The Black Perspective: October 27, 2024

This week on the Black Perspective, BIN News Anchor Amber Payton sits down with stars Debbi Morgan and Richard Lawson.

Andrea Coleman explores the challenges of infertility for Black couples with Dr. Desiree McCarthy-Keith. Morgyn Wood begins a two-part series with Travis Mitchell, reflecting on the 1990 Morgan State University student protest and the importance of sharing HBCU stories. Esther Dillard interviews a research analyst to get insights on the 2024 election climate.

Plus, Doug Davis steps away from his usual “Your Black Business” segment to spotlight Ray Chew, an unsung icon who has made groundbreaking contributions to Black musicians and entertainers for decades.

Listen now! 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If my voice didn't matter, people wouldn't be trying so
hard to silence me. And if my vote didn't matter,
they wouldn't work so hard to take it away. So
you know why I'm voting this November because I know
they don't want me to.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Your voice is powerful, your voice matters. Don't let your
voice be silenced. To register, confirm your voting status, or
get information about voting in your area, visit vote dot gov.
That's vote dot goov a message from the Perception Institute
and the Black Information Network.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
It's Sunday, October twenty seventh, and on today's show, Bin
News anchor Amber Payton sits down with stars Debbie Morgan
and Richard Lawson. B In's Andrea Coleman talks with doctor
Desire McCarthy Keith about infertility for black couples. Morgan Wood
speaks with Travis Mitchell in a two part series about
the nineteen ninety Morgan State University student protest and the

(00:50):
importance of telling the stories of HBCUs and Esther Dillard
speaks with the research analyst who conducted several pre election
polls and gets his opinion about twenty twenty four election climate.
These stories and more are coming your way on today's program,
Welcome to the Black Perspective. I'm your host, Mike Island.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Welcome to the Black Perspective, a weekly community affairs program
on the Black Information Network featuring interviews and discussions on
issues important to the black community.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Good Sunday to everyone, and welcome to another edition of
The Black Perspective on the Black Information Network. Tyler Perry's
new Netflix series Beauty in Black is now available to stream.
The eight part series brings to light the experiences of
two black women navigating life in today's world. Then news
anchor Amber Payton sat down with stars Debbie Morgan and
Richard Lawson, who portray Olivia and Norman, to discuss the

(01:42):
series heartfelt storytelling and its timely themes.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
But I don't want to ask the both of you,
Richard and Debbie, or in this case, Norman and Olivia.

Speaker 5 (01:51):
I did a little research a couple of.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
Questions, and Debbie, I'll start with you, because we know
that this film explores two women that have to very
different life experiences. Can be a mallory, of course, How
do their stories, in your opinion, reflect the complexity of
black women's journeys in today's society.

Speaker 6 (02:11):
Well, you know, you're right about today's society, especially what's
going on right now with this you know, with this selection,
and it's so much about the haves and the have nots,
which is what we have with these two characters of
Kimmy and and and Mallory. But I think I think

(02:31):
one of the the good things about that is that
each of their characters is that for the viewers, each
of them has something that somebody can identify with and
see and see themselves in that particular position. And I
think what's going to be so good about these characters
is how they ultimately end up coming together or having

(02:55):
the dynamic of their relationships change when they ultimately come together.
I can't remember, Richard, if that happens in this first
eight episodes or if that's in the in the latter part,
I can't. I can't remember. But yeah, you know, when
you when you look at what's going on today with
with with women and women's so many of women's rights

(03:17):
being taken away from them and being belittled and trying
to maintain and hold on to the to their power,
to their own self work, to their own dignity, which
I think both Kimmy and Mallory are doing, but in
different ways. They're coming at it in different ways. Uh,
and I had they were fabulous, weren't they, Kimmy and Mellory?

(03:42):
Did you watch the first couple of episodes.

Speaker 5 (03:44):
I decided that I am going to binge it tonight.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
Okay, they won't tell anybody, but I'm going to take
all that'll stay between me and you and I believe
nineteen million other people.

Speaker 7 (04:02):
Richard, it's great.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
To get your opinion on how you think that this
is kind of indicative of the complexities that black women
facing today's society. What are your thoughts.

Speaker 8 (04:14):
I think when we look across the ecosystem of in
this culture, in this in this UH series, you know,
we're looking at if we look at Tyler's series To
Have and to Have Nots, it's really really what it's
about the have and the have nots, and and what
happens to the people in between.

Speaker 9 (04:33):
And in this case, you know, these women live to
diametrically opposed lives and lifestyle and their situation and circumstances.
But underneath these the disparity between the amount of money
that they have access to. Mallory having access to hundreds

(04:55):
of millions of dollars and Kimmy, you know, struggling to
be able to pay the rent at her motel. You know,
the pain that they experience is really not different. They
both hurt, They both are struggling with the people in
their lives. They both are trying to make way and
be successful and have they able to control their universes.

(05:17):
And so we see, you know, the separation of those
two worlds, but within it's the human struggle that is
the same at the end of the day, and you know, Debbie,
at the end of the sixteenth episodes is when these

(05:38):
two worlds blide. That's when that's when you know, Kimmy
and Mallory meet in the sixteenth episode, and then from
there you'll see how those lives are intertwined and how
they affect each other. And so we don't even know
what happens after the sixteenth episode going forward, but it's

(06:00):
really interesting to see, you know, just the reality of
the world of people trying to just find a way
and find happiness and find contentment and safety and security.
It's a universal thing, no matter and money doesn't change that.

Speaker 4 (06:18):
That is a great lesson And then one thing that
we do know is Tyler Perry movies and series. They
will teach us lessons, lots of life life lessons and
so Debbie alcohol, lots.

Speaker 9 (06:28):
Of life lessons that black people experience, particularly right.

Speaker 4 (06:32):
Yes, absolutely, What message do you hope that viewers take
away from seeing this series and how.

Speaker 5 (06:42):
It unfolds in these first eight episodes?

Speaker 4 (06:44):
I know they're sixteen, but just with part one that
you know of so far, what's the message?

Speaker 6 (06:54):
I think one of the message messages is how good
good versus evil, and how one can totally bring down
a family because we know we have those families that
as loving as they can be, there might be one
bad apple in the family, and that one bad apple

(07:14):
can cause all kinds of habit in the family. And
I think even with so even with characters such as
such as Kimmy, because Kimmy, Kimmy is actually a lovable
character who's just trying to get her dignity back, make
something out of herself, and and I think for a
lot of I don't know how many like young ladies

(07:37):
might be in situations like Kimmy and she can That
message to take from Kimmy's role is that you got
to do whatever you have to do, whatever it takes
to make sure that you get out of what you
think is pulling you down, is taking away your taking
away your dignity, take taking away your self confidence. And

(07:58):
I think anybody who can identify with a role like that,
that's a good message that they can they can take
from that with with with Mallory, it's like Richard said,
you could be clawing trying to get to the top,
trying to make all the money money in the world,
and it still does not necessarily bring you happiness, especially

(08:19):
in your own personal life.

