Transcript
LIVE FROM THE SUMMIT: Why Sickle Cell Awareness Matters
Lunchbreak with Ray & Shannon · Fri Sep 25, 2026
You're listening to The Lunch Break with Ray Nitty and maybe Shannon, where every discussion is on the menu on the award-winning 1017 The Truth.
What
Welcome back.
Welcome back to the award-winning 10170True.
Live, live, live, y'all, from Thrive On King.
We are at Diversity Sick of Sales Summit, man.
We just heard from Dr. Melissa Azul who shared some amazing information with us, man.
She shared some amazing information with us.
Oh, my bad, Shannon.
That's actually for me.
If I'm not mistaken.
But one of them are.
We are live here.
Appreciate y'all for joining us.
The summit is just getting started.
I see hunger, task force in the building.
Shannon, I'm hungry as ever right now, too.
I see greater Milwaukee.
Urban League is in the building.
I see the medical college, the children's.
Children's Medical Center in Wisconsin is in the building.
It's a bunch of amazing people here, man.
How you feeling, Shannon?
Man.
I'm feeling good, Ray.
I got a little something on the menu, Ray.
me?
Stretch out before I read this.
Mental gymnastics here.
Anywho, join 101.7, the truth for our first Pink and Blue Health Summit in partnership with.
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Man y'all don't miss it.
Y'all might be at Chula Vista.
Yeah.
Y'all
setting y'all up for success.
Get a Chula Vista.
You want me at the resort to get four free passes?
Man.
Beautiful.
Wait they said a food voucher or something too.
They said somebody's food right?
Man.
Living it up.
Living it up.
Look, y'all got all the touches.
Y'all been setting it up over there on these breaks.
I see
I see you shining.
Definitely, definitely.
That's all right.
Yeah, I was just going to.
No, you can recap because I was going to get right into the conversation.
So I like, I like to recap some things.
Don't tell the people we was talking
Yeah, no, I was just about to, you know, re-center the conversation for the folks that may have just been joining us.
Yeah.
You know, on the menu now, we've been putting this item off for a couple of days now, but we finally got to it, right?
And now we're talking about the converse controversy where they put out an ad and they can say what they want, but clearly this was the image of a clang hood.
and pictures of what looks like a hanging body.
And you can't tell me, first of all, first of all, converse, if you thought that was a good ad, beyond you saying that we just didn't see the racial stuff and we missed it, then the ad itself was even more stupid.
Because who the hell stands in the room with shoes?
That's crazy.
We
just lost stupid ad like that's a stupid stupid ad and that person should be fired just for the sake of thinking The ad without the racial tone was a good ad.
It's a dumb ad.
It doesn't make you want to buy Converse they could have just did I got a ad for you Converse.
How about the classic?
The classic just
Tie it up and throw it on the electrical line ad and take a picture of the converse there.
That would have been a better ad.
I give you that one for free.
No, I'm not.
As a matter of fact, I want my reparations for it.
Give me that same $500,000.
Come on now.
Look.
But even then, shoes on an electricity wire, doesn't that signify that somebody was, you know, killed on that?
So it's like, I feel like that would be that could be looked at just as equally as like, what are we doing here?
Well, I mean, it's a step up because at least somebody was killed by someone else and not a landsman.
We're getting where we got to
Look, let me snowball my idea here.
Just take it back to when people used to play basketball.
Do dunk on the rim and call it a day.
What
happened to the like Mike stuff
I do wonder right I do wonder though like like
Like I said, I personally feel like they want to get us adjusted to see in this type of stuff They want to get us used to seeing this type of stuff again Because now it's too far gone and we've accepted so many little things that added up to now We're in this big situation because that's how a lot of things happen, right?
Or I don't know I don't know if it's the DI thing like if they fired everybody and they genuinely just oh, this is a great idea and didn't see it pass by
I'm just wondering what the angle is here.
And then also I think you raised a good point too.
They're probably just trying to continue to keep us divided.
That may be it as well.
So I'm just genuinely baffled and wondering where, where is this going?
What's the reason?
images
We've probably mentioned Converse way more times than we mentioned Truth, our own brand station that we work for.
So think of all the brand recognition that they get, whether it's good or bad.
You know, they're pushed up in the algorithm right now because everybody's pissed off at Converse.
Or, you know, where maybe the difficult thing or the thing we should be working is how do we just start to ignore it and take our money out of those products?
take our energy, our attention and our money away from it.
And maybe that's what we need to get good at as a community.
Right.
Right.
I do.
I do agree.
I said it before.
I feel like somebody needs to make a knockoff brand where it's look, knockoff enough where you know it's not there and take all a business where you feel good about wearing the knockoff.
Like, yeah, that's what I think.
Somebody needs to have a knockoff brand.
You
As long as it's a message behind it, like we taking y'all idea and y'all can't do nothing about it.
I
I ain't gonna wear the knockoff ones from Walmart.
I'm gonna wear the ones that are intentional.
I will wear some intentional knockoff.
Something like that look just like the converse probably use the same factory.
Take all the money I give it to him and then put something.
The
intentional too.
No, it ain't intentional enough.
I
need a black business owner to come forward and knock all that stuff off.
Do it with intention.
That's what I'm thinking.
comments in the chat, Ray.
Yep, we got some comments in the chat.
Jasmine Jazz West said, changing DNA, question mark.
She also called Rosie as daddy.
What do you mean?
Robert Lane said, God held up.
My apologies, man.
You joining the lunch break crew.
We outside.
Everybody outside today.
Brother Z in the studio, but we all outside.
We outside for real.
Right.
Looking around.
There's a lot going on.
You could tell.
Man,
it's am I pronouncing that right?
Akpen Blake.
Akpon.
Akpon Blake.
It lets you know what drugs are being sold, not murdered.
I've never heard that one, honestly.
That's interesting about the shoe being over the
Sounds like that.
That's the understanding he
Have you heard that one before?
Okay.
Oh, look, you was trying
save it.
Don't go anywhere, Ray.
at front set a basic basketball hook with the basketball shoes through the net.
Hanging would have been fine.
Definitely.
Jasmine Jazz West said knock off or call conversations.
Hey, we don't make some conversations, but until then don't go anywhere.
We'll be right back.
What's on the menu today?
The lunch break with the rainy and maybe Shannon returns in just a moment.
You're watching The Lunch Break with Ray Nitty and maybe Shannon on the 1017th The Truth YouTube channel.
Be sure to like and subscribe
Welcome back, welcome back.
