it was just like seven years ago. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:39.000 I got an electrical license when I was locked up. 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:41.000 Use that for a little while until 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:44.000 my niece wouldn't let me use it no more, 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:49.000 because I didn't know, oh, look at you got you know, 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:53.000 just messing with your sister. I use that electrical license for 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:57.000 awhile until I didn't want to crawl and crawl spaces. 00:05:57.000 --> 00:05:60.000 But I made a lot of money, and did really well for my family. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:03.000 Then I went to work for Raimore, 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:05.000 because I wanted to learn how to project 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:08.000 manage and how to really run a company right. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:11.000 They rarely teach folks out of our community business. 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:13.000 We know how to hustle, 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:17.000 we know how to figure it out, we know how to go get it, but the numbers associated with 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:20.000 business folks really slowed down enough to teach us. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:23.000 I went to work with them 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:26.000 for three-and-a-half years, they kicked my tail. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:28.000 Like legit, everything I 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:30.000 thought I knew about business, I didn't, 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:33.000 everything I thought running projects, I didn't, I knew about 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:35.000 everything I thought I knew about 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:38.000 relationships in Portland, I didn't know nothing. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:41.000 That's been three-and-a-half getting tattooed, 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:43.000 as we call it, to really 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:45.000 learn how to be a professional, 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.000 really learn how to impact my community, 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:50.000 and really learn how to do that in 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:54.000 a way they bring wealth to folks that look like myself. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:56.000 I was able to take over 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:61.000 a company started by the correlation of black men who were growing a lot faster than, I think, 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:05.000 my mental capacity allows for, 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:09.000 but De comes in and helped me like every day seriously. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:11.000 I ain't got much to give him, 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:13.000 but he show up every day, 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:15.000 because we really focused on 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:22.000 the community and the people. I took Raimore's model in a way that I approach hiring, 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:25.000 which is definitely looking at our community first. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:27.000 There's nothing to look outside. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:29.000 I don't have to look outside first, 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:32.000 because the need is so great in my own. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:35.000 I look into community, we hire folks out into community, 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:39.000 we pay really well out of the community. 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:42.000 I'm not even test I'm not even really allowed to to be roots out, 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:44.000 take work, when I say allow this, 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:46.000 because folks like De is always 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:49.000 challenging why I go after 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:51.000 work or what work I take or if it 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:54.000 can't pay folks that worked for me really well, 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:56.000 I'm not allowed to hunt the work down, 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:58.000 because then brothers is not going to allow me too, 00:07:58.000 --> 00:07:60.000 because then I'm just focused on me, 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:02.000 and they already think I pay myself too much. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:04.000 De know, but the older brothers 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:06.000 we held accountable to 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:08.000 they already think I'm overpaid anyway. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:10.000 I've got to be really conscious. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:14.000 We hire folks that look like us. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:16.000 We impact those lives, and we challenge them. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:18.000 Then what I'm not allowed to do, again, 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:22.000 business normally looks like you worked for me, 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:24.000 I'll make a ton of money, 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:26.000 and I keep all the business secrets to myself, 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:30.000 but there is a lot of entrepreneur in you. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:34.000 You grind and you work, and you're doing I'm not allowed to do that. everything you can, but nobody I give you access. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:39.000 As De, he'll come in here, and he not allowed to do that. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:42.000 We give all information out to folks who want to know. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:44.000 We teach about margins, 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:48.000 we teach about how to walk down government be, 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:50.000 it's how to position yourself as a company. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:55.000 We take folks out, so we take competition. We don't like that word, 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:57.000 of course, but the reason 00:08:57.000 --> 00:08:61.000 I say that is because how we see it, but if folks in the community do the same thing I do, 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:04.000 but they haven't had the same access I have, 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:07.000 I take them in, and I teach it to them. 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:09.000 I teach them how to run their company the right way, 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:11.000 De mates himself accessible. 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:14.000 The community that we have is really 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:17.000 committed to making sure that we economically strong. 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:20.000 So far, people has bought some homes, 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:23.000 folks has started some companies, 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:25.000 people like myself who did time, 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:29.000 they never had apartments, they never had homes, 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:31.000 they don't know how to fill out applications, 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:37.000 but they do now. We put a lot of conscious energy into accountability in 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:39.000 our space to make sure that folks who are 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:43.000 coming in can't disrupt a room that we got going on. 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:45.000 We've been really successful. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:49.000 My story ended, but the unique part of my story, 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:51.000 is that, I don't know if you all 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:53.000 heard about Senate Bill 819, if we got any law students, 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:57.000 but it's a unique bill that allows folks, 00:09:57.000 --> 00:09:59.000 like myself, to clear their record, 00:09:59.000 --> 00:09:61.000 to look back and deal with that. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:04.000 I was the first person in Portland to get that apply to. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:08.000 Similarly, I talk about that part of my life. 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:10.000 It ain't on a record no more. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:12.000 I don't check no damn boxes. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:14.000 I don't have to talk about that part. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:17.000 I talk about it because it's real in our community, 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:19.000 and I'm not afraid to have those conversations, 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:21.000 but you can't use it against me anyway, 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.000 so it doesn't really matter. You know what I mean? 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:25.000 That was really cool and really unique. 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:27.000 Right now, everything we're 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:30.000 doing this about our community, Even folks outside of the community 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:35.000 are white brothers and sisters, 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:37.000 we expect them to buy into the narrative. 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:40.000 We don't allow them to control that were created. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:43.000 Those days are over. You can't come into our space 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:46.000 and tell us how we you can come up to bring are going to exist, 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:48.000 your resources and your get privilege into aid in it. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:50.000 I never talked to people about 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:53.000 getting rid of your privilege. That is a lie. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:56.000 You were not born during the time that they created it, 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:60.000 you can't control that you have it, but you can't control what you do with it. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:02.000 When you really talk about caring about 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:04.000 black and brown and indigenous communities, 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:06.000 leverage your privilege, 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:08.000 leverage those relationships to bring 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:10.000 assets in economics into our community. 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:12.000 That's always my challenge. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.000 I'm not going to harp on you about your privilege, 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:17.000 and I can do about it no more than you can. 00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:19.000 What I do want to continue to challenge you 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:21.000 is to use it to move the needle 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:27.000 for the people that your forefathers stepped on to get there quite frankly. 