Speaker 7 (08:21):
Mm hmm, yeah. I think you know.

Speaker 9 (08:23):
Listen, I think one of the great lessons at the
end of the day, when you look across the landscape
of people, you know every one of those people is
trying to find some sense of happiness somewhere, you know,
to find a place where where they can just live
in this and and with a free spirit, and that
at the end of the day, we're responsible for our

(08:46):
own happiness. We can't depend on nobody else for our happiness.
And so you got to make the kind of choices
that's going to bring you happiness, because it ain't gonna
be your money. Your money, it's not your family, it's
not your husband and wife or whatever.

Speaker 7 (09:06):
It starts.

Speaker 9 (09:07):
It begins and ends with you to find whatever contentment
that you have. And uh, and I think people will say,
at the end of the day, I don't care if
you are rich that it ain't gonna make you happy.

Speaker 7 (09:19):
I don't care. Look, I grew up.

Speaker 9 (09:21):
When I look at it, it was poor, but I
didn't know I was poor. I lived fine. I was
happy playing with popsicle sticks making it an airplane. When
I was a kid, I didn't have I didn't have
one of them fancy remote control things.

Speaker 7 (09:35):
I didn't know from that, you know what I mean.

Speaker 9 (09:37):
And so at the end of the day, you gotta
find your own happiness, and you gotta and no one
can give it to you other than what you discovering
the choices you make in your own life.

Speaker 6 (09:50):
I grew I grew up in the projects, and most
of the girls that came up with me, most of
the you know, the young men and that neighborhood, you know,
got into hustling and drug addiction. And I could have
easily felt into that because of the environment I was

(10:11):
living in. But it was always something in me kind
of like Kimmy. I was like, this does not have
to be my life. But I know that I can
get out of this whatever it takes. I know that
I can go beyond what has happened. Even with a
lot of my family members that happened too. I had
an aunt that said to my mother once, why my

(10:31):
sister's name is Terry. She said, why are you the
only sister in the family that have two children? They
got some sense, you.

Speaker 5 (10:38):
Know, but I'm crazy.

Speaker 6 (10:41):
The last thing that I want to say, even with
some of the messages that people will be able to
take away from watching the show, goes right along with
the entertainment, because you really want to you know, you
can watch a show and you know, and take certain
messages away, but audiences want to be entertained as well,
and they tell you they're going to they going to
get this plus some more is going to be entertainment

(11:05):
off the Wazoo Hotel.

Speaker 7 (11:09):
Well, thank you.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
You know, I will be entertained in about two hours,
so that's what I'm gonna go watch. This has been
a pleasure. I'm excited now I'm looking forward to it.
But it's been a pleasure speaking with the both of you.
I encourage all of our listeners on any platform that
this is playing going to definitely go and stream Beauty
and Black on Netflix, which is available now.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Thanks Amber the Black Information Networks. Morgan Wood spoke with
Maryland Public Television's Travis Mitchell about his participation in the
nineteen ninety Morgan State University student protest and the importance
of telling the stories of historically black colleges and universities.

Speaker 10 (11:44):
I'm Morgan Wood on the Black Information Network and joining
me now is Travis Mitchell. Professionally, he is the senior
vice president and chief Content Officer of Maryland Public Television,
and he is telling the stories of historically black colleges
and universities. As a proud graduate of Morgan State University
in Baltimore, we have that in common. Mitchell was also

(12:04):
pivotal in the nineteen ninety protests and subsequent lawsuit that
ensured Morgan State and other local HBCUs and Maryland received
the same funding as the PWIS. Now he is sharing
that story in a forthcoming short film called Six Days
The Story of the nineteen ninety Morgan State University Protest.
Thank you for joining me, Travis. It's a pleasure to

(12:26):
have you.

Speaker 11 (12:27):
Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm really grateful.

Speaker 10 (12:29):
Absolutely, So take me back to nineteen ninety when you
were on the campus of Morgan State and tell me
what inspired students to even protest to begin with.

Speaker 11 (12:38):
Well, I appreciate the opportunity to tell a story, but
it probably also explains my commitment to HBCUs. Let me
just kind of give your audience a little bit of
a background. Sure, I was born in Raleigh, North Carolina,
and was raised on the campus of Shaw University, the
oldest HBCU in the South. As you know Morgan. My
parents couldn't go to p Whigs because of Jim Crow laws,

(13:02):
but chose to go to Shaw because of this reput
typation academically and because it was a developer of student leader.
Shaw University was the place where the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee was founded in nineteen sixty. These are the students
who desegregated lunch counters and public spaces across the South
and a very time of a time of hostility and

(13:23):
violence towards civil rights workers and so walking on the
campus of Shaw University was my first experience to what
I would call my wakanda. It was a place where
black excellence was demonstrated and expected, but you were affirmed
for who you were. And so I was Shaw raised.
But then I came to Morgan, where I became Morgan Made.

(13:45):
And in nineteen ninety I came to Morgan State University
as a basketball player. But you know, as as I
redistarted from basketball, I got involved as the editor of
the student newspaper. And it was in that capacity that
began to talk to student leaders across the campus. And
they came by my office one day and said, you know,

(14:08):
we're we're fed up. Our living conditions a substandard. We
know that we're getting a great academic experience, but why
do we have to live in substandard housing? And why
are our academic buildings crumbling? And so students wanted answers,
and so we filed into the office of the Vice

(14:28):
President of Student Affairs at that time, doctor Raymond Downs.
The president joined us, and we had a very heated
and pointed discussion about the things that were wrong at Morgan.
After holding a town hall forum the next day where
the president had all the vps come and they provided
the answers that they thought would help us understand what

(14:51):
they were facing. The students decided that we wanted more information,
and so we launched a peaceful sit in. That was
day one. It was March sixth, nineteen ninety and we
launched a peaceful sit in and we just didn't leave
the administration building. There where you began to see students

(15:12):
coalesce around the common purpose. It was there we had
students from the Divine nine, you had students from student government,
student affairs, other auxiliary organizations, and just students who were
interested on the well being and the future of Morgan.
Be determined that we were going to get some answers
for our school. And so it was during this period