Yes, we are live at Thrive on King, man.
For the Vercity Sickness Health Summit.
We have, we have our next interview guest with us here.
We have Brother James Griffin, Community Health Navigator of Vercity.
How you feeling, man?
Good to have you here today.
Thanks for joining.
The lunch break, man.
Man, I feel good.
Thanks for having me.
So, so, before we get into the questions, you live with myself, Ray Nitty, maybe Shannon, and Brother Z Holden is down with the production itself.
Hello.
You know, that's kind of our thing.
Okay, yeah.
You like that?
I like that.
Yeah, you like that.
I like that.
That's what's happening.
Man, so we like to have fun, man.
But tell us about yourself real quick and, you know, your role and what it is that you do with Versity.
Okay, so with adversity, I'm a community health navigator.
I got into this role because I'm someone who lives with sickle cell.
And so I go out in the community and share my story and help other people know what sickle cell is and inform the community about how they get sickle cell and what they can do to prevent it and help people with sickle cell.
of course, of course.
So what kind of support do people and families tell you that they need the most?
I think they need support from the provider support really just being informed on how to treat people with sickle cell.
And so, you know, it's a lot of stigmas around the people who live with sickle cell.
They looked at his drug seekers.
They looked at his broken flyers and just people who are non compliant.
And so they need support from providers who understand them to treat their disease.
Yeah, so that looks like Showing up and advocating for people with sickle cell, you know People with sickle cell have to go to the emergency rooms a lot And they always have to take somebody with them there to make sure they get the proper treatment and so if we could connect the
There's a gap between the providers who's taking care of the people at Sickle Cell
people living with it so they can get better care.
I think that that's the best support we can get from people.
So just keep speaking up and advocating and going to the emergency rooms and
that'll help.
it.
I'm just showing up at community events.
So I go out to a lot of community events.
We table a lot of events like we're in barbershops.
We go to churches.
We go to schools to help give the information out of what sickle cell is and how they can help us do blood donations.
And just just talking about sickle cell, they can also help do funding and that funding helps goes to research it to come up with more cures and just therapies to help people with sickle cell.
Of course.
So what do you wish more people understood about living with sickle cell disease?
I know you said you also have sickle cells.
So what do you think more people should know or what do you wish people understood about living with sickle cell?
I would say the pain, you know, the day-to-day life living with sickle cells, you couldn't be in pain every day.
And so it's hard to go through life like that when you're in pain constantly or you have day-to-day pain.
So just understanding that there's times that you may not be able to show up to events or things that you want to do.
It prevents, causes stress on you because you have to think about work, taking care of family, taking care of kids.
And so that's what I want people to know.
It's like it's a daily grind living with sickle cell.
People have a lot of troubles sometimes they were sickle sale, but I think if we could support them and just have an understanding of what they're going through physically mentally, I think that it helped people who live with sickle sale.
Yeah, of course.
yeah, so groups like this is talking about sickle cell helps people but
Poor groups aren't there for adults and so children with sickle sale get a lot of support through hospitals and different organizations But I think adults is lacking just trying to get people in the room to just show up and support people who are adults who transition from that age
It's online is a good tool to use where you can see other people living with sickle sale because a lot of times people feel like they're all alone by themselves They don't have anybody that can relate to them And so you know you can go online and see people but the thing is getting people in the same room together So they see that and I think like coming to events diversity hosts or just seeking out communities to other nonprofit organizations That deal with sickle sale is a good way
him.
Of course.
So I know you did a really great job of talking about how we people can show support and what that would look like.
But can you tell us what the wider Milwaukee community can do to show support?
I would say the wider community kids just donate blood registered.
become a blood donor that helps people with sickle cell.
I say that because the treatment we require requires us to have blood transfusions.
Medication doesn't always work and help with the pain.
And so when you don't have the medication working, you need something more and that blood donation gives us health.
It gives us.
the ability to do what we want to do, stay out of the hospital and be with our families, go to Bucks games, you know, whatever we want to do.
And I think that's important that people understand the need for African-American donors because it's lacking.
It's only 4% of the whole as donors is African-American.
And so I think we got to step that number
up.
Oh, wow.
Thank you for that.
Yes.
typed in cross, see what their blood type is, donate blood.
And also, with the type and cross, you can also figure out, too, if you're a sickle cell trait carrier.
I think that's important.
You know, you get more information on that to see if you can pass that gene down to kids when you decide to have children.
So I think it's important to come out to events like that and learn about your blood, learn about what's happening in the community as far as health.
Wow.
amazing resources out there.
No, I just want to know where people can find you, where they can reach out and how they can, you know, help out.
So I'm down here at Versity so you can always come down here at Versity online.
Just just check me out.
James Griffin.
I'm out here, so.
Yeah, Versailles Drive on King.
Yeah, this is where we had the community.
And we're here because it's a lot of people in this area that live with sickle sale.
And so we wanted to be in a community where we could support those people with resources and information.
So,
So I'd imagine.
There was data that showed like, yo, this neighborhood has a high.
rate of folks and you all were very intentional like because I'd imagine traveling to a place that's offering resources far away when you have to deal with that pain or whatever and it sounds like you said they have to go often to these hospitals and stuff so I think that was very careful of you all to be like you know what let's be in the neighborhood where folks don't have to travel too far with the discomfort or whatever and they have very quick.
Rapid access to some of these resources so want to commend y'all for even putting that type of thought into it as well because a lot of people in Organizations, I think people are more so doing it now, but Location to your customer base or the people you are trying to reach is you know, sometimes often forgotten That's people's pick their locations.
So
absolutely.
It was definitely an intention
intentional and they provide other resources like helping people with careers, finding career jobs, foods, pantry, transportation.
So yes, it's a lot of good things happening.
So yeah, man, y'all make sure y'all pull up.
We are at Thrive on King.
Drive y'all.
We got the hunger task force here for diversity sick of sales summit Come get your type and see if you have the sick of sale trade and donate blood as well You just heard the facts less than 4% of the blood donate pop
population population population population is um african american so we need we need more of us to to come down and donate blood as well so man come on down hunger task force greater milwaukee urban league is here i see children's of wisconsin is here as well so yeah man anything you want to shout out before we let you go today man
No, just, um, just continue to support.
Also, um, I am an author of a book.
So I have a book called breaking silence with sickle sale.
If
check that out, if you know somebody living with sickle sale, it's a great resource to explain exactly what it is, um, too.
So you could pick that up here.
I
Amazon.
sign up.
You come down here, do a blood drive.