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:32.000 my story and why this work is so important to me. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:36.000 As everybody knows, Oregon was founded as a white utopia. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:39.000 My family actually came to Oregon on 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:42.000 my dad's side in 1896. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:45.000 We were one of the first black families, 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:48.000 there had been a lot of black families, I actually just met a sister recently. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:50.000 Her family's been here since 1864 so there's 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:52.000 a lot more black folks 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:55.000 that have been here longer than you think. But my family got here in 1896. My grandfather was an indentured servant, 00:11:58.000 --> 00:11:60.000 or my grandfather's grandfather 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.000 was an indentured servant. My grandfather was born in a freedom. 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:07.000 They moved to Oregon in 1896, 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:11.000 started their life here. There was a lot of work on the railroad. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:13.000 My family has been intrinsically 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:15.000 connected to construction. 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:20.000 But we, as black folk as a whole, have been intrinsically connected construction because as 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:22.000 slaves we were the original creators 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:24.000 of the foundation of this country. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:28.000 My grandfather worked for the shipyards in Oregon 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:31.000 and I will point specifically, during the war, 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:34.000 once the war slowed down 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:37.000 because of a lot of things regarding blight, 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:39.000 gentrification, red lining, 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:42.000 the inability to purchase a home, 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:44.000 and the flooding of Van Port. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:46.000 By show of hands, anybody know what Van Port is? 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:48.000 It seems like everybody knows. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:52.000 I'll paraphrase, Van Port was a place 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:54.000 where the way we talked about it in Portland 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:56.000 is that Vancouver didn't want the black folk. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:58.000 Portland didn't want the black folk 00:12:58.000 --> 00:12:62.000 so they put us in a place, Van Port, which is a portmanteau of the two words for you could live. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:05.000 We couldn't really own anything, but we can live there and work. 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.000 Van Port flooded [inaudible] display so my family, 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:13.000 this is the first time The second time was during that my family's been displaced by the flood. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:19.000 the construction of the original Interstate 5, 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:21.000 which was, I believe in 1970. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:23.000 For those that don't know, 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:25.000 Albino was a neighborhood that came as a result of 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:28.000 Van port and people that had means and access, 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:30.000 developed this hub for black people to 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:32.000 live, the Albino neighborhood, 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:34.000 which was then raised for 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:36.000 their construction of Interstate five, 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:38.000 destroyed plenty of homes, 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:43.000 plenty of black businesses, plenty of opportunities and the wealth that could have 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:46.000 been generated from that is honestly forever lost. 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:49.000 We can't, otherwise forever lost. 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:51.000 I don't look back at what's happened because 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:53.000 we have an opportunity to shape what the 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:55.000 future looks like, which I'll get to in a second. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:60.000 During this time, my grandma uncle and my aunt Ottawa and Dell Rutherford. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:02.000 They were the president and the secretary 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:05.000 respectively of the Portland NWACP. 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:07.000 They were a large part of 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:09.000 passing the organ civil rights bill, 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:11.000 which is really black civil rights bill. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:13.000 This was a little early in 1953 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:15.000 and they continued their work. 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:17.000 A lot of these stories that we talk 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:19.000 about or we tell about gentrification, 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:21.000 about the destruction of community, 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:25.000 about the despair that is called plague of the black community, are things that are personal to me 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:28.000 because this is my lived experience. We've gone through generations and 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:31.000 these stories have been told to me down the ages. 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:35.000 I still didn't quite understand what that had to do 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:37.000 with me just being honest as 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:40.000 a child because we're not there anymore. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.000 These are things that have gone through. This is where we're at now. It's is what it is. I also didn't understand the importance of construction. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:49.000 My father actually worked on the Rose Garden, 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:53.000 which is our Colosseum that sits in Portland 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:55.000 and I didn't really care to 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.000 talk about that part of our history because again, I didn't know what it meant. It wasn't until years later when I started working in construction that 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:03.000 I realized the opportunity that it brings 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:05.000 that although our full people have 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:08.000 been locked out of the traits when you work for 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:10.000 a black contractor and you see that 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:13.000 we're working to support DBEs or 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:15.000 disadvantaged business enterprises that 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:18.000 we're actually supporting landscaping, 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:23.000 civil work, buildings, so on and so forth. 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:25.000 You really see how as 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:28.000 a black contractor you have the opportunity to shape your community. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:31.000 You don't just on the ancillary where someone comes in and says, 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:33.000 this is how we're going to build your community 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:37.000 You actually have a seat at the table where 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:39.000 you can actually discuss, 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:42.000 build control and continue to 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:44.000 pass down the blessings from 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.000 this construction to those that come around you. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:48.000 I'm going to pass it to you too because 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:50.000 I feel like you've got a little word to say to me. 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:58.000 because his family narrative is so deep important. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:15:61.000 I'm originally from Chicago. I came here when I was 17, 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:04.000 so it's interesting when he talked about that to be 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:07.000 a implant here a little later and 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:09.000 then because our community is so small, 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:12.000 I still have to become part of that narrative, 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:15.000 I'm grafted into it. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:18.000 See it play out and now to try to be 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:20.000 a part of getting us close. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:25.000 For me, we talk a lot about equity and inclusion, 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:27.000 diversity equity and inclusion. 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:30.000 A lot of that language, it all sounds good 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:33.000 but if we don't have access to the economics, 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:37.000 it really means nothing. You got folks taking 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:40.000 us in and given us jobs that don't pay 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:42.000 competitively and don't have 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:45.000 upside is just another opportunity 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:47.000 that doesn't create generational wealth 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:51.000 and assets for black and brown folks. 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:55.000 Again, the message 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:57.000 that you always hear come down from us even when 00:16:57.000 --> 00:16:61.000 we're talking about construction is constructions ability 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:04.000 to not only build generational wealth for folks, 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:07.000 but its ability to teach us how to build 00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:10.000 in general so that when we grew up, 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:12.000 we came up in a time where you have folks in 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:15.000 our community that could use their hands. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:17.000 Then we start talking 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:19.000 about collagen it as an institution. 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:22.000 It was in college, 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:24.000 then it wasn't nothing. 