(15:32):
of discovery, why is our campus the way it is?
Why aren't we more modernized? Why are we studying in
substandard buildings and living in inhumane conditions, that the administration
began to share its challenges with very and equitable funding

(15:53):
with the State of Maryland. And so we've discovered here's
a key data point that we discovered that were from
nineteen fifty to nineteen seventy nine, Morgan had only received
roughly seven hundred and thirty nine thousand dollars in maintenance
funds for on campus facilities. So you're talking about a

(16:14):
thirty year period where Morgan annually was only receiving about
fifteen thousand dollars for on campus maintenance. That that data
point is what helped us change the course of our
protests from an internally focused protest to now petitioning the
state all state leaders, starting with the Governor of the

(16:38):
State of Maryland, to petition them on behalf of al
or not Alma Mon because we were still students, but
on behalf of our beloved Morgan, to make sure that
we received the equitable investments that other campus received, because
at that particular time, we realized that many of the
traditionally white institutions had received millions in maintenance while Morgan

(16:59):
had only received seven hundred thousand dollars, and that just
wasn't fair, It wasn't equitable, and it wasn't anything that
we were going to let continue on our watch. So
the theme of our protests became six Days of Determination.

Speaker 10 (17:12):
Six days of Determination. Talk to me about those conditions.
Can you describe those a little bit more?

Speaker 11 (17:18):
Yeah, So, we had healing paint and all on campus facilities,
we had rodent and pest infestation, and our dormitories you
had what we were concerned about the walls that were crumbling.
We were concerned about any exposure to its bestos because

(17:41):
the buildings were old. Now I need to make the
point we took no great pride and joy in letting
the public know the condition that Morgan was in. It
was not something that we celebrated because we loved our institution.
Despite the physical plan or the limitations of the physical plant,
we all fell in love with Morgan State University. We

(18:03):
just wanted the best for our school. In order to
prosecute the public case against those who had neglected Morgan's care,
and these were those who were in state leadership, we
had to show people the conditions, and so the media
came in and we were able to walk them around
to see the conditions while at the same time not
placing the blame at the foot of our administration. That

(18:26):
is a key point. We wanted to make sure that
Morgan got its fair share of investment, and so it
was during each successive day that we had multiple press conferences.
I was drafted as the spokesperson for the movement, and
we just day by day educated the public on the
injustice and inequitable funding that Morgan had been receiving. We

(18:50):
were not funded at the level of other institutions, We
did not receive our fair share of per student investment,
and certainly physical plan had been neglected. So we sharpened
our demands and we asked for the governor to immediately
close down our worst two dormitories. We also discovered that
the university had a twenty five year campus improvement plan

(19:12):
that had been filed but had never been funded. So
we wanted to make sure that we became the catalyst
to get the governor to shut down some of those
campus some of those on campus buildings, so that we
could begin construction on new buildings. That was our point.
We realized that while we had seized a moment, if
not us, then who, If not now, then when, And

(19:35):
so we were fighting for opportunities for future generations to
come to Morgan and really experience the level of support
and excellent first class facilities that we were not afforded.
But we wanted to make sure that future classes would
come in and get the benefits of the investment that

(19:56):
we were calling for. And so once we began that
pri and we kept the pressure up on the governor,
we decided that during the process, we had a hunger
strike during that process. We did teach ends. During that process.
We took about a two to three mile caravan down
to Annapolis with alumni and with supporters, and everywhere we went,

(20:21):
our theme song and anthem became all of our love,
peace and happiness. We're gonna give you more again. So
when we were showed that level of unity, I'm telling you, Morgan,
there was a peace, there was a unit, there was
a spirit of we can do this. It was reminiscent
of the sixties. And when we got to Annapolis on

(20:44):
the third or fourth day of the protest, I think
it was the third day to meet with the governor,
we had all students wear Morgan paraphernalia or the best
outfit they could wear, professional outfit, and then we filed
out of those buses quietly, in single file in order.
And what we were greeted with is you could hear

(21:04):
the German shepherds of riot police barking. There were snipers
on the rules of the buildings because they expected an
unruly bunch of black students, and we simply were peaceful
protesters demanding that we get our fair share of funding
for our school, and I think it was those images,

(21:25):
early reminiscent of the sixties, that help us win the
battle in the court of public opinion. And then, of
course we articulated our demands at the capitol. We met
with the governor behind closed doors and he made certain promises. Well,
we went back to campus. We said to the governor
that we're not going to leave these buildings until you

(21:46):
honor your commitment. So over the course of the weekend
we got word that he was indeed going to honor
the commitment by moving quickly on the things that he
could execute for the session let out in Maryland. That
was enough for us to say, Okay, we're going to
turn the buildings back over to our administrators. It's important

(22:06):
for people to understand we never were aggressive. Administrators could
still come to work, but students had a right to
be in public spaces. We just never went back to
the dorms, We never put chains on the doors. We
were not hostile. We took care of the buildings. And
let me just tell you, Morgan, it was during this
period of time where we learned what resilience was all about.
We organized ourselves. We had to feed ourselves, we had

(22:28):
to go out to the community. The community organizations came
to us and provided food and support and encouragement. We
had support from alumni. We had support from then Mayor
Kirt Schmoke, then a young congressman Kwaisi and Fume, a
Morgan graduate, a city council member Elijah Cummings who would
ultimately become a congressman. We had the support of the

(22:51):
Baltimore community political leadership. We had the support of our
alumni base. We had to support of the business community
because people saw that we were right, and so we
used that moment to articulate our highest ideals and highest
hope for our institution, our Morgan State Institution, and we

(23:14):
were able to get the public to get on our side. Now,
with that being said, when we released the building back
into the hands of our administrators, we cleaned it from
top to bottom. It was spotless. And then we decided
that we were going to go back to school. But
we told the governor that if he did not act,
we would be back. And so a couple of months

(23:35):
went by and the governor had not taken action, and
so I called a little bit of an audible and
myself and four other students announced that because the governor
had not kept his word, we're going to return his
trash to his front doorstep. And we put on trash
bags as a demonstration of the way he had treated

(23:56):
us during the negotiation. And we began to walk to
Annapolis from Morgan, which is forty one miles and so
we began that walk early in the morning, and we
got there around eleven o'clock at night, and we were
greeted with all sorts of support. Democrat, Republican, white, Black, Asian,

(24:17):
Hispanic people showed up with food and blankets, and it
was just a wonderful celebration of civic engagement. And when
you're right about a matter, people will join you and
connect with you, even if they didn't have your experience.
And I should point out that we had white students
and black students at PWIS that supported what we were doing.