You get a book.
So
blood.
Donate some blood so I can get that book.
I'm going to make sure it's clean.
Make sure y'all want this blood, man.
It might got peanut butter chunks in it.
It might got chunks of peanut butter chips coming out.
So we'll go check it out, man.
But don't go anywhere, y'all.
When we come back, we'll get in to some more of the conversation right here at Thrive on King for Diversity Sick of Sales Summit.
It's the lunch break, y'all.
Don't go anywhere.
The lunch break with the Reignity and Maybe Shannon will be right back.
Until then, catch up on all the latest local news and what's happening in our community at 1017thetruth.com.
You're listening to The Lunch Break with the Reignity and Maybe Shannon, where every discussion is on the menu, on the award-winning 101 7th The Truth.
I'm
One point seven to truth man.
The award winning one on one seven to truth live live on King Drive man at thrive on.
This is we are at diversity.
Sick of sales summit.
The summit has just kicked off man.
I wish I could you know I'm a turn turn this camera so y'all can see what's going on in right now getting some information and everything.
Oh wow.
Yeah man.
This is a room full.
Everybody is packed.
Yeah.
It's packed man.
I'm trying to get down here free food to
people getting that You said I had to go get it myself though, but now you're gonna tell me it was free.
That's messed
it sound like y'all having a time over there
You know what I'm dealing with
It's going good.
It's going real good.
Everything is amazing.
Of course.
We're having a great time, man.
Okay.
Shouts out diversity though.
This is an amazing event.
Um, I can share that fact now.
It says share the fact after our second interview.
You ready for this fact?
Okay, let's hear it.
As a matter of fact, before I share the fact, before I share the fact, I have something on the menu.
Okay.
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All right.
You ready for the fact, Shannon?
That's what's up.
let's hear
I got some facts for y'all.
One fact, one fact.
Here's a verified fact from the CDC.
Sick of cell disease is inherited.
It affects red blood cells.
which carry oxygen through the body.
If you're at the summit today, take a moment to speak with a guest speaker or adversity team member and learn more about the people and families affected by it.
That is our first fact of the day.
We got some more facts that we're gonna be sharing, Shannon.
We got some more facts that we'll be sharing.
Super excited to
hear those.
that converse
but also
I saw a comment that caught my eye, right?
So it says mean the two cold 2960 made a comment, right?
And it snuck by while we were having our converse conversation
about, you know, who's in those rooms, what's going on, how does this continue to happen?
And the comment says, did you Google the ads backstory?
It was made in Korea by Koreans.
Don't think the clan is big in Korea, but don't let facts stop an ignorant victim hood rant.
Pause.
So this is what I want to say, right?
Is somebody that...
knows people from many different backgrounds.
I also know people that are not born and raised in the States, including Korea and other places like that.
And no, I would say the Klan probably isn't big in Korea, right?
But they also do have an influence on culture out there and what they think of black people and what they think is acceptable.
I had a friend tell me she was raised, and I believe the Philippines or something.
She said the first time she saw a black person.
She was calling them to inward because she thought that it was acceptable and thought it was normal.
So you cannot sit here and tell me that that didn't have some type of influence over the decision.
And the same question still stands before you made the decision to.
make this ad and post it in America.
There are so many steps that have to be taken before something gets approved to be posted.
This ain't just your backyard boogie where you just posting a flyer.
There is multiple people that have to OK this before it goes out.
So somebody should have said pause.
This is going to America and this can look like this.
So no, this is not a victim hood rant.
It's a reality.
Also moving onward, speaking of Korean.
We just had not a few I believe almost a few months ago.
There was a music video by a large K-pop group that was going viral because there was I believe five Koreans that ended up coming to America and they couldn't find a place to go to school and they ended up going to Howard University, right?
We have this big K-pop group I guess quote-unquote paying homage to those Koreans that went to that university and in that video they depicted themselves singing
at Howard mind you most of the crowd was white in that video so again that makes enough at the same point why is nobody saying hey these black communities gave you a chance they should be depicted properly in your music video that's all i'm
so no not a victim hood rant
Um, you know what that comment that person said because I'm gonna tell you this I Don't give a damn if the KKK Ain't being in Korea.
They ain't hanging niggas in Korea Okay, but Korea knows about the injustices that black people face in this country.
So don't Bring another insensitive ignorant comment to our post.
How about that?
about another hood rant.
This ain't no hood rant.
This is about a community that is always getting these type of things being thrown in a face by every culture, not just KKK.
Let's be clear about that.
Okay?
By every culture, Shannon just told you all about the K-pop community that was doing it.
And that's the thing.
We allow everybody to play in our face and go unchecked.
I don't give a damn if it started in Korea.
Converse is what kind of company?
Are they based in America?
So you telling me this American company had a Korean ad and they didn't see nothing that came out before.
The ad was released.
That's another example of people always making excuses for the BS that we got to live through on a daily basis.
And they want us to be desensitized to these type of things.
So to hell with that comment.
Well, let me stop this.
Oh,
being overly sensitive.
Exactly.
Another comment made to make it seem like we're overdoing it again.
Turn the water up just a little at a time and then you don't even.
Well, how do we end up in this situation?
Well, I can tell you
exactly how.
As as if
calling it out.
And even if they even if they quote unquote didn't know better, well, now you do.
Now educate yourself.
You got people literally you have people literally Race is just because the proximity to whiteness and they feel like this makes me feel better And this makes me feel closer to whiteness if I also hate these people we ain't did nothing to y'all
I digress
my bad look I read that over the break like
Won't you let that go another hood ran?
Anyways, where was we pivoting to Ray?
They don't
Man
bit more time we can stay here Ray
to talk about the Nolan Wales Updates as well because it's been a lot of that but we could spend the last couple minutes on talking about this um converse ad and The other reason why I think that's it's a very ignorant comment for that person to say because Just because something was
Imp I'll give you this example And it might be a terrible example, but I'm gonna give it anyway, right?
You know what I ain't even gonna give it I'ma just say this Just because something is in Korea that doesn't mean it's a it's not impacting People in a negative way here just because it stemmed from Korea that doesn't mean it's not impacting people in a negative way here
the Holocaust didn't happen in America, okay?
But Jewish people are still impacted by whatever is, was a byproduct of the hate that stemmed from what's going on there and it traveled over here.
Palestinians are still experiencing stuff here in America.
So I don't understand what impacts people does not, it don't stop by,
who created it or where it was created from.
So because it was created by a Korean, they don't know what KKK was.