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:29.000 But we never talked about how that impacted folks that didn't want to go to college. 00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:31.000 We didn't say the trades was an option. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:35.000 If you go with your hands and high-school pissed you off the whole time, 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:38.000 don't go sign up for college, go into trade. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:41.000 Let's talk about different assets and different opportunities. 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:43.000 If you have young men and young women who you're 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:45.000 dealing with every day and you 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.000 see them coming up under you, don't try to press them into something 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:52.000 that doesn't really work for everybody. 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:55.000 We don't want to move folks and own image. 00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:58.000 We always say we lead and forget. We don't press ourselves on other people. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:17:60.000 People have to develop and 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:02.000 decide who they are by the sales. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:04.000 When I look at young men, young women, 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:08.000 and I'm talking about construction in relation to college, I'm looking at the person and I'm having conversations 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:11.000 about who they are and how it'll work for them. 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:16.000 I have two sons, 15 and 16. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:18.000 That reminds me how old I'm, 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:20.000 but they are polar opposite. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:23.000 One of these little dude straight A student, 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:25.000 I don't get to take this kid to school. 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:27.000 He gets himself there on time. 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:29.000 He don't miss much, sincere. 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:31.000 He don't miss much school he's an amazing, dude, 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:33.000 he's making me proud as a father as if 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:35.000 I did something that make him that way. 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:40.000 Then you've got this other dude, he's 16 and this dude he doesn't really care, 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:43.000 like he's not moved by it. 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:46.000 I think he go get Cs just so I'll leave him alone. 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:48.000 He has no desire to go to college, 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:51.000 I'm like what about college? He's like construction seem to do 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:54.000 you just fine so that's where I will go. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:56.000 This dude has no interest. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:58.000 What would it look like for me to press him into that? 00:18:58.000 --> 00:18:60.000 What would it look like for me to press him 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:02.000 into a space that we 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:04.000 know there's a struggle 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:06.000 connected to it on the backside 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:10.000 of it economically anyway, and competitively anyway, especially for young black man? 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:13.000 I don't press him, now the other little dude, 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:15.000 you can't tell him what to do. He's going to school. 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:17.000 He's going to walk that thing down, 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:19.000 here no what he want to do and I let him be too. 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:21.000 We believe in construction 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:24.000 because there's also this educated part of it, 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:27.000 which is engineering, project management and 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:30.000 there's this type of stuff that can pay really well. 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:33.000 When you all get a chance, look at those numbers. 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:35.000 Look at what people is making 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:37.000 fresh engineers are making fresh out of college. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:40.000 If I could tell, especially young black women, 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:43.000 you might be uninterested at this point. 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:45.000 But if I could ever like, 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:47.000 press y'all to look into something that 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:49.000 may interest y'all it'd be engineering. 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:53.000 Because y'all are not represented there that much. 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:55.000 But when y'all there, 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:57.000 ain't nobody that can mess with you. 00:19:57.000 --> 00:19:59.000 I'm not trying to be in my line about that. 00:19:59.000 --> 00:19:61.000 When black women show up in 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:03.000 that space is something about the way you are 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:08.000 made to be present and to be heard in that space. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:10.000 The charges do really well. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:15.000 We had a sister she gone now, she went back east but she was a beast Melinda. 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:18.000 She was amazing in how she just dominated that space. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:20.000 For me, I'll be like look into this stuff. 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:22.000 Look at the young folks that 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:24.000 are influencing that you want to impact, 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:28.000 despite your ethnic toxicity. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:30.000 We want to talk about the next generation 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:33.000 and how we impact them, which is listening to them, 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:36.000 which is making them out about who they are, sure that we hear 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:39.000 who they want to be at the next phase. 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:41.000 Don't make people who really good with 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:43.000 their hands in excellent, 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:46.000 with turning stuff down and putting it back together. 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:50.000 Don't make them go be psychologists. 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:55.000 They're not going to want to be there for long. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:58.000 They'll end up getting a lot of debt. 00:20:58.000 --> 00:20:62.000 They'll end up walking away, unsatisfied and unhappy because 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:04.000 that was not who they were in the first place. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:07.000 They didn't do well there so we believe 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:10.000 like we got this i5 project is crazy. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:12.000 Like it's almost at a billion dollars. 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:15.000 segue [inaudible]. 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:21.000 you could take it so a lot of money. I'm never going to see a lot of it, 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:24.000 but I want to see a big chunk of it, I promise you on that. 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:27.000 De can talk more about that. He's part of that executive space 00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:29.000 and he knows really happening there. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:32.000 I'm just going to get some of that money alone away, 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:35.000 and I'm happy to make a couple of hours. 00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:40.000 topics that I want to discuss, and I'm glad that we have this 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:42.000 up here from incarceration construction. 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:45.000 Because when we talk about our black community, 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.000 we very often leave out our impacted black community, 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:51.000 those had been incarcerated, 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:54.000 those that are coming home, those that need access to 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:56.000 jobs that have been made criminals or are 00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:60.000 made to be impure by this, who would you call it? 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:03.000 There's this prison industrial system. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:07.000 I'm going to rewind a little bit. 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:09.000 Even though a lot of you may know this, 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:11.000 I just want to put it out there for records. 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:15.000 During the Reconstruction era, 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:18.000 black folks were made to actually be free, 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:21.000 there were a couple of amendments that were added. 00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:24.000 I believe is the 13th Amendment where slavery is 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:27.000 unconstitutional except as a form of punishment. 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:32.000 slavery with that caveat, 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:34.000 by also making black people free, 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:36.000 but also having a reconstruction error 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:39.000 where black people have to be paid for the work, 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:42.000 but the country has to be rebuilt. You don't want to pay these black folks. 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:46.000 you make it so black folks can join them. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:48.000 But that they the teach 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:52.000 their white counterparts how to do these skills for a fraction of the cost. 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:56.000 At the same time that they pay to be free due to the black cult which was essentially, 00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:58.000 I'll put it in today's numbers. 00:22:58.000 --> 00:22:61.000 Let's say for me for example, 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:05.000 I have to pay a million dollars a year to remain free, 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:07.000 otherwise I go to prison 00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:10.000 or I become an indentured serving. 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:13.000 Either way it goes you're still locked in bondage. 