(24:38):
It wasn't just HBCUs, but it was students and people
who thought that there's no way that Morgan should be
treated the way it's been treated. And it was so
that next morning, the governor had a press conference on tourism.
I was able to intervene. It was outside the press conference,
and the governor shook my hand in front of the cameras,

(25:01):
in front of the media and said that he indeed
was going to follow through with our request. Later that summer,
he agreed to take down our two worst dormitories to
begin renovation, and he would begin funding that twenty five
year plan that had been put in place but had
not been funded. So the net result of our protests,

(25:22):
and I want to make this clear, we have had
at Morgan two exceptional presidents. Doctor Earl S. Richardson, who
was President Morgan for twenty five years and was the
president for four years by the time we started our protest.
It was his wisdom and guiding us during that process
and not shutting us down, but encouraging us with right

(25:42):
information and being supportive. It was his masterful handling of
the public relations and how he related to the students
that really was a big reason why we were successful.
And then doctor Richison took Morgan to a whole another level.
I think under his watch received about five hundred million

(26:02):
dollars in capital improvement. And then in twenty ten we
had doctor David Wilson who came in who has now
rebranded Morgan as the National Treasurer en route to R
one status, and on his watch, Morgan has received another
billion dollars in funding. So we like to say that
our protest was the catalyst for what became one point

(26:24):
five billion dollars in funding. And as it relates to
doctor Richardson, he when he retired in twenty ten, used
the historic underfunding that we had unearthed during our campaign
as a data point to justify that the state of
Maryland had not only underfunded Morgan, but it similarly had

(26:47):
underfunded three other public HBCUs in the state. And so
he he upon retirement, mobilized the coalition of the HBCU
supporters for the other h used in the state, and
they filed a lawsuit suing the state of Maryland for discrimination,
and that lawsuit was settled two years ago for five

(27:10):
hundred and seventy seven million dollars for the four HBCUs
in Maryland. So our Morgan story is an example of
when you are pursuing justice, there's no reason to wait.
When you are pursuing what's right, there's no reason to stall.
When you are presented with adversity, you dig down deep

(27:33):
and you call upon the faith and the resilience that
is deep within our people, within our community, and you
fight the good fight of faith. And so we did that,
and we see years later that the investment of our time, talent,
and treasure in our Alma Male in nineteen ninety has
produced a tree of resources and renovation for our institution

(27:55):
to the tune of over two billion dollars when you combine,
or at one point six billion dollars when you combine
the monies that came forth for the university from the
state and from the private sector, and the money that
Morgan will receive as a result of this lawsuit. So again,
great leadership has paved the way. We just did our

(28:15):
part as advocates for our institution.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
Thanks Morgan, and tune in next week for part two
of Morgan's conversation with Travis Mitchell. Infertility is an issue
many black couples are challenged with. According to Capital b
a black online newspaper, black women struggle with infertility at
higher rates than white women. Bi n's Andrea Coleman recently
spoke with doctor Desiree McCarthy Keith, a black reproductive health

(28:39):
specialist in Atlanta, who broke down the issue and its
impact on the Black community.

Speaker 12 (28:44):
Doctor McCarthy Keith, thank you so much for joining us
today on the Black Information Network.

Speaker 5 (28:48):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 13 (28:49):
It's my pleasure to be with you. So I am
a board certified reproductive indochronology and infertility specialist.

Speaker 5 (28:56):
To call ourselves an RII.

Speaker 13 (28:58):
So I basically firsted my training in OBGI in and
I practiced women's health and I delivered babies and did
c sections, hysterectomies and things like that for about five years.
And then I went back and did additional training just
in infertility and reproductive indochronology. So now my practice in
Atlanta only focuses on reproductive medicine and infertility.

Speaker 12 (29:20):
Talk a little bit about infertility, especially in the Black
community from a service level, many of us equate it
to couples not being able to have children without medical help.
Is that like an accurate basic definition or is there
much more to it?

Speaker 13 (29:34):
It is, but you know, we really base our definition
on how long a couple has been trying. And what
I hope we can touch on today is just how
significant female age is in our fertility. And so the
definition of fertility is really based on a woman's age.
And so we say that if a woman is under
thirty five, we consider her to have infertility if she's

(29:55):
had twelve consecutive months of unprotected intercourse and hasn't gotten pregnant. Well,
once over thirty five, we shorten that to six months.
Once a woman's over forty, we shorten it to three months,
and say, if you've been trying for just a few
months and haven't gotten pregnant and in your late thirties
or over forty, you should really be seeing a fertility
provider sooner.

Speaker 12 (30:13):
Now you're saying unprotected, so that means without the aid
of any kind of birth.

Speaker 13 (30:17):
Control, correct, right, So that means you know, no birth control,
no condoms or anything, and having intercourse at the appropriate
time during the menstrual cycle, like they should be having
intercourse around expected ovulation without any contraception. And if you
do that for you know, six to twelve straight months
and haven't gotten pregnant, then we say, yes, this makes
the definition of infertility and it's time to start looking

(30:38):
for any fertility factors that might have kept you from
getting pregnant.

Speaker 12 (30:41):
What are some of those factors?

Speaker 5 (30:43):
So you know, when I.

Speaker 13 (30:44):
See a couple, if there's a male and female partner,
we always evaluate both members of the couple at the
same time. And what we know is that male and
female infertility are comparable. It can be about forty percent
female factor or it can be about forty percent male
factor when there's a couple. So we definitely don't say
we should just test the women and if we don't
find any factors, then we'll look at a male partner.

(31:05):
We want to evaluate both from the beginning, and the
basics are there can be sperm factors for a man,
there can be egg factors for women, and then there
can be anatomic factors for women, whether it's the Philippian tubes,
are they blocked or open and also house the uterus.
And one thing for Black women that we have more
than other ethnic groups as fibroids. And if you have
fibrids and the uters, that can affect your fertility.

Speaker 12 (31:26):
How much of this is treatable? How many of these
conditions can you reverse or correct and provide some kind
of opportunity for pregnancy once those procedures are done.

Speaker 5 (31:36):
They're very treatable.

Speaker 13 (31:37):
The one that we can't really correct is the aging
of our eggs in our ovary.

Speaker 5 (31:41):
So I'm probably gonna sound.