You telling me not one Korean know what the Ku Klux Klan was?
I would like to think the vast majority of this nation or this country or this planet knows what that white pointy wack hood means.
It's not even fashionable.
But I got that grass, Shannon.
Man,
listen, don't go anywhere, y'all.
We're going to get back into it right after these messages.
You are listening to the award-winning 101.7, the truth.
What's on the menu today?
The lunch break with the Ray and Eddie and maybe Shannon returns in just a moment.
You're watching The Lunch Break with Ray and Nitty and maybe Shannon on the 1017th The Truth YouTube channel.
Be sure to like and subscribe
today.
What
Welcome
It'd be like that.
I
can't win.
It's been a day, right?
It's been a day.
You, you, you, you, it's all right.
I can't win.
we've been cooking meat all day.
starving.
I don't feel like you standing on that.
Well, you know what?
Hunger Task Force is in the building.
Shout out to Hunger Task Force in the building, man.
It's a lot going on here, y'all.
It's an amazing amazing event like we said the summit has started The room is full too.
So it looks like it's only about I Think I only see about five most seats in there man.
So if you're trying to get down here, I would say come right now, okay?
The room is filling up.
It's lunch time to his lunch time.
Oops, so I'm sorry.
I'm sorry
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
over there.
Man, I have.
I have it super disheartening.
Um, a grand jury did decide not to indict anybody, correct?
Um, I actually read like
One thing that said that one of the messages was like somebody questioning whether or not the people on that island were racist So it kind of gives you the Idea of what environment he was in if his other friends are questioning what's going on around here or if they're they're kind of racist So it definitely paints a paints a better picture of what was happening In those final moments for sure
I can't remember exactly what they um Excuse me what they are labeled those as but there were some questionable messages Right that asked those questions like oh, did you see those guys they were standing behind us?
Yeah, some of them looked real feeling like like saying stuff like that
But then also to something that stood out to me Shannon was they was reading like the full autopsy report right and something that stood out was They ruled this Accidental drowning right?
But they found no no water in his lungs
or stomach.
Yup.
For some reason.
Crazy.
You know, I, I don't know.
I always thought that drowning means you, you took in, you took in some sort of water.
Like, I don't know how you drown without having any in your lungs, no water in your lungs or stomach.
So, maybe
You can help me understand that, Shannon.
And then the other thing I want to sit with you is yesterday, we talked about how interesting it was that this isn't even being brought up, right?
That if you know somebody's kid is missing and you have their phone, the kid's phone, why would you not call the parent and be like, hey,
I know Nolan meant a lot to our kids.
We still have his phone.
They didn't find his phone until the same day they found his body.
And she had to track it to the parent's house.
So I wanted to see what was the reason for holding on to that.
Mm-hmm.
You know
what I'm saying?
Like I said, like you said, I've never heard of a drowning where water wasn't taken in.
How did he drown before he got into water?
Because that like it sounds like if he's not breathing he wouldn't be taking in water, right?
Correct.
So he wasn't breathing before he was found in that water That's what it tells me and I also did see that there was bruising in the back of his head the back
body So clearly they were beating him from behind basically and he obviously passed away and then he was put into the water which is super disheartening and like it genuinely Sucks to have meant that
Some of our lives just won't be protected the way we would hope it would be because how does a grand jury even come to that type of conclusion?
It's super sad to even hear and I'm man prayers to those parents you also do like I Had a thought about like the Carmelo Anthony case and about what's going on with the Nolan Wells case It's super sad because we want to give our kids a better life.
We want to give them better education We want them to have a diverse
background of friends and all these things but at the same time at what cost like Man, it's just the scary thoughts I have and I don't even know what the solution is for that
Yeah, and then the other thing Shannon I wanted to sit with you right and get your thoughts on was In this report They talk have you ever heard?
I felt like I only noticed this when this full report came out, right?
So they said it was about 43 witnesses.
And all of a sudden, there's this one witness who happened to so, who just so happened to see Nolan Wells slip awkwardly off of the boat, off of a boat at 330, at an exact time, 330.
Really?
Nobody saw any of this before, but all of a sudden,
I'm just hearing for the first time somebody saying they saw him slip off.
Oh, yeah, I did
my right.
I guess it was a what do you call anonymous tipster, huh?
Like
crazy like that.
like exactly.
Y'all want to play?
It's like one of those things where okay, you saw him slip off the boat and then what you just kind of let him frolic in the water.
What
Crazy.
It doesn't make sense.
And like they said before, somebody else said that, oh, in the beginning, the claim was that he stayed with a girl and the girl was like, I don't know what y'all talk about.
What are we talking about here?
So it's interesting to hear how this story changes and how nothing really makes sense and nothing is.
connects the dots to make it sound like you can't convince us that he drowned.
And I guess that would be another victim hood rant, according to some people.
But it's not.
It's the facts.
It's
actually
looking at these people with some type of care.
There is no time and space where this could have happened to any other race.
And it'd be a group of black boys and nothing happened.
We see what happens when a group of black boys get accused of something they didn't do.
Man, you don't even need no proof.
proof pointed to him trying to get away.
right?
hood mentality, right?
Right?
so.
him the length of a
scared
getting chased around
random man with a gun right
Didn't
for after they acquitted him.
Yep
Didn't get revealed that that same man had done it before after they acquitted him.
It was something else that came up before with I don't I can't remember if it was a I Can't remember what it was, but it was something that got revealed that was very like suspect, but it was I feel like it was involving him and his son This time mm-hmm in my opinion.
Yeah, but Yep, so
Yeah, man, as you know, just just our random ignorant hood rants, I guess for today.
Like we don't like we not seeing these things happen.
Right.
But right before we go, I got a little something on the menu.
Let me let me tell them a little something about what's on the menu real quick.
Go
ahead, Shannon.
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Thank you for rocking with us.
the lunch break crew.
Hey, Milwaukee, it's Ray Nitty.
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Thank you, y'all, for your time.
We are out.
Shannon, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for rocking with us, man.
Follow your host guys.
Thank you.
Every discussion is on the menu on the award-winning
Ma'am, I'm feeling good.
Super excited to hear what the community organizes, the researchers, the navigators, and the, you know, the guests have to say about this organization.
Excited to hear what y'all got going on over there, how it came to be, so.
1017 is a number to dial.
Uh if you know, if you know anybody that's been impacted by sick or if you had an experience with it, please give us a call.
We'd like to share the stories.
We'd like to hear your truth.
Share your truth with us.
833-212-1017 is a number to dial.