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:15.000 What happens when you have black folk 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:17.000 who are teaching the white counterparts, 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:19.000 how it will do these skills but they're also unable to 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:22.000 be paid for these skills and they're going to prison, 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:24.000 what you've created is a gap 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:27.000 and transferable skills from one generation to the other. 00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:31.000 Now it's going from generations to ethnicity to races, 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:34.000 to outside of our community. 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:36.000 A hundred and fifty years later you see 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:39.000 large construction made millions upon millions, companies that have some even billions of dollars. 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:44.000 I'm actually going to read something for you real quick. 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:47.000 The Portland Business Journal's recently conducted 00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:49.000 a survey of the top 50 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:51.000 largest privately held companies in Oregon. 00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:54.000 Out of those 50, 21 are construction firms. 00:23:54.000 --> 00:23:56.000 Out of the top 25, 00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:58.000 nine are construction firm. 00:23:58.000 --> 00:23:61.000 Out of the top five, two are construction firms. 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:04.000 The number 1 privately-held company 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:06.000 in Oregon is a construction firm. 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:08.000 A little under five years ago, 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:11.000 The Wall Street take 228 years for Journal published an article stating that it would 00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:16.000 black families to amass the wealth of white families. 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:19.000 If white families no longer earned another dime 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:21.000 as of today. Incredible. 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:23.000 to stop making money? 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:25.000 money for us to then 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:28.000 take 220 years to just catch up. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:31.000 Similar to the disparity of wealth between 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:33.000 black families and white families in the country, 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:35.000 there's a disparity of representation of 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:38.000 black people when compared to white people in the trades. 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:40.000 Due to this lack of representation, 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.000 there is also an issue of retainage resulting from a lack of exposure and accessibility. 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:46.000 Hence, where company like 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:51.000 Raimore construction comes in, we're, I believe, the second largest. 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:53.000 But it's not so much about Raimore, 00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:56.000 is about what Raimore has done and what we're doing and 00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:58.000 how this can impact the country as 00:24:58.000 --> 00:24:60.000 a whole. I'll give you an example. 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:03.000 Raimore few years back, 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:07.000 I believe it was 2017, recently won an award for the largest contract ever 00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:10.000 awarded to a minority contractor at six million dollars. 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:12.000 It was for TriMet. We built 00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:14.000 bus shelters along the Max-Line. 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:17.000 We then exceeded that contract by 00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:21.000 winning a $170 million contract again with TriMet. 00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:24.000 This was for the improvement of the division corridor, 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:27.000 which is 16 miles of road. 00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:30.000 Easily the most dangerous corridor in the city. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:32.000 There's a car crash on average 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:36.000 every day and there's a loss of human life at least twice a week. 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:40.000 Our job was to come in, 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.000 expand the roadway at traffic Islands, 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:48.000 improve the road and prepare the bus shelters. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:51.000 Which these new bus shelters that combine, they're multimodal. 00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:53.000 They have transit access, 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:55.000 they have pedestrian access and bike access. 00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.000 Our job was to create these structures 00:25:59.000 --> 00:25:62.000 that at the time only were in Canada. I believe these are the first of that kind, 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:05.000 in Portland, Oregon as a whole in the United States. 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:07.000 That project took us three years. 00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:10.000 In those three years, 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.000 we were actually able to not only build the project, 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:16.000 become intertwined 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:20.000 with the community in making the community saferable, we were also able to expand and build other companies up. 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:23.000 Actually Rnet, which is the company that Terrence is 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:26.000 the owner of now is where that got started. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:28.000 Moving on even further than that, 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:30.000 we've recently won a contract, 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.000 I believe it was 2019 or Quarter Project, 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:37.000 which is what Terrence spoke about. That project at the time was valued at 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:43.000 inflated to about $1.5 billion. 00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:45.000 Now this is major money. 00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:48.000 The reason this is important is because as I spoke about 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:50.000 the disparity black folks 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:52.000 versus white folks and in the trades, 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:55.000 this is the first time in ODOT's history 00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:57.000 the Oregon Department of Transportation in their history 00:26:57.000 --> 00:26:60.000 that they've ever awarded a CM/GC, 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.000 which is a construction manager general contract 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:07.000 to a minority contractor. 00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:09.000 Generally speaking, these contracts are low bid. 00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:14.000 The low bid means, is that if five companies are going for the same job, 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:16.000 whoever can come in and 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:18.000 with the least amount of money, 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:20.000 they're the ones that win that award. 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:22.000 This is a perfect example of 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:26.000 institutionalized racism because if you have 150 years of 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:29.000 these other white large construction companies that have 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:31.000 the capacity to lose money on 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:34.000 a job and use it as leverage to win a bigger job, 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:37.000 how do you then support your disadvantaged business enterprise? 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:39.000 How can minority contractors get a seat at 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:41.000 the table when they can't even afford to do the job? 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:44.000 The construction manager, general contractor process is 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:47.000 about who is best for the job. 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:53.000 This project is made to build a cap or lid over I-5. 00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:55.000 It's not going to add a lane, 00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:58.000 but it's going to add an auxiliary lane, which is different than an actual highway lane. 00:27:58.000 --> 00:27:60.000 Auxiliary lane is made so the 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:03.000 car instead of merging onto the highway, 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:05.000 they can join the highway and get off at 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:08.000 the next exit without actually having to disrupt traffic. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:11.000 This will improve traffic by a third and 00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:14.000 what is the 28th worst bottleneck in the country. 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:16.000 It will reduce greenhouse gases and 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:18.000 carbon emissions by up to 50 percent. 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:20.000 End it'll create new walkways and 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:23.000 new multimodal ways of transportation, so again, 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:27.000 cars, bikes, pedestrian, and so on. 00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:30.000 It's important again that you have a black contract at 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.000 the table with an actual stake in the ground. 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:36.000 How do I say this, 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:38.000 with an actual relationship with 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:40.000 the community that has been there for 22 years. 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:43.000 That actually has a track record of hiring black. 00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:45.000 I'm just going to go ahead and say 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.000 this just for the record. Although I understand the phrase BIPOC, 00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:51.000 black Indigenous people of color, 00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:56.000 it inherently implies that black indigenous people of color have the same issues. 00:28:56.000 --> 00:28:59.000 Therefore by putting them together, you'd give them the same conclusion they'll all 00:28:59.000 --> 00:28:61.000 be fine. This is not the case. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:04.000 Another example I want to give 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:06.000 is when you're on an airplane, they tell you to put the mask on 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:08.000 yourself before you put on other people. 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:10.000 We as a black contractor have 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:12.000 an obligation by winning these contracts. 