Speaker 13 (31:42):
Like a broken record on this, but the age of
the eggs matters. But you know, if we have fibroids,
then women can have surgery. You can have a myomectomy
to remove fibroids and get the uterus back to normal
shape and size and make the uterus more favorable for pregnancy.
If women have damage to their tubes or block tubes,
then we usually recommend in vitro, not necessarily going in
and trying to fix or repair a damage to but

(32:04):
there are fertility treatment options for women even if their
tubes are not healthy for a pregnancy to occur the
natural way. For men, if there's a sperm factor, we
refer them to a urologist where they can have evaluation
to see if there's any hormonal treatment or any surgical
treatments that can improve the sperm parameters.

Speaker 12 (32:20):
In a SEMA analysis, we're hearing a lot about infertility
and particular IVF and vitro fertilization. What is that exactly?
What does that procedure intel?

Speaker 13 (32:31):
The actual definition means to fertilize in glass like in
the laboratory or outside of the body is what in
vitro fertilization actually means. And that is where we can
take the whole fertilization process that naturally happens in the body,
and we can do that in the laboratory.

Speaker 5 (32:46):
So for a.

Speaker 13 (32:47):
Woman to get pregnant, there's so many processes in the
body that have to all line up and happen just
so for pregnancy to happen. It's really pretty amazing that
everything lines up in that we are here. But a
woman needs to ovulate at a certain time in her cycle.
The fallopian two needs to be open to catch that
povulated egg and bring the egg into the two. Women

(33:07):
needs to have intercourse at the right time and then
semen depositive in the vagina.

Speaker 5 (33:11):
The sperm have to travel through the cervix.

Speaker 13 (33:14):
The uterus down the Philipian tube in the other direction,
sperm and egg have to interact. The egg has to
fertilize and develop normally, and the embryo has to flow
through the tube back to the uterus. Once it gets
to the uterus, it has to find the best place
to implant and attach and develop for pregnancy to happen.

Speaker 5 (33:30):
That's a lot, So that's a lot.

Speaker 12 (33:32):
Wow, it really is miraculous.

Speaker 5 (33:34):
And it's amazing.

Speaker 13 (33:35):
It's a miracle, and so This is why natural fertility.
For a fertile couple who has no fertility factors at all,
their chance of pregnancy is about twenty to twenty five
percent per month. And so when women or when couples
are trying to get pregnant, they sometimes feel like it
must be ninety percent. Everybody's getting pregnant fast, and I'm
the only one. It's really about one in five chance

(33:56):
of pregnancy every month because of all those processes that
need to happen. And so if we do in vitro,
we take that entire process into our laboratory and we
can collect eggs from a woman's ovary after stimulating the ovaries.
We can get sperm from a partner. Some women have
sperm from a donor. We can take the sperm and
eggs and combine them and place them in an incubator

(34:16):
in our laboratory, and our embryology team can monitor those
eggs as they fertilize and grow into embryos over the
next couple of days. And then once we have an embryo,
a microscopic fertilized egg, then we can select that embryo
and pass it through the cervix and deposit that embryo
directly in the uters where it needs to go. So
that's the in vitro process in a nutshell.

Speaker 12 (34:37):
That is amazing where science has taken us. That is tremendous.
So what is the success rate for IVF.

Speaker 13 (34:43):
It really depends again on the age of the woman.
It is our eggs so much so cannot just speak
on the eggs first before I answer your questions because
I keep talking about it. So for men, if their
testicles functioning normally, they make fresh sperm from scratch every
two or three months on a cycle, brand new sperm,
over and over. And men will usually do that until
they are fifty sixty, sometimes seventy years old, which is

(35:06):
why we have all seen men who are in their
fifties and sixties and father children because they have fresh
ferm and they can still be fertile.

Speaker 5 (35:13):
Ladies are the opposite. We have the.

Speaker 13 (35:15):
Most eggs before we are even born. When we're halfway
through a pregnancy, about twenty weeks, we have six or
seven million eggs in our ovaries. By the time we
are born, we have about one million eggs. So it's
a natural process for us to lose most of our
eggs supply in utero before we are even born, and
then from the time we're born with at one million eggs,
we don't replenish those way that men replace their sperm.

(35:37):
So we're starting with a million, and our egg count
is drifting from birth and we are losing eggs over time.
It's a very slow, gradual process. But once we're in
our late thirties and approaching in over forty, that curve
gets steeper and we lose eggs faster. And so that's
why our fertility changes with our age, because there's a
sharper decline in the number of eggs that we still

(35:57):
carry at that point. So in addition to us having
fewer eggs, the quality of the eggs that we have
is changing because we were born with those same eggs.
So as we get older, the eggs are aging, so
it's the age of the eggs also that determines when
we do get pregnant, if it's a healthy pregnancy or not.
So what we observe as we get older is that
the risk of miscarring early or having a baby born

(36:20):
with a chromosome condition like down syndrome of things is
directly tied to our age, and that risk goes up
as we get older.

Speaker 12 (36:27):
Has science allowed for any kind of techniques that would
help now show up the health of those eggs.

Speaker 5 (36:33):
Not at this point.

Speaker 13 (36:34):
You know, it's still just our biology and we do
not have you know, tried and true treatments that can
reverse that natural aging process of the ovaries that we
all experience. And the reason our eggcount's going down is
because you don't lose one egg a month when you
have a cycle. Every month, when your cycle starts, there
are usually fifty to one hundred microscopic eggs that start

(36:55):
to grow. Some of those will form into what we
call follicles, which are a little egg sacs in the
over and there's an immer your egg inside each one,
and then one follicle develops and that's the one that
you opulate. Once your main follicle develops, all those other
eggs that started that cycle just die off.

Speaker 5 (37:09):
You lose all those.

Speaker 12 (37:10):
How large an issue is infertility in the black community.

Speaker 5 (37:13):
It is a significant issue.

Speaker 13 (37:14):
And you know, historically in this country there's been kind
of stereotypes about the Black community where we don't have infertility,
where we are usually portrayed as being hyper fertile. You know,
we're quick to get birth control and things like that,
but we haven't really been considered as part of the
infertility population.

Speaker 5 (37:31):
But what we know is that.

Speaker 13 (37:33):
Black women or black couples are twice as likely to
have infertility compared to white couples.

Speaker 5 (37:38):
But when you look at.

Speaker 13 (37:40):
Who seeks fertility treatment, it's usually not us. So we
have more infertility, but we're underrepresented when it comes to
patients who are actually going through fertility treatment.

Speaker 12 (37:50):
Its cost a reason for that or is it lack
of information?