833-212-1017 is a number to dial.
Shannon, talk to me.
Man, so yesterday we didn't get to the converse conversation.
I was thinking we could slide that in before you slide in.
Let's
was
saying.
I got my back.
I'm best with our cousin.
They don't listen.
They be they be only.
Yeah.
Save
Look, what y'all doing back there?
Let's let's let's get into it.
Let's not distracting me.
So, tell the people what.
So, converse is
Converse has pulled another sneaker ad after the people said that this image looks far more disturbing than the shoe camp than the new campaign, right?
So the ad featured a K-pop star, which personally K-pop in black culture.
We got some conversations to have about that as well, but this is not the conversation we have right now.
So I'm going to continue.
Pop was promoting converse Chuck 70 X. She's wearing a castle in skirt or white and she's standing under a star shaped spotlight holding a black top high sneaker.
Critics said that the light that is casted on her skirt almost looks like the tip of the star is on the white skirt so it looks like a KKK hood.
and they also said that the shoes just dangling from her hand next to it could be you know it evokes the it evokes the image of a lynching victim right so viewers um interpretations of the image
like got
out
and people kind of had a lot to say about it and it definitely does even a little show over there like what are we doing dude but I got grass man we got the image pulled up on 101.7 the truth on YouTube so if you want to see the image if you have not seen the image make sure you head over to YouTube and so you can see it here live we got it pulled up for you right so
the viewers interpretations of the image, Converse has said it was not intended to depict either one of those things, right?
Then people brought up the Converse image from a separate campaign, shared by Converse Malaysia, right?
So the separate campaign showed two models climbing a wooden ladder towards shoes that were hanging from a tree branch.
And seeing those images together created even more.
backlash and made their point even stronger that maybe Something's going on right like you would think you would think with these two images being so Volking maybe maybe somebody in the back rooms would have been like yo, we're doing something wrong, but no they posted it whatever Converse apologized and said it had removed the ads from its channels and was working to remove it
Everywhere that it has appeared, the company said it understood why the image was deeply upsetting and that they had gotten it wrong.
But when Associated Press asked how the ad was approved and reviewed, converse declined to answer.
Of course they did, because they said, we don't need that DEI mess.
That's probably exactly what happened.
They probably cut half the black people that they had, and they probably only had two.
Anywho um and that's the question we want to answer right?
Converse is owned by Nike and this image had to be photographed It had to be selected and posted and how many people saw along the way This was the same questions that I asked when we talked about Target in their mess right when they had that Halloween costume that looked like like you know it looked like some racist depictions So how many people saw it along the way and didn't recognize?
what people would see it as, right?
Because easily we all looked at it and saw the same thing.
It wasn't
that
hard to look at it and feel uncomfortable, right?
Right away.
The company has not explained its approval process and they declined to when that question came up.
What was your approval process?
Which kind of makes me sigh.
I am because like I said, it makes me think y'all cut the DEI folks.
Y'all cut the black people feeling like they don't deserve us by you ended up in these situations or they're doing it purposely.
That's what I personally think.
I feel like
They're conditioning us to be used to seeing this type of imagery again Like you ever heard the saying right where they say if you turn the water up little by little people wouldn't even know they're boiling Yeah, that's that's what I think people are doing Anyhoo Yeah, but like people you don't realize how hot it is because if you turn it up little by little
So I genuinely think that's exactly what they're doing.
They're feeding us these small things until we just get used to seeing it again.
That's what I personally think.
Louisiana Congressman Troy Carter called for Nike and Converse to explain how the campaign was approved into an independent investigation.
The Congressional Black Caucus also said it wants to meet with Nike executives about the campaign and company's responsibility to the communities that it supports.
So, cousins, the first time you saw this image, what did you see?
Because I did have a few people comment and say, I'm not seeing what you're all talking about.
And I think a lot of times people that don't understand what we're talking about or see what we're talking about probably aren't as well-versed in, like, certain aspects of history.
Because right away I saw it and I was like, whoops, it's clear as day.
Man,
Shoulders even.
that it
was, uh, you know, I thought it was somebody standing up like somebody in a skirt standing up and then somebody hanging.
That's what it looked like.
And you can't tell me like, like, come on, man.
And that's what we was talking about yesterday Shannon is like we keep letting people play in our face We keep letting these companies Put these type of images out and then just be able to backpedal with our I'm sorry and a PR statement We don't ever really pull our finances out of these companies.
We don't ever commit to it
the
Gucci and Louis Vuitton Gucci made a whole monkey out of fools out of us put black face red lips on a damn sweater and tried to tell us it was a turtleneck, you know, so and then you had Floyd Mayweather going right into Gucci like I Boycott Gucci, I'm gonna go ahead spend 70,000 right now and
That's part of the
on the
While y'all figure that out we gonna bring out what we got a call from Al.
He was the way in on this subject.
I'm gonna let you figure out your
background.
Hi Al.
Well I feel like this everybody want to Google God God with a racism project.
That's how I feel about it.
See the problem is y'all ain't had y'all ass beat out your socks and your drawers.
So if we can tickle and calculate
Put your weapons down and get your ass speed like your daddy used to do your mama when he used to walk around the house and his tidy white is when he used to help your sister down.
Now, laugh at that.
That's why y'all so effed up in the head because y'all want to use this racism.
But when it's time for you to get your ass speed, you want to call the police.
Let's put the weapons down if you want to be racist.
Let's beat your ass out your socks and drawers.
And then you can go ask your mama why you put your backers on my shoulder.
And why did you lay in the bed and let your daddy molest me while he was sitting there and ducking in my ass.
How about that?
Oh, good question.
Shannon.
Man, well, thank you, Al.
Definitely appreciate you calling in as always.
Okey-dokey just
reply.
Okay.
Have a good
just... Hey, cousin.
Don't go anywhere.
The lunch break with Rayonetti and maybe Shannon will be right back on the award-winning 1017 The Truth.
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You're listening to The Lunch Break with Ray Nitty and maybe Shannon, where every discussion is on the menu on the award-winning 1017 The
Truth.
Yes, it is lunchtime.
Man, we are live at Thrive on King for diversity, sick of sales summit, man.
It's a bunch of vendors pulling up still, man.
They getting set up in here.
It's a lot of people.
The place is buzzing, man.
We having an amazing time already.
Hey, the blueberry lemonade is fire, by the way, man.
If you ever on King Drive and looking for a nice, refreshing beverage.
Can't hear me.