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:14.000 This is the same for our community. 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:18.000 It's not to say that nobody else can compete in that table. That's not to say that white folk aren't involved 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:21.000 and no one else are allowed to be there. But ultimately, we have to sustain ourselves before we can sustain other people. 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:27.000 We have to continue to do for ourselves before we can do for others. 00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:31.000 Generally speaking, we never get conscious of this size. 00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:36.000 We have two and half million hours of labor, 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:39.000 that will equate to about $150 million that 00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:42.000 will be going directly to the community. 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:46.000 We've created a subcontracting and diversity plan, 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:48.000 which is specifically made to 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:50.000 impact communities that have not had 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:52.000 the opportunities for works, specifically black folks. 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:54.000 But actually get them into the training, 00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:57.000 find out what they want to do, put them on job sites early so 00:29:57.000 --> 00:29:60.000 they can actually gain the skills. Then when they join the I-5 Rose Quarter Project, 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:02.000 if they do decide to join this project, 00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:04.000 they'll already have a leg up 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:07.000 and they can actually To journey out and construction, work starting at that is a nine year project. 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:17.000 it takes about five years regardless of the trade that you use. You can go from $24 an hour starting and learning how 00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:22.000 to work to 40 dollars an hour and you're still working on this project. 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:24.000 Now, I shouldn't say this 00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:26.000 as an advocate for the Rose Quarter project, 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:28.000 but I don't really care about the project, 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:30.000 as much as I care that that project brings. about the opportunity 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:33.000 Because when you have a project that has been 00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:37.000 specifically pointed out by the White House, 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:41.000 Joe Biden actually came. He came to Oregon to talk about the project specifically, 00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:43.000 and he's identified it as a major project that will 00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:46.000 set the tone for how construction is done nationwide. 00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:49.000 A lot of people don't realize that. 00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:52.000 What that means is I'm just going to say it in if we hire in our community, layman's terms, is that if we do this right, 00:30:54.000 --> 00:30:57.000 if we really hire the black contractor, pull this off, 00:30:57.000 --> 00:30:60.000 we actually can show that black people don't want a handout, 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:05.000 they want a hand up. We don't want to be subjugated to white benevolence, 00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:07.000 we want the opportunity to work and actually make 00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:10.000 a living wage for ourselves to put back into our communities. 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.000 If we do this right, we're laying the foundation for how construction can be done nationally. 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:16.000 We're literally changing the face of construction, 00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:19.000 so we don't have these disparities between white folk and black folk. 00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:21.000 That's the ultimate goal. 00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:23.000 We have a mantra that we 00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:26.000 use and it's restoring people to restore a place. 00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:28.000 That's important because if 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:32.000 you give people a lot of money, you don't give them the understanding of how to 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:34.000 use that money if which honestly a lot of they don't have any economic intelligence, 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:39.000 people in our community don't have, because we've been locked out of learning these skills, 00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:41.000 then that money goes back 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:46.000 to the same people they gave it to you. It goes back to you white benevolators, and your community is worse off for it. 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:48.000 But if you've restore the people, 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:51.000 you give them living wage jobs, you've given them an opportunity for entrepreneurship, 00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:55.000 you give them skills that they can use anywhere and you 00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:57.000 give them the ability to work and actually 00:31:57.000 --> 00:31:59.000 make a living wage regardless of where they go, 00:31:59.000 --> 00:31:61.000 then the hope is that 00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:04.000 those people will then built their own companies. 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:06.000 Those companies become part of this network. 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:08.000 Then instead of talking about just a general community, 00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:10.000 we can talk about our black community, 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:13.000 really sustaining ourselves. We'll talking about self-determination. 00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:17.000 This project is one of a whole greater goal, 00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:19.000 I believe it's five or 00:32:19.000 --> 00:32:21.000 six other projects that are going to be done in 00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:23.000 the next 10 years with 00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:26.000 a total of $22 billion to be spent. 00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:28.000 Now while we've not want any of that money. 00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:31.000 Again, we want to restore people, 00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:33.000 the opportunity to work for themselves and 00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:36.000 restore people so when we build this place, 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:38.000 we cannot be compromised. 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:41.000 The way that they've got as before is that they locked us out, economically. 00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:43.000 They have choked us out, and they've given 00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:45.000 us whatever they think we need it, 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:47.000 but we never had any control over it. 00:32:47.000 --> 00:32:49.000 When it was time to take that land back, 00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:52.000 perfect example, Albina, they took it back and there's nothing we can do about it. 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:54.000 But if we have the finances, 00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:58.000 if we are creating what I think of as a new Tulsa. 00:32:58.000 --> 00:32:62.000 The concept of Tulsa is we have our own black banks. 00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:04.000 We have our own black doctors, 00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:06.000 black grocery stores, black everything, 00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:09.000 but my dollar goes to T, his dollar goes to Mike, 00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:12.000 his dollar goes to this gentlemen, to this lady, to this lady, so on. 00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:14.000 We keep that dollar in our community 00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:18.000 in cycle seven times. We're all making money off the same works. 00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:22.000 We're going outside of our community, bringing it back in and building ourselves up. 00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:24.000 That is the ultimate goal. 00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:27.000 In that conversation again, 00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:30.000 while we can talk about our community that's already out, 00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:33.000 we have to also look at the fact that we've lost 00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:36.000 a lot of our black community to the prison industrial complex. 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:38.000 We've lost a lot of our people to the system. 00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:40.000 But construction, you have an opportunity to have people that 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:43.000 have their freedom taken away from them. 00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:45.000 Have been marked as felons or whatever 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:47.000 and unable to get jobs, 00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:49.000 all you got to do is come in, 00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:51.000 show up with a smile and be ready to work. 00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:53.000 It is hard work. I'm not going to lie to you, 00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:56.000 it is hard work when you're out in the field, 00:33:56.000 --> 00:33:61.000 but the skills that you get they're invaluable. 00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:04.000 construction is not necessarily 00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:06.000 hard work just boots the ground. 00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:09.000 I've been with Raimore for seven years. 00:34:09.000 --> 00:34:11.000 I have done everything except put a damn shelf on the ground. 00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:14.000 I've done everything else. There are 00:34:14.000 --> 00:34:19.000 a lot of skills to be learned. I started off in IT, I worked from IT, 00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:22.000 I worked as a project admin to an Officer Admin, 00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:24.000 I've done accounting work. 00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:26.000 I've done everything that you can do so when you see 00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:29.000 these other industries that construction touches, 00:34:29.000 --> 00:34:31.000 there are some skills which 00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:33.000 you do have to go to college to learn. 00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:35.000 There are others in which you can actually just 00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.000 show up with a smile and be ready to work and you're good to go. But all this is to say that we can no longer look at 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:42.000 construction as a third option 00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:45.000 or the traits as a third option. We have people that are dying 00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:48.000 today that are unable to get work that nobody 00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:51.000 wants to employ because they're untrustworthy because they'd been 00:34:51.000 --> 00:34:54.000 deemed as irresponsible by the system. 