Speaker 13 (37:53):
I think you know, it's many factors. So costs can
be a factor for couples of all ethnic backgrounds. Access
can be an issue. So you know, fertility clinics are
in urban areas and places, so if you're outside of that,
you're in a rural area, you may not have access
to that. There's a large historical component though, because we
started doing fertility treatment in this country in the early eighties,

(38:16):
and the initial campaigns and awareness and education about infertility
did not reflect us at all.

Speaker 5 (38:22):
The posters, the outreach and things like that.

Speaker 13 (38:25):
You know, you typically saw the typical fertility patient was
a middle class white woman, and so if you were
a black woman, you know, having trouble getting pregnant. You
didn't even see yourself represented, so you really didn't feel
like those treatments were meant for you. So that that
kind of kept us out of the conversation for a
long time. And we also have to look within there's
a lot of stigma and shame sometimes and misinformation within

(38:47):
our community where we shown some of these treatments sometimes
or are not comfortable to embrace the science, and that
can keep us away from receiving fertility care.

Speaker 12 (38:56):
Also, what words of encouragement can you share with Black
couples who may be wanting to sort of family and
have encountered some issues.

Speaker 13 (39:04):
I would say, you know, take advantage of the treatments
and the technology that we have. There are other couples
who are benefiting from this, and so we kind of
keep ourselves out of the conversation when we're not comfortable
or we have our own kind of misconceptions about it.
But I would encourage couples to be open to that.
I would encourage couples to not wait. What we know
is that you know, we're underrepresented when it comes to

(39:24):
fertility treatment for Black couples, and when we do get
to fertility treatment, we've usually waited longer. We're older, and
like I mentioned, our age is really a big factor.
So you know, if couples have been trying for a
year or so and haven't gotten pregnant, it's okay to
talk to someone to see a fertility provider. Start with
OBGI in and ask for a referral if you're not

(39:45):
sure where to go. But we have to be proactive
about our fertility and our reproductive health.

Speaker 12 (39:50):
Doctor McCarthy keith, we thank you so much for your time,
and we thank you also for what you're doing in
the hope that you're giving so many in our community.

Speaker 13 (39:57):
Absolutely, thank you so much for the opportunity. I hope
that the has been good information for your listeners for sure.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
Thanks Andrea. Doctor McCarthy keith works for Shady Grow Fertility
in Atlanta. She is accepting new patients if you are
interested in speaking with her. Recent polls say Vice President
Kamala Harris is having a problem reaching young Generation z
X and millennials. The Black Information Networks Ester Dillard speaks
with a research analyst who conducted several pre election polls

(40:23):
with why he Thinks That's happening.

Speaker 14 (40:25):
Joining me is Alvin Tillery with the political action committee
called Alliance for Black Equality. Thank you for joining us
on the BION.

Speaker 15 (40:33):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 8 (40:34):
Well.

Speaker 14 (40:34):
Your organization recently released a poll that shows the Harris
campaign is picking up as much as fourteen percent gains
among young black voters. Can you explain more about what
your poll revealed?

Speaker 15 (40:46):
So, I think what you're referring to is the message
testing component of our poll. So we've had a tracking
poll of black voters since last October. We've done eleven
polls of about twenty five thousand Black voters, and what
we've been finding pretty consistently is that somewhere between ten
to twenty percent of the Black electorate is either not

(41:08):
strongly supporting VP Harris or is interested in other candidates,
be that Donald Trump or one of the third party candidates.
And so we've been testing messages that we hope can
move these what we're calling the new Black swing voters
in the direction of VP Harris to support her historic
run and also because we think that Donald Trump is

(41:31):
bad for democracy and black people.

Speaker 14 (41:33):
Well, it's interesting I was reading a little bit about
what your poll was focused on, and part of the
news Reelise mentioned gender generation gap and where there's like
a split between Generation Z male and female voters. Can
you talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 15 (41:49):
Yeah, So there's an overall there's a generation gap in
that millennial and Gen Z voters are not a supportive
of VP Harris and the Democrats has gen X and boomers.
Gen Xon boomers come in at what we call a
secular level of support for VP Harris, which means they're
supporting her at about the same level of Barack Obama's

(42:11):
support in twenty eight and twenty twelve, somewhere around ninety percent.
Barack Obama only wins those elections because you know, they
were able to hyper mobilize black and Latino supporters to
overcome the fact that only about four and ten white
voters voted for him both times. And so what we're
finding in this cycle, which we found in our eleven

(42:31):
tracking polls, is that the millennial and the gen Z
cohorts are running She's running about anywhere from fifteen percent behind.
With millennial Black women, she's somewhere at around seventy to
seventy two percent. With millennial Black men, she's running at
about sixty six percent. And then it's even worse with

(42:54):
gen Z She's under fifty percent with gen Z Black
men and only at about seventy two percent with gen
z Z Black women.

Speaker 7 (43:01):
So there's a generation and gender gap.

Speaker 15 (43:04):
And so we've seen a lot of talk about black
men letting the VP down, But you know, what people
really need to understand is that it's really about connecting
with young Black voters under thirty five that's going to
make the difference for her. And you know, I don't
think the traditional groups that mobilize the black community saw
this coming because generational replacement has been so pronounced over the.

Speaker 7 (43:27):
Last few years.

Speaker 15 (43:28):
About fifty percent of the voting age population in Black
America's under forty years old. So you know, that's who
we need to be talking to if you're interested in
keeping Trump away from the White House and supporting VP Harris.
It's that demographic And.

Speaker 14 (43:41):
What are they looking for? What are the generation's the
male voters.

Speaker 15 (43:44):
Looking for, well not just male, also female, and so
what Black voters in general have wanted from the Democrats.
We found this when we started our tracking poll we
were pulling on support for President Biden. They basically want
what everyone wants. They want someone who's going to fight
for their issues. They have a lot of frustrate frustrations
with the Democratic Party coming around during election time making

(44:07):
a bunch of big promises and then saying, oh, but
the filibuster. We can't get voting rights reformed because the filibuster.
We can't get the George Floyd Policing Act because the filibuster, right,
and so these things have left the black community writ
large frustrated. But the gen X and Boomer cohorts are
willing to kind of, you know, get over that because

(44:29):
they want to support the historic firsts. And also they
remember how bad things can get if you're under forty
years old in Black America. Like you don't remember the
Jim pro era, right, Like, so I grew up in
fifty four. I integrated my neighborhood. My parents grew up
in the Jim Crow era. My great grandparents, their parents
were slaves, right, So, like I remember very starkly, like

(44:54):
the racial inequalities that really were overturned by the Democrats
in the Civil Rights era. You know, millennial black voters,
gen Z black voters, they were like ten thirteen sixteen
when Barack Obama was president. So they don't remember any
of that, so they expect more so, what they want
is for first mister Biden and then for VP Harris

(45:14):
to really push back against the sort of the DEI bands,
the Black history CRT bands, you know, they want push
back on, you know, the notion that policing reform is
just something that the Democrats should be giving up on
because it scares white voters away, and their inability to
deliver messages to convince young voters that they're serious about

(45:35):
those things. That's a big part of the reason why
they're they're where they are in the polls. Not necessarily losing,
but if she had the comfortable support of the black
community that Barack Obama had, she'd be ahead considerably in
the swing states, and that's just not happening.