Yeah They said they can't hear me But um few ever all king driving looking for a refreshing beverage make sure you pull up to thrive on King man We have our first interview is gonna be starting soon Shannon, but I was still waiting for them to get here But let's get back into this converse conversation Let's get back into it.
I see you got your banner in the back, too
Yeah,
Brother Zeke with a bop, man.
Look, I was trying not to dance because Sherwin was gonna say, look, you're dancing like everybody else.
What do you mean, you got to stand in the
Zeke came with a hit.
I gotta listen to that whole song now.
see they was
Look, not at all.
Not that they asked.
into it.
You know what?
I can hear that.
I can hear that too.
Give that to him.
Give that to him.
Hey, OK.
Yeah, so I thought about Owls' call, right?
I was thinking about I was caught while we were on break, right?
And I think he right.
Some people ain't used to being socked in the face.
Well, you know what?
I got a refrain from Suggesting things to people.
Oh, that's not
You know, but remember that there was a There was an airport video Right like last week that went viral and that man was sitting waiting for his flight or something.
It was like a black guy
And there was a younger white dude sitting waiting for his flight as well.
And they were having some type of argument, right?
You could tell the black guy was trying to walk off.
And the white man continuously was like yelling things at him.
And then he started calling him the N-word, right?
And the black guy turned on and just gives him a three piece with a biscuit.
You know what I'm saying?
He didn't know what he asked for.
Like you could tell he was trying to walk away from the situation.
He ended up like turning around and like beating the dude up and you could the thing that like always behooves me right is a lot of times in these situations They be shocked that they got hit like he was sitting there like oh my goodness Like you could tell like he wasn't even prepared wasn't prepared to defend himself and I think sometimes people are so
emboldened to do things, especially with like people doing stuff online and people acting a certain and whether having to face any type of repercussions.
I think they get used to just being able to do whatever they want to.
Like the shock that that made the feel when he caught that three piece in a biscuit.
Like he didn't, he didn't even know, you could tell he didn't know what to do.
He stayed seated.
He ate them punches.
He was like dazed and.
So you know, maybe.
is right enough people ain't getting hit maybe I'm just that I'm just you know just thinking I like song
he
No.
I'm talking about.
No, I'm talking about a separate video.
Yeah, that's a different one.
And literally like was arguing with another passenger to board the flight.
And yeah, he was trying to walk away from the situation.
The guy was just like super like nonchalantly.
And like the dude turned around like, dude, what?
After you start yelling slurs at.
doing?
I'm fine.
How are we doing today?
I am fine, I was just listening and I heard you say about the sickle cell and I didn't know people at sickle cell and I know you have to get the test you know so you know like the husband and wife don't both have sickle cell traits so I know a little bit about that stuff a little bit now but I was just calling to say um now this is a strategy with uh you were talking about uh Mikey
and
I think it's
Yeah, it's just a strategy because, you know, they want to keep us divided and fighting amongst each other.
So this is anything they can because, like, with this hanging, with a shirt or something, they had a hanging or something, I think they want to keep us divided and fighting within ourselves.
And if people don't wake up, they're going to find themselves in a critical condition because we shouldn't have to fight.
Number one, we advertise for free.
If I buy a Nike shirt, I'm advertising for them sweet.
And when they advertise on the radio, they got the pay.
know, or TV.
So if we're buying your product, you need to be right, you know, about us and stop trying to possess as your royal enemy.
We're not your enemies.
I know a lot of ladies bought Gucci's and stuff.
I never bought it.
I wasn't going to pay that kind of money for that stuff.
I didn't look at how the stuff was made because a lot of stuff was made in China, wherever, but they made it.
We don't have the assembly lines we had.
Now when I grew up and I had a job, I worked the assembly line.
But you don't have that no more.
So now you've got machines for not the stuff.
You've got one man operating the machine.
So a lot of jobs are cut.
I think they want us to fight and kill each other.
Because they're cutting the jobs and not telling you how many.
I heard Anderson Cooper say 90% of the jobs want to be cut.
Well, if the machines are automated, come here now.
You don't need us anymore.
So you play games, tell the truth about America, tell the truth about what's going on, and go back and see how things are made to see how many people are on these jobs versus... I started working in 2016.
I'm 77 now.
Go back and see how many people were on jobs and how many jobs completed now.
She she's right.
We are the ones that promote their businesses and we're willing to spend money and you know, sometimes what I believe though is spy hate.
Outweighs what logic should should tell them right like man these people spend money with us there like you know there We literally are the blueprint for what was cool people look to us for whatever is you know I'm saying what?
What's cool, so it's almost like we want to believe like okay We spend money with y'all we make your things pop we make it cool put it in our music videos We promote it for free like she said and you would think give us respect, but it just doesn't and like I said the other day
I don't believe in rewarding bad behavior.
I just don't.
I'm not going to spend my money where somebody is literally showing us that they don't want our money.
They don't want to respect us.
They don't care what we think.
And you can tell even when these things happen, right?
You can tell that there aren't people in those rooms to tell them, hey, that don't look right.
Something about that is not going to sit right with this community.
Or if they do, they just don't care and it's overlooked because there's no reason.
So many people saw the same thing.
A few people did not see it.
That's true.
But most people looked at that image and they had a visceral reaction where they were like, ooh, something is not right here.
You know, so like I said, they just don't care at this point.
to
oh, yeah
got to
It's a certain sector of our community that really don't care about it and That's another reason why
We aren't organized.
And it's not just about always protests, protests, protests.
It's about unifying.
It's about coming together and actually being a block, like a financial block, a voting block.
And, you know, I just feel like we've yet to get serious about it, but we always complain.
We complain about everything.
We blame elected officials.
We blame...
politicians, but we've yet to take ownership of ourselves of what we can control.
We ain't even holding ourselves accountable yet.
So how the hell are we going to hold a converse accountable?
How are we going to hold Louis Vuitton accountable?
So that's just my thoughts.
I think we always like to talk about kids.
and always starts at home.
Well, community starts with us as first as well, too.
We're going to keep getting our face played with and we're going to just keep being
in these
issue.
man
But I also think that's by design as well I Just think that's also by design for sure
But it looks like we have to go to break, and we're going to be right back with a really exciting interview after this break.
Don't go anywhere, you guys.
You're listening to the award-winning 101.7 The Truth.
All right,
don't go anywhere.
Hey, cousin.
Don't go anywhere.
The lunch break with Rayonetti and maybe Shannon will be right back on the award-winning 101.7 The Truth.