00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:56.000 But in construction, you have a real opportunity 00:34:56.000 --> 00:34:59.000 to, again, make a living wage, 00:34:59.000 --> 00:34:61.000 to really build a life for yourself. 00:35:01.000 --> 00:35:05.000 A second chance and Terrence, like you said, 00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:07.000 is all those records is a prime example of that, been expunged 00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:10.000 to have somebody who did 13 years. 00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:13.000 Got their electricity license in prison, 00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:15.000 came out pursuing entrepreneurship and is 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:17.000 now the owner of a company who is 00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:20.000 actually trending to do major work over this project over 00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:22.000 the next 10 years but also 00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:24.000 employs our people from our community. 00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:27.000 You employ incarcerated brothers and you give them that second chance, 00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:29.000 and you give them an opportunity to go down 00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:32.000 the same path that you went down when you got your record expunging. 00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:35.000 Now no one can look you ruin the whole thing. at you as this unclean, uncivil human being. 00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.000 Before you talk, [inaudible]. you start talking. But you 00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:48.000 actually have this opportunity to really give people the second chance that we 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:50.000 don't see it's for us buyers. 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.000 anything about full stop. 00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:56.000 might know some of- 00:35:57.000 --> 00:35:62.000 build for ourselves, 00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:05.000 it's a lot better than we have somebody build for us 00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:08.000 because they can take it from us. Again, we're not even trying because trying is figure an action, 00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:12.000 we are actively restoring people and we're giving those 00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:14.000 people those tools to restore 00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:16.000 the place so they cannot be compromised. 00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:20.000 thing is we talk about 00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:22.000 the Black community is 00:36:22.000 --> 00:36:24.000 white folks should get excited about that. 00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:29.000 The reason I say that is because when you actually see 00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:32.000 Black folks working and doing the things that they 00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:34.000 were uniquely tailored to do, 00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:38.000 it impacts all communities around it. 00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:41.000 We don't have violence spewing out of our communities. 00:36:41.000 --> 00:36:43.000 We got uplifting and then folks, 00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:45.000 that's not necessarily part of 00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:48.000 that sub-group of community actually benefits, 00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:51.000 because now we're bringing stuff to the table. 00:36:51.000 --> 00:36:53.000 We bringing economics, we're bringing intelligence. 00:36:53.000 --> 00:36:56.000 We're bringing all the things that we have 00:36:56.000 --> 00:36:58.000 deep inside of us that's been stepped on, 00:36:58.000 --> 00:36:60.000 we're bringing that back to the table. 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:03.000 When Black folks bring that stuff back to the table, 00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:06.000 It's always proven that communities, cities, 00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:09.000 and countries do really well under those conditions. 00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:13.000 When we talk about our community, 00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:16.000 we recognize and we want you all to recognize when you 00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:19.000 support those types of efforts everybody win. 00:37:19.000 --> 00:37:21.000 When you support those types of efforts, 00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:26.000 economics flow, people do really, really well everywhere. 00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:29.000 When that part of our community does really well. 00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:32.000 It is a big thing for me. Like, I don't want to be poor and I 00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:34.000 know maybe I'm just being real to y'all. 00:37:34.000 --> 00:37:36.000 I know folks we don't like 00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:38.000 capitalism and all that these days. 00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:42.000 But I'll tell you what people that ain't never had it. 00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:46.000 We want some of it. We don't want to be broke, we get it. 00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:49.000 You've been at the top and now capitalism pisses you off. 00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:51.000 I ain't been at the top. 00:37:51.000 --> 00:37:53.000 I'm starting to have a couple of dollars, 00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:55.000 I'm not in a rush to give that up. 00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:57.000 I'm finally not stressing about 00:37:57.000 --> 00:37:60.000 light bills like that makes me happy, 00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:02.000 D is like that's your thing. 00:38:02.000 --> 00:38:06.000 But I'm happy, I'm telling you. I'm finally there I'm like, 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:08.000 oh, I'm not broke, 00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:10.000 I'm like lower middle-class now, 00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:13.000 that's weird. That's nice. 00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:16.000 Is this how it is? He said the middle-class ain't here anymore, 00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:19.000 I feel like it's here because I can pay my bills now. 00:38:19.000 --> 00:38:22.000 It's like we're running those mostly. 00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:24.000 We're really excited about, 00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:29.000 when he's talking about we're actually at the tables. 00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:31.000 We actually have assets. 00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:33.000 I remember I got pissed off at one of 00:38:33.000 --> 00:38:37.000 these meetings and I went bananas for like 20 minutes. 00:38:39.000 --> 00:38:41.000 I got off the meeting I say, 00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:43.000 Oh, that's a billion dollars 00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:45.000 in that meeting and I just opened my mouth. 00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:47.000 People die on the less, 00:38:47.000 --> 00:38:50.000 I start calling folks like how you feel about when I did. 00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:52.000 I'm I okay because I was nervous. 00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:56.000 I went up because I felt like they tried to leverage 00:38:56.000 --> 00:38:59.000 our voice to their advantage 00:38:59.000 --> 00:38:61.000 without putting it back on the table. 00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:03.000 Leverage my voice, but makes sure 00:39:03.000 --> 00:39:07.000 you give something back at the end of that. 00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:10.000 One of the things I struggled the most with in 00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:12.000 not-for-profit space is that 00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:14.000 the Black voice is being really, 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:17.000 really leveraged now, but everybody else is getting paid. 00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:23.000 importance of non-profits. 00:39:23.000 --> 00:39:26.000 I do not believe in non-profits as a whole because 00:39:26.000 --> 00:39:29.000 a non-profit is by result, not-for-profit. 00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:32.000 You cannot run a community with 00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:34.000 something that's not the profit one, and two, 00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:36.000 non-profits are generally given grants or they 00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:39.000 given money based on why benevolence, 00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:41.000 but you have to spend this money a particular way. 00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:43.000 If you spin it that way it will give you more money. 00:39:43.000 --> 00:39:45.000 Your money is never really yours. 00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:47.000 You cannot sustain a community 00:39:47.000 --> 00:39:49.000 what they'd not-for-profit model. 00:39:49.000 --> 00:39:52.000 They've sold this non-profit model to us as Black folk 00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:55.000 because they make us we can get money. It's not true. believe it's the only way that's been in jail, 00:39:58.000 --> 00:39:60.000 will talk about I'm going to 00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:02.000 get out and start a not-for-profit 00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:06.000 because we all believe somehow it's going to make us money. 00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:09.000 It's not about that. It's a not for profit. 00:40:09.000 --> 00:40:12.000 It ain't going to make you no money. 00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:15.000 But I'll tell y'all, when you meet folks coming home they're always like, 00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:18.000 I'm telling you, I'm going to start a not-for-profit, 00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:20.000 I'm going to make a lot of money and I'm going to do 00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:23.000 good in the community and I'm like, 00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:26.000 so for the record, I run to not-for-profits. 00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:28.000 Hypocrisy is evident here. 00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:31.000 I literally run to not-for-profits. 00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:36.000 I mean, the NMA mean no money like that. 00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:40.000 My company made me money. What we're talking about that, what we're saying is we're not 00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:42.000 outside looking in and say. 00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:44.000 We actually a part of that space and we just 00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:47.000 recognize it doesn't build economics for the community. 00:40:47.000 --> 00:40:49.000 What he's talking about, 00:40:49.000 --> 00:40:51.000 people who give up the money, 00:40:51.000 --> 00:40:54.000 it always come with a lot of what you can. 00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:56.000 I'll give you an example of one of the brothers we know 00:40:56.000 --> 00:40:59.000 he runs a program called Going Home II which they 00:40:59.000 --> 00:40:61.000 literally go out and deal with 00:41:01.000 --> 00:41:04.000 violence prevention and all that in the streets every 00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:07.000 day they were giving grant money by the state and 00:41:07.000 --> 00:41:10.000 they can't pay their employees more than $21 an hour. 00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:12.000 Now think about that. 00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:15.000 You are doing some of the most violent work 00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.000 by engaging very violent individuals, 00:41:19.000 --> 00:41:22.000 but you can never make more than $2,100. 