Speaker 9 (45:52):
Well.

Speaker 14 (45:52):
VP Harris recently released a Planet includes like forgiving business
loans for black entrepreneurs, creating more apprenticeships, even studying things
like sickle cell and other diseases that disproportionately affect African
American men and women. Do you believe that these things
will create inroads with the young voter set or Black
folks in general.

Speaker 15 (46:13):
Yeah, I mean, I think it will create in roads
with black folks in general. These are great programs, the
sickle cell focus and all of that. But like we
also have to be clear, these are mostly race neutral
programs that they're targeting and saying, well, black men need
mentorship more than others. So this kind of mentorship program
is something that we can put in place for you
in the small business loans.

Speaker 7 (46:33):
I mean, you know, all of.

Speaker 15 (46:34):
These things are nice, but like every other community, black
voters want things that are targeted, right, And so you know,
I don't know what could be a clearer case of
drawing a contrast with your opponent than saying, Donald Trump
wants every police department in the nation to do stop

(46:55):
and frisk. We know that that affects Black men disproportionally
and black women, right, I don't know what's a clearer
contrast in saying Donald Trump wants to defund the Equal
Employment and Opportunity Commission, which will make it legal for
employers to discriminate against you.

Speaker 7 (47:10):
Right, Like, these are.

Speaker 15 (47:10):
The things that I think would really energize, that our
polls show really energize. You tell young black men and
that gen Z cohort that Donald Trump wants to do
stop and frisk. That's what my super pack has been doing,
and their support for VP Harris goes up like, you know,
twenty points, right, Like that gets them off the couch.

(47:31):
But I fear that, you know, the campaign hasn't been
able to do that because they rightfully have been worried
that if they talk about those things, it'll scare away
the white Republican voters that they're trying to court.

Speaker 7 (47:43):
I don't know if they're the Nicky.

Speaker 15 (47:44):
Haley voters this week or the Liz Chainey voters, whomever
they are. Like, you know, the fear for candidates of
color is that if you show your ties to these
minority communities, then you won't be able to win these
you know, mythical swing voters in the white suburbs. The
reality is Barack Obama didn't really win those people either,
and he's still won by comfortable margins both times.

Speaker 14 (48:08):
So final word from.

Speaker 15 (48:09):
You, The final word is you know, the hours and
now is now. And so the Alliance for Black Equality
is invested in Google ads that are targeting young black
voters with the information about Donald Trump's plans for policing.
And we're doing it in a way that's not preachy.

(48:30):
It uses humor, It points out the facts, and it
tries to meet them on their level, and I think
that that is an effort that the VP's campaign could
easily parrot. I also think that you know, with super
PACs are four is for doing the work that candidates
can't do, and that's why we started ours. We were

(48:51):
so worried that they were missing the message that we
started our own messaging operation.

Speaker 14 (48:57):
That's Alvin Tillery with Alliance for Black Equality. Thank you
for joining us on the BION.

Speaker 15 (49:02):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 3 (49:03):
Thanks Ester. If you'd like more information about recent polling
information or the work of doctor Alvin Tillery, visit Alliance
for Blackequality dot org. Doug Davis takes a pause from
his normal Your Black Business segment to bring you an
icon in the music industry that many don't know who
has made significant strides for black musicians and entertainers in

(49:23):
the music industry for decades.

Speaker 16 (49:25):
Doug, Hey, Thanks Mike. This is Doug Davis and there's
a lot of excitement and inspiration around the musical project
by famed African American musical musician Ray Chu, who's multifaceted
career spans decades. He served as musical director for popular
television shows like Showtime at the Apollo and American Idol
just named a few, and he's currently the musical director
for Dancing with the Stars. Ray, Welcome to the bin.

Speaker 7 (49:46):
Thank you for having me man.

Speaker 16 (49:47):
It's an honor to have you here.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Man.

Speaker 16 (49:49):
Truly have been a fan of yours forever. And so
when I heard your single Jam featuring Stephanie Mills and
mc lie, Dougie Fresh d Jacob Prie, I nearly had
to pull over. I'm like, hold on, wait a minute.
Tell me about the collaboration. How did it come together
and what was the creative process like in the studio
putting together this amazing song to promote your upcoming album.

Speaker 7 (50:13):
Well, the first thing is is that out of mutual
respect for these wonderful iconic legends, first of all, I
have to say hey, Deaphity, Kick Capri, mc like Dougie. First,
they're already iconic figures in R and B and hip hop,
and so the good news is that they are my
friends as well. I've already been granted you know, historical

(50:33):
you know favor. When I called them up, I said, hey, listen,
I'm doing my life legacy project called My Journey. They said, Ray,
we want to be a part of it. I said,
you're already a part of it. So the first step
in the process was me getting in the studio with
Kick Capri. I was in there and we started, you know,
banging around some beats and we came up with one

(50:55):
who really really light. And then, uh, after that, we said, well,
we got to get the right vocal on it. I
thought about it for a minute. The first voice really
that came to mind was stepping the mills. So I
was like, perfect, call, step me up. She said, all right,
you know her voice? She said, yeah, I'm on it.
And I said, cool, Now who is going to rock

(51:15):
the body and the party? Come on, you'll hit my heads.
Y'all know that's MC light. And then of course we
got Doug E Fresh. So that's that's the ingredients. That's
how we bake the cake.

Speaker 16 (51:26):
That's great. How did you come up with, you know,
the debut solo album title My Journey? I mean, I
guess that's pretty self explanatory, but if you can share
with us the concept and what your album represents for you.