You're listening to The Lunch Break with Ray Nitty and maybe Shannon, where every discussion is on the menu on the award-winning 1017 The Truth.
Feeling great.
You live
you.
Yeah, I'm feeling great being here.
This is amazing what Thrive on King, Vercity has done to raise awareness about sickle cell disease and bring people together from all walks of life.
The community, researchers, patients, families, all coming together to talk about a disorder that needs a lot of awareness.
into
I'm ready to jump right in.
I'll take it, right?
Let's go.
What is the main message that you want people to take away from your presentation today?
You know, sickle cell disease, it's a blood disorder that children, babies are born with.
The advancements that we have had both in science and medicine have really helped babies now born with sickle cell live a long life into adulthood.
And now that we've done such a great job in taking care of these patients, now we need to make sure that they thrive once they become adults.
And so, you know, it's a lifelong illness, but we've made such a huge progress in...
taking care of our patients and now we got to work on the next steps.
I got a question
Yeah, one of the questions I feel like I hear the most is how did I get this?
How did I get this disorder, this blood disorder and sickle cell disease is passed down so it's inherited.
from parents.
And so,
like I said, your baby will be born with it if people with trait, sickle cell trait, have a baby together.
And so a lot of people don't know that they have sickle cell trait.
And so it's important to know, you know, your genetics so that you have the knowledge of what the risks are for your potential baby.
you got some
Yeah, great question.
So every baby born in the United States now gets screened for sickle cell and sickle cell trait.
You get that information when the baby is first born having trait, but then you might not remember that when you become an adult
having
trait.
And so many people with trait, not all people, but many people with sickle cell trait, they don't know that they have it.
They don't have any symptoms.
It doesn't come up on routine blood work.
And so it's very, very possible that you wouldn't know it when you are in your adult life.
If you are having a baby with somebody and wanting to know, then you can ask for getting tested for it.
They probably wasn't
And that's kind of what I'm curious about.
Do you know when they started doing this screening?
Oh yeah, it's been mandated in all 50 states.
I want to say since the early 2010s, I think the last state was somewhere in the Northwest.
But in Wisconsin specifically, Wisconsin might have had it earlier.
I just can't recall off the top of my head.
Okay, for sure.
So what developments in care or research are you most interested in Sharon?
Yeah, man, there's been so much development and research in sickle cell in the last decade.
We really have had quite a bit of advancement.
The biggest thing that comes to mind now is I mentioned that sickle cell is inherited.
It's a lifelong illness, but we are now curing sickle cell disease with something called a bone marrow transplant.
So we replace
the
cell factory in the person who has sickle cell with a new cell factory or a new bone marrow that doesn't have sickle cell.
And so after that transplant they're completely cured, which is amazing.
A lifelong illness has now been taken away.
The availability of bone marrow transplant has really grown leaps and bounds in the last decade for sure.
It's becoming more available to people.
But then on top of that, we have something now called gene therapy, which is similar but a little different to bone marrow transplant in that rather than completely eliminating the sickle cell, we kind of alter the DNA structure of someone to help.
reduce the amount of sickle cell that they have in their body.
And so both of those things have dramatically changed how people are thinking about and living with sickle cell today.
make sickle cell as
amazing
in Milwaukee right now, man.
We are live at King Drive, man.
If you are not aware of what's going on and you're just joining us in your car, we are broadcasting live from the Versaity Sick of Sales Summit at Live on King Drive, at Thrive on King Drive, I'm sorry, Thrive on King Drive, y'all.
So if you're here, pull up, come check out some of these resources.
It's amazing education going on.
I got one more piggyback question, Shannon, and I know you got another question.
So, for somebody like myself, I'm 42 years old, I wasn't born in Wisconsin, I was born, chill out.
I was born in the US Virgin Islands and you know I'm not sure what type of screening we were doing back then in 1984 you know is that something that you know if I had like a surgery or something they would have they would have shared that with me or would you suggest somebody of my age should you know get get screened and see if I carry the trait
Yeah, I think it's good to know, no matter who you are, whether or not you're carrying the trait, it is not something that would be screened for if you were going for a surgery.
Like I
said, with
routine medical care, you would have to, you know, at 42 years old, you would have to specifically ask for the screening from your doctor, from your primary doctor.
would've had it already if I didn't know, right?
I will say, if you do have children, they would've been screened for it.
Yeah, they would've been screened for it, and you would've known.
Got
I can't say for certain.
For sure.
So where can the listeners find reliable and support?
Yeah, good question.
The first place to always start is with your primary medical provider.
They could probably point you in directions specific to whatever questions you have about sickle cell disease, about screening and things like that.
There's really great websites to look to.
Here in Milwaukee, the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin has a site for sickle cell disease.
And as for the adults, Freidert also has a site for sickle cell disease with very reliable information.
Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, the SCDAA, has really great resources as well.
The CDC also has great resources in so many places to look for reliable information.
And then you'd be surprised just ask around in your communities I think a lot more people might be affected than you might think around you
No, I think that I think that is it she did amazing and I've learned some things that I definitely didn't know and it's your interview I was like wow
You're listening to The Lunch Break with Ray Nitty and maybe Shannon, where every discussion is on the menu on the award-winning 1017 The Truth.
What
Welcome back.
Welcome back to the award-winning 10170True.
Live, live, live, y'all, from Thrive On King.
We are at Diversity Sick of Sales Summit, man.
We just heard from Dr. Melissa Azul who shared some amazing information with us, man.
She shared some amazing information with us.
Oh, my bad, Shannon.
That's actually for me.
If I'm not mistaken.
But one of them are.
We are live here.
Appreciate y'all for joining us.
The summit is just getting started.
I see hunger, task force in the building.
Shannon, I'm hungry as ever right now, too.
I see greater Milwaukee.
Urban League is in the building.
I see the medical college, the children's.
Children's Medical Center in Wisconsin is in the building.
It's a bunch of amazing people here, man.
How you feeling, Shannon?
Man.
I'm feeling good, Ray.
I got a little something on the menu, Ray.
me?
Stretch out before I read this.
Mental gymnastics here.
Anywho, join 101.7, the truth for our first pink and blue health summit in partnership with.
the Medical College of Wisconsin Prostate Health Equity Project, Saturday, November 14th from 10 a.m.
to 1 p.m.
at Thrive on King and Milwaukee, located 2153 North Dr. MLK Drive, Junior Drive, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53212.
This free community event will bring awareness to breast cancer and prostate cancer.
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While you're there, enter for your chance to win a one night stay at Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dales, valued at $500, which includes a water park passes plus a complimentary food voucher.