00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:26.000 How does that ever get them out of poverty? 00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:29.000 How did they ever make money doing this dangerous work? 00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:32.000 When I seen that, I said, yeah, 00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:34.000 I won't pay nobody in my company 00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:37.000 less than $25 an hour because my thoughts 00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:39.000 is if it's at least two of y'all in 00:41:39.000 --> 00:41:42.000 a household and both make $25 an hour, 00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:44.000 you might can pay bills in Portland. 00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:48.000 struggle but you'll at 00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:50.000 least depending on the area you 00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:53.000 in because it's so hard to survive. 00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:55.000 I'm looking at all the work I go 00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:57.000 after is prevailing way so that I can pay them 00:41:57.000 --> 00:41:61.000 I don't want to pay 00:42:01.000 --> 00:42:04.000 folks money that don't take care of them in their homes or they self, 00:42:04.000 --> 00:42:06.000 where they can't travel, they can't see the world. 00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:10.000 Why, don't a lot of Black folks got passports? 00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.000 Because we don't even really believe we can ever afford to go. 00:42:14.000 --> 00:42:17.000 We don't know how, I came home. 00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:19.000 Tell y'all this God bless my wife hard. 00:42:19.000 --> 00:42:23.000 Because I came home I had them Nokia 00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:27.000 joints before I went to jail with the y'all don't know. Y'all too young. 00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:32.000 on it. It's crazy. 00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:34.000 When I went to jail, that was big. 00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:36.000 I came home to iPhone. 00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:43.000 y'all every time I tried to do stuff on his iPhone, 00:42:43.000 --> 00:42:45.000 I was getting pissed. 00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:47.000 My wife and I was like yeah let me help you. 00:42:47.000 --> 00:42:50.000 One day I was like, I can't get in my email or something 00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:53.000 little and she's like no I don't want your help, 00:42:53.000 --> 00:42:55.000 I need to figure it out, 00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:58.000 tell me how to do it. She was like are you okay? 00:42:58.000 --> 00:42:60.000 I was like, No, I don't got me going 00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:03.000 iPhone talk to you. 00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:06.000 Think about folks who are coming 00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:08.000 home and they supposed to make 00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:11.000 sense of a world that makes sense to you. 00:43:11.000 --> 00:43:13.000 Why do you come on, We say things like, 00:43:13.000 --> 00:43:15.000 Oh, he liked going to jail. No, he don't. 00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:20.000 sense to him to be there, 00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:22.000 He's been there 10 years. 00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:24.000 Everything is different in 10 years. 00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:26.000 There is a whole another culture, society. 00:43:26.000 --> 00:43:29.000 The way we think, the way we interact with each other, 00:43:29.000 --> 00:43:31.000 what we've normalized is different in 10 years. 00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:33.000 You have folks coming home and 00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:35.000 they're supposed to make all the sense of it and 00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:37.000 we're going why are you so 00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:40.000 stressed out about that application? 00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:43.000 He or she hasn't seen those applications. 00:43:43.000 --> 00:43:46.000 I remember when like people texts, 00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:48.000 sometimes piss me off. 00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:51.000 Call me call you for what? 00:43:51.000 --> 00:43:53.000 Because that's how we talk. 00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:57.000 No I will go hit that joint and it's going to make sense. 00:43:57.000 --> 00:43:59.000 I had to get used to that. 00:43:59.000 --> 00:43:61.000 People would text me. I'm like, bro, why you don't call me? 00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:04.000 They are like bro just respond to the texts. 00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:06.000 Weirdo like that's how people talked to me when I 00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:09.000 came home because I couldn't make sense of this world. 00:44:09.000 --> 00:44:11.000 I think I'm all right now, 00:44:11.000 --> 00:44:13.000 but I'm telling y'all I struggled. 00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:15.000 One thing we love 00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:17.000 about even construction I'm going to try to keep it 00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:20.000 contextual is that because folks 00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:23.000 is there were more sympathetic to that process. 00:44:23.000 --> 00:44:25.000 We look at and we go man are you all right? 00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:28.000 I'm just saying, you 00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:30.000 need to get together like you tripping. 00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.000 No, I need help. Let's talk about it. 00:44:34.000 --> 00:44:37.000 We're creating models to specifically look at 00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:39.000 the struggles of people coming 00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:42.000 home to help them during that transition. 00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:47.000 I've been really blessed because I have 11 people that work for me now. 00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:49.000 Outside of my wife and my daughter everybody else 00:44:49.000 --> 00:44:52.000 is criminal for sure and they pass. 00:44:52.000 --> 00:44:55.000 They wild boys but none them been back to jail, 00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:57.000 is a win for me. I'm telling you. 00:44:57.000 --> 00:44:60.000 None of them been back to jail. They all have their own homes and 00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.000 they're all taking care of their families now. Both men and women formerly incarcerated. 00:45:04.000 --> 00:45:06.000 I got numbers that can nobody boast. 00:45:06.000 --> 00:45:09.000 Now it's only 8, 9, 10. 00:45:11.000 --> 00:45:13.000 I don't just really care, I really do. 00:45:13.000 --> 00:45:15.000 As the only nine of them, 00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:17.000 but out of that nine, no one has really offended. 00:45:17.000 --> 00:45:19.000 When we're talking about how to keep 00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:22.000 folks from going back, 00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:28.000 Step 1 is they got to work. We know economics is connected to criminality. 00:45:28.000 --> 00:45:30.000 As we know that why do we put 00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.000 so much energy into everything else to stop people going there? 00:45:34.000 --> 00:45:36.000 Give them jobs that pay well and that 00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:38.000 they can learn to enjoy, encourage them. 00:45:38.000 --> 00:45:40.000 Now we can deal with mental health. 00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:42.000 Now we can deal with all those struggles that 00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:44.000 exist that's necessary for our community, 00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:46.000 which we know that is that 00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:48.000 mental health stuff is necessary for our community. 00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:51.000 But again, even if I'm helping you heal from trauma, 00:45:51.000 --> 00:45:54.000 if you don't have a way to feed your family, to feed yourself. 00:45:54.000 --> 00:45:57.000 Eventually, you go. I wouldn't even say back to the behavior. 00:45:57.000 --> 00:45:59.000 You go back to the action 00:45:59.000 --> 00:45:62.000 because you're trying to take care of yourself. 00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:04.000 We always say if we can give folks 00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:08.000 working and then give them wrap-around 00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:10.000 services and connect them to the help that they 00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.000 need to deal with the trauma of incarceration, 00:46:14.000 --> 00:46:16.000 the trump of just being black in America. 00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:19.000 We can deal with that stuff, then there'll be alright, 00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:22.000 and so far. We've been lucky man. 00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:25.000 We've been blessed for sure because ain't nobody, 00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:28.000 folks building real lives. 00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:30.000 Now, do we get the platforms and it's 00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:32.000 folks want to hear that not all the time. 00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:34.000 Because it goes against 00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:36.000 what they believe is the key to healing. 00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:39.000 One thing, I said it early and I always insist 00:46:39.000 --> 00:46:41.000 on my white brothers and sisters 00:46:41.000 --> 00:46:45.000 stop trying to think for us. We can think, we can process information. 00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:48.000 We don't need your help. You haven't been there. 00:46:48.000 --> 00:46:50.000 Support us, help us to the resources, 00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:52.000 give us access to it. 00:46:52.000 --> 00:46:54.000 We don't need you to fix us. 00:46:54.000 --> 00:46:56.000 We don't need you to make it happen for us. 00:46:56.000 --> 00:46:59.000 We have the capacity to just support. 00:47:01.000 --> 00:47:04.000 Lesson to all my white brothers and sisters, 00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:07.000 somebody come to you and say, that person called me a nigger. 00:47:07.000 --> 00:47:09.000 Don't say it's just a word. 00:47:09.000 --> 00:47:12.000 It's not just a damn word. 00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:18.000 Don't say, well, you guys use it to yourself, so what? 00:47:18.000 --> 00:47:21.000 I don't mean you can use and I don't want to get into the argument debate 00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:24.000 or I'm just making the point is be supportive, 00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:27.000 be compassionate, be empathetic, be understanding. 00:47:27.000 --> 00:47:31.000 Don't normalize my pain because it doesn't hurt you. 00:47:31.000 --> 00:47:33.000 Embrace it with me, 00:47:33.000 --> 00:47:35.000 walk it down with me, make it make sense. 