Speaker 7 (51:39):
I was inspired by my friend the mental Quincy Jones,
who I always loved how he told each of his
stories almost like in the Stevie Wonders sense. They they
all told the arc and the story about his journey
and life. And that's what it felt like to me
at this point. And my journey was said, you know what,
I want my music to represent the arc of my

(52:00):
life and where I'm at now and where I'm centered.
You know, I mean many expressions, R and B, jazz,
classical is all part of who I am, and so
all of that has got to be in whatever I
decide to express. And so my journey is that Rachhew
and Friends styled type of expression, inspired by the way

(52:21):
Quincy Jones did collaborations on his album. He introduced new
artists to Miya, James Angram, Tevin Campbell, and I'll be
introducing new artists as well as working with legendary artists.
So we know that we have on the first single,
but others to come. I have on as part of
My Journey. We have Lisa Fischer, we have Eric Groberson,

(52:46):
we have Marcus Miller, Patty Austin and Ambassawyer. She's a
new artist, Robin Thick. I'm very excited about this because
this is telling my story. Brother.

Speaker 16 (52:57):
You have some hitters on this out. Okay, let's go
back to your journey and your destiny and share a
little bit about your childhood. And you know your love
for music, And I know this is somewhat of a
common cliche question, but I really want to know how
did you get into the industry? How did it happen?
Did you think it would ever become a quote unquote

(53:19):
manifest destiny that you so much endorse in your life?
Share with us your story.

Speaker 7 (53:25):
I'm so glad you reappropriate that term because I do
the same thing with that term. I speak about manifest destiny.
I put a dream first, I put purpose first, and
purpose driven dreams that manifest so manifest into my destiny.
Se have you said that my life started with a
manifest by God has given to me? Is He gives

(53:47):
you talent, He expects that you utilize it because you
know it's of no use unless you glorify Him with
people seeing it. That's how people see goodness and gracious.
When you heard Whitney Houston's Glove Boys, you knew God
touched it. When you hear Stevie Wonder, you know God
touched TV like he touched nobody out. You know when

(54:07):
you see that kind of glorified existence. You know, that's
God's touching. Don't start me preaching because I'll do that.
But any case, this is what I felt in my life,
and from the very beginning, I felt the hand of
God leading, teaching me, illuminating paths, opening doors, making a
way when there was no way, making people, bringing me
into rooms, bringing people to me, and all the wonderful

(54:28):
things that happened, and education my mother and my family
to support, starting you know, my musical education starting age
five and going all the way through, and then starting
professional at age sixteen with Melbourne Moore and then at
nineteen with Nick Ash, with Valerie Simpson, joining into the
New York session scene, recording with great artists down Us,

(54:50):
Donny Hathaway, Global Washington Junior, Roberta Fleck, Shaka Ka, Teddy Peddigrass.
I was doing a lot of it. They're getting into
TV when I was twenty one and at sat Night
Live and working during Eddie Murphy years, then going over
to but it was my first TV job. My second
job was show time at the Apollo fifteen seasons with

(55:11):
Steve Harvey, you know, and and Kicki Sheppard, sand Man
Simms doing Showtime at the Pollow, the iconic Apollo with
that audience and that all of the wonderful, the wonderful
craziness over there. Then then my many years at BT
working all their specials they had, the BT Celebrates, the Gospel,
BT Honors, the BT Awards, the BT's Sunday Best. I

(55:34):
did all the stuff over there, and then shifting over
into Network TV with doing American Idol during the Dams,
the Grammys and and all kinds of wonderful things, and
then this is my TV career, kept expanding, many wonderful things.
So this all brings me to this point. I know
I said a whole lot right there, but this brings
me to this point where I, you know, after doing

(55:57):
all those wonderful things again tapped me on the shoulder said, Okay,
you've done well. You know you've done well, young man.
Now what are you gonna do with the town? By
the way, the talent I've given you is self expression
and music as you hear it, and it's wonderful doing

(56:17):
things for others, and I've done a lot of it,
but this is my time.

Speaker 16 (56:21):
Amen for that dude. I mean, you said, you said
a lot, and you did, but brother, I'm just over
here taking notes. You know, you said one thing earlier
that really caught my attention. Not that anything that you
said didn't catch my attention, but in particular, you talked
about your purpose and your journey and realizing that what

(56:42):
do you feel? And this is not a music question,
this is just a real black man the black man question.
Do you feel that our young black men that are
disenfranchised coming from some pretty rough areas, you know, I
mean some of us have gotten out, but a lot
of us are still there. Do you feel that sense
of of a dream becoming a reality has been damned?

(57:03):
What do you feel like we can do as black
men to help uplift our young black brothers? They don't
have that shot.

Speaker 7 (57:12):
Well, you know what, I'm glad you mentioned that because
we do have, We have experience, and we continue to
experience generational trauma. You know, nobody wants to talk about,
you know, the effects of you know this slavery. Okay,
all right, you don't want to talk about it. Okay,
That don't mean it didn't happen. Once you take the water,
then the water has been tainted. If you put poison

(57:33):
in the reservoir, it's still in there all right. Now,
it may take a while for it to dissipate, but okay,
So yes, we we have overcome a lot generations Black men,
we've had to you know, in black women, we've all
had to struggle through trying to create family with where
we didn't have a family foundation in this country, people

(57:54):
don't They tried to kind of overlook that everybody else
came here was able to families. Our families were torn
up heart and so it took generations for us to
now to re establish what a family would look like
and how to build upon that. Well, here we are,
so here, you know what we do now. But what
we do now is that we have to know that

(58:16):
we are standing on the shoulders of all of those
who bled and died for us. And so yes, there
are a lot of effects of generations of trauma and misrepresentation, underrepresentation, racism,
all kinds of things that are still in effect not
given opportunity and education and all this kind of stuff.

(58:38):
But one of the things that does, I'll have to
say is that talent and gifts, they are equally provided
through all the races and and and and ages. Everybody
talent is equally distributed. However, opportunity is not equally equally distributed.

Speaker 16 (58:57):
And that's what we're fighting for. The new project, My
Journey drops in the first quarter of twenty twenty five.
Thank you for sharing your journey with us and those
inspirational words for our young black brothers. They really need
to hear that. We all need to hear that. Thank
you again. This is Doug Davis. You're listening to the
Black Perspective on the BION.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
Thanks Doug, and that's our program for this week. For
more on these stories, listen to the Black Information Network
on the free iHeartRadio app or log onto binews dot
com for all of the latest news impacting the black community.
Also be sure to follow us on social media at
Black Information Network and on x at black info Net.

(59:35):
Mike Island wishing everyone a great Sunday. Be sure to
tune in next week at this time for another edition
of The Black Perspective right here on the Black Information
Network