Get informed, get connected and join us at the Pink and Blue Health Summit November 14th at Thrive on King.
Free registration now online available at 1017truth.com.
Man y'all don't miss it.
Y'all might be at Chula Vista.
Yeah.
Y'all
setting y'all up for success.
Get
four free passes?
Man.
Beautiful.
Wait they said a food voucher or something too.
They said somebody's food right?
Man.
Living it up.
Living it up.
Look, y'all got all the touches.
Y'all been setting it up over there on these breaks.
I see
I see you shining.
Definitely, definitely.
That's all right.
Yeah, I was just going to.
No, you can recap because I was going to get right into the conversation.
So I like, I like to recap some things.
Don't tell the people we was talking
Yeah, no, I was just about to, you know, re-center the conversation for the folks that may have just been joining us.
Yeah.
You know, on the menu now, we've been putting this item off for a couple of days now, but we finally got to it, right?
And now we're talking about the converse controversy where they put out an ad and they can say what they want, but clearly this was the image of a clang hood.
and pictures of what looks like a hanging body.
And you can't tell me, first of all, first of all, converse, if you thought that was a good ad, beyond you saying that we just didn't see the racial stuff and we missed it, then the ad itself was even more stupid.
Because who the hell stands in the room with shoes?
That's crazy.
We
just lost stupid ad like that's a stupid stupid ad and that person should be fired just for the sake of thinking The ad without the racial tone was a good ad.
It's a dumb ad.
It doesn't make you want to buy Converse they could have just did I got a ad for you Converse.
How about the classic?
The classic just
Tie it up and throw it on the electrical line ad and take a picture of the converse there.
That would have
Come on now.
Look.
But even then, shoes on an electricity wire, doesn't that signify that somebody was, you know, killed on that?
So it's like, I feel like that would be that could be looked at just as equally as like, what are we doing here?
Well, I mean, it's a step up because at least somebody was killed by someone else and not a landsman.
We're getting where we got to
go.
Look, let me snowball my idea here.
Just take it back to when people used to play basketball.
Do dunk on the rim and call it a day.
What
happened to the like
Mike stuff I do wonder right I do wonder though like like
Like I said, I personally feel like they want to get us adjusted to see in this type of stuff They want to get us used to seeing this type of stuff again Because now it's too far gone and we've accepted so many little things that added up to now We're in this big situation because that's how a lot of things happen, right?
Or I don't know I don't know if it's the DI thing like if they fired everybody and they genuinely just oh, this is a great idea and didn't see it pass by
I'm just wondering what the angle is here.
And then also I think you raised a good point too.
They're probably just trying to continue to keep us divided.
That may be it as well.
So I'm just genuinely baffled and wondering where, where is this going?
What's the reason?
publicity Mm-hmm
images
We've probably mentioned Converse way more times than we mentioned Truth, our own brand station that we work for.
So think of all the brand recognition that they get, whether it's good or bad.
You know, they're pushed up in the algorithm right now because everybody's pissed off at Converse.
Or, you know, where maybe the difficult thing or the thing we should be working is how do we just start to ignore it and take our money out of those products?
take our energy, our attention and our money away from it.
And maybe that's what we need to get good at as a community.
Right.
Right.
I do.
I do agree.
I said it before.
I feel like somebody needs to make a knockoff brand where it's look, knockoff enough where you know it's not there and take all a business where you feel good about wearing the knockoff.
Like, yeah, that's what I think.
Somebody needs to have a knockoff brand.
You
As long as it's a message behind it, like we taking y'all idea and y'all can't do nothing about
would love to.
I ain't
knockoff ones from Walmart.
I'm gonna wear the ones that are intentional.
I will wear some intentional knockoff.
Something like that look just like the converse probably use the same factory.
Take all the money I give it to him and then put something.
The
Walmart
intentional too.
No, it ain't intentional enough.
I need a black business owner to come forward and knock all that stuff off.
Do it with intention.
That's what I'm thinking.
comments in the chat, Ray.
Yep, we got some comments in the chat.
Jasmine Jazz West said, changing DNA, question mark.
She also called Rosie as daddy.
What do you mean?
Robert Lane said, God held up.
My apologies, man.
You joining the lunch break crew.
We outside.
Everybody outside today.
Brother Z in the studio, but we all outside.
We outside for real.
Right.
Looking around.
There's a lot going on.
You could tell.
Man,
it's am I pronouncing that right?
Akpen Blake.
Akpon.
Akpon Blake.
It lets you know what drugs are being sold not murdered.
I've never heard that one, honestly.
That's interesting about the shoe being over the
Sounds like that.
That's the understanding he
Have you heard that one before?
You know what?
Oh, look, you was trying
save it.
Don't go anywhere, Ray.
at one set of basic basketball hook with the basketball shoes through the net.
Hanging would have been fine.
Definitely.
Jasmine Jazz West said knock off or call conversations.
Hey, we don't make some conversations, but until then don't go anywhere.
We'll be right back.
What's on the menu today?
The lunch break with the Reignitty and Maybe Shannon returns in just a moment.
You're watching The Lunch Break with the Reignitty and Maybe Shannon on the 1017th Truth YouTube channel.
Be sure to like and subscribe today.
Yes, we are live at Thrive on King, man.
For the Vercity Sick of Sales Summit.
We have, we have our next interview guest with us here.
We have brother James Griffin, community health navigator of Vercity.
How you feeling, man?
Good to have you here today.
Thanks for joining.
The lunch break, man.
Man, I feel good.
Thanks for having me.
So, so, before we get into the questions, you live with myself, Ray Nitty, maybe Shannon, and Brother Z Holden is down with the production itself.
Hello.
You know, that's kind of our thing.
Okay, yeah.
You like that?
I like that.
Yeah, you like that.
I like that.
That's what's happening.
Man, so we like to have fun, man.
But tell us about yourself real quick and, you know, your role and what it is that you do with Vercity.
Okay, so with diversity, I'm a community health navigator.
I got into this role because I'm someone who lives with sickle sale.
And so I go out in the community and share my story and help other people know what sickle sale is and inform the community about how they get sickle sale and what they can do to prevent it and help people with sickle sale.
of course, of course.
So what kind of support do people and families tell you that they need the most?
I think they need support from the provider support really just being informed on how to treat people with sickle cell.
And so, you know, it's a lot of stigmas around the people who live with sickle cell.
They looked at his drug seekers.
They looked at his broken flyers and just people who are non compliant.
And so they need support