00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:37.000 Yes, it's just a word for you 00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:39.000 because you were born in privilege, 00:47:39.000 --> 00:47:43.000 not saying you are given all the privilege that show white skin could give you, 00:47:43.000 --> 00:47:46.000 but you are born That work can never hurt with an advantage that I would never have. 00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:51.000 you because it was not created to do so. 00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:54.000 Don't try to normalize it because you think, 00:47:54.000 --> 00:47:57.000 well it means nothing, not me something else. 00:47:57.000 --> 00:47:60.000 No, it hurt us different, and yet it feels different when 00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:02.000 you say it and when we say to each other. 00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:05.000 It does put a little different, 00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:07.000 and we can use it to be harmful. 00:48:07.000 --> 00:48:09.000 But the inward is less important 00:48:09.000 --> 00:48:11.000 than the whole concept of don't 00:48:11.000 --> 00:48:16.000 try to diminish my pain because it don't hurt you. 00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:21.000 That's really what I'm trying to say. Even if you don't understand it, just step back. 00:48:21.000 --> 00:48:23.000 I might not get where you're coming from, 00:48:23.000 --> 00:48:26.000 but how can I help you in this moment? How can I support you in this moment? 00:48:26.000 --> 00:48:28.000 That's what we're trying to and to be 00:48:28.000 --> 00:48:30.000 fair and we'll get back to this a little bit. 00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:32.000 When we're at the table, 00:48:32.000 --> 00:48:34.000 we're challenging that disposition 00:48:34.000 --> 00:48:36.000 with folks that's been run in 00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:41.000 construction in a family's for the last 180-plus years. 00:48:41.000 --> 00:48:43.000 We're saying that you need to 00:48:43.000 --> 00:48:46.000 recognize that there was conscious efforts to keep us out. 00:48:46.000 --> 00:48:48.000 How do you build a whole country, 00:48:48.000 --> 00:48:50.000 then all of a sudden those skill sets disappear. 00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.000 Somebody had to help move that. 00:48:54.000 --> 00:48:57.000 Now we're at the table, we're going no, 00:48:57.000 --> 00:48:61.000 we didn't do this to you. Well, history said your daddy did. 00:49:01.000 --> 00:49:04.000 You win because of what he did. 00:49:04.000 --> 00:49:06.000 You want to be better or you want to 00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:09.000 live in that bubble of privilege and 00:49:09.000 --> 00:49:12.000 now we can say those things and because I'm not 00:49:12.000 --> 00:49:16.000 co-dependent economically on them right now anyway, 00:49:16.000 --> 00:49:20.000 because I'm trying to get some of that money when it come. I'm able to freely say those things 00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:24.000 in a way that's honest and true. 00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:27.000 That's why I went on this whole spill, 00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:30.000 and I just told them I'm not going to allow them to leverage me and mishandle 00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:33.000 me and then harm my community anymore. 00:49:33.000 --> 00:49:36.000 I thought it was the end of me as far as asset scope, 00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:38.000 but I'm still here and Dee still 00:49:38.000 --> 00:49:41.000 make me do whatever you want me to do. 00:49:41.000 --> 00:49:44.000 You don't pay me to be here. I'm totally on his brother just told me 00:49:44.000 --> 00:49:46.000 I'm going to be here and now I'm here. 00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:49.000 was because I know 00:49:49.000 --> 00:49:52.000 and we said we've got those things. The last thing I'm going to say is that 00:49:53.000 --> 00:49:56.000 the things that I grew up around just as a black person. 00:49:56.000 --> 00:49:58.000 I've grown up around murder. 00:49:58.000 --> 00:49:60.000 I've grown up around Pence or drug dealers. 00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:02.000 I'm brought up on homicide. 00:50:02.000 --> 00:50:07.000 I have learned how to shoot a gun under a bridge in North Portland, 00:50:07.000 --> 00:50:09.000 next to the train tracks. 00:50:09.000 --> 00:50:11.000 I drove my dad home when I was 00:50:11.000 --> 00:50:13.000 too drunk to drive alone. 00:50:13.000 --> 00:50:16.000 I learned how to drive I'm going to drive stick because because of that. of that I don't want to drive a stick shift because of that. 00:50:19.000 --> 00:50:22.000 There was a point in my life where I didn't have any mentors. 00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:24.000 I didn't have anybody supporting me. 00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:26.000 The Minima family weren't 00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:28.000 really showing me how to be a man. 00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:31.000 I had a lot of My mom's side is a matriarch, women in my family. 00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:33.000 but they could not teach me how to be a man. 00:50:33.000 --> 00:50:35.000 I had to step with my entire family and figure 00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:38.000 out who I was and who I was going to become. 00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:41.000 There were points in my life where I didn't think I was going to live. 00:50:41.000 --> 00:50:43.000 I'd never thought I would make it to 18. 00:50:43.000 --> 00:50:45.000 That I made it to 18, so I'll surely I will make 00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:47.000 it to 21. I made it to 21. 00:50:47.000 --> 00:50:52.000 I'll never make to 25. I made it to 25. Over 00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:54.000 But thinking about it, even the fact that I 00:50:54.000 --> 00:50:58.000 had been conditioned to such a way to think that I'm not going to live the life that I was given by 00:50:58.000 --> 00:50:60.000 God is a condition that 00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:02.000 was done to a lot of us as black folk. 00:51:02.000 --> 00:51:05.000 But by the grace of God, I'm 31 years old and I've 00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.000 had incredible opportunities not to even brag about it, 00:51:09.000 --> 00:51:12.000 but to go from those circumstances 00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:15.000 to last year meeting the President on a runway in Portland. 00:51:18.000 --> 00:51:21.000 because I think you didn't invite me. were in Chicago. remember you're good till you talk. You like to talk. 00:51:32.000 --> 00:51:35.000 I think I was 30 years old when it happened, 00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:38.000 and to be sitting at the table at 00:51:38.000 --> 00:51:40.000 a one-and-a-half billion dollar 00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.000 project that is legitimately going to change how infrastructure projects are done in 00:51:44.000 --> 00:51:48.000 the city and the state, nationwide and country. 00:51:48.000 --> 00:51:50.000 Being able to tell white folk, 00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.000 no, we're not doing that. Perfect example was we 00:51:54.000 --> 00:51:57.000 were having a conversation about how to have tabling conversations in the community which is 00:51:57.000 --> 00:51:60.000 wild to me because I'm literally the community. 00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:05.000 But white people going to tell me how to talk to all people as far. We're having this conversation and they're 00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:07.000 talking about how the country 00:52:07.000 --> 00:52:11.000 or the city is going to electrolyze and people are going to start using EV vehicles. 00:52:11.000 --> 00:52:13.000 Not realizing that as black folk, 00:52:13.000 --> 00:52:16.000 we get access to technology 20-30, 00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:19.000 maybe in 40 years after it's already made mainstream. 00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:22.000 We need to talk about these EV grants of 00:52:22.000 --> 00:52:24.000 people that can 00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:26.000 afford or they can get electric vehicles. 00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:28.000 We can't afford the electric vehicles. 00:52:28.000 --> 00:52:30.000 We're not homeowners. 00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:33.000 We live in most of the time projects, complexes. 00:52:33.000 --> 00:52:35.000 have to credit it. 00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:37.000 credit either. But we 00:52:37.000 --> 00:52:40.000 live in these places that don't have charging stations. 00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.000 Moreover, we already live on the outskirts of the city. 00:52:44.000 --> 00:52:47.000 They've pushed up the city, all the charges stations are in the city, 00:52:47.000 --> 00:52:50.000 and now they're trying to make us all we have to pay to commute to the city. 00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:53.000 There's all of these things that when you 00:52:53.000 --> 00:52:56.000 talk about electrolyzing transportation, 00:52:56.000 --> 00:52:59.000 you are again disparaging an entire people to 00:52:59.000 --> 00:52:61.000 be able to sit at 00:53:01.000 --> 00:53:03.000 that one-and-a-half billion dollar table and say, 00:53:03.000 --> 00:53:06.000 no, I'm not having that conversation in my community. 00:53:06.000 --> 00:53:10.000 You're not having that conversation either until you talk about how you're going to make electric vehicles equitable. 00:53:11.000 --> 00:53:13.000 Until you talk about the solutions 00:53:13.000 --> 00:53:15.000 that you're bringing to the table to make sure 00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:18.000 that black folks that don't own homes can actually all go 00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:21.000 into homeownership or people that want to be entrepreneurs can go into entrepreneurship. 00:53:21.000 --> 00:53:24.000 People that are going to electrolytes 00:53:24.000 --> 00:53:26.000 that this is an actual solution, 00:53:26.000 --> 00:53:28.000 not causing more problems, 00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:32.000 more harm, more of a visage 00:53:32.000 --> 00:53:34.000 of institutionalized racism until 00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:36.000 you can answer those questions. 00:53:36.000 --> 00:53:42.000 I will not have that conversation and damaged you won't either. Have them say you're right. It's powerful. 00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:46.000 I've never seen anything like it. 00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:48.000 To have an opportunity again, 00:53:48.000 --> 00:53:50.000 because this is important. 00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:55.000 Construction is an avenue to get in this particular area. 00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:58.000 From incarceration constructions, it's a way to get in there, it's not 00:53:58.000 --> 00:53:64.000 the only way, but again, this is a way where a general nobody can go into 00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:06.000 construction and then actually 00:54:06.000 --> 00:54:12.000 dictate how community is built for my community. 00:54:12.000 --> 00:54:16.000 really passionate. 00:54:19.000 --> 00:54:21.000 It really happens. 00:54:26.000 --> 00:54:31.000 into this I-5 project. 00:54:31.000 --> 00:54:33.000 We're going to be here a second if you all got questions, 00:54:33.000 --> 00:54:39.000 you want to argue, laugh, whatever we would hold all that crap. 00:54:39.000 --> 00:54:41.000 We here, we appreciate your time. 00:54:41.000 --> 00:54:43.000 Again, if you've any questions, 00:54:43.000 --> 00:54:45.000 let's talk about it. Me and Di Angelo are here. 00:54:46.000 --> 00:54:48.000 not going to be the last time we will be here. 00:54:48.000 --> 00:54:51.000 I've been blessed to build a relationship with Brother Mike over here. 00:54:51.000 --> 00:54:53.000 This is the first of many. 00:54:53.000 --> 00:54:57.000 time because of you. 00:54:57.000 --> 00:54:63.000 on CPP because of you. 00:55:03.000 --> 00:55:05.000 I was ready to go. 00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:08.000 We were on CPP because of you. 00:55:08.000 --> 00:55:11.000 I didn't break the CPP, it's different. 00:55:11.000 --> 00:55:15.000 got questions we'll be here. 00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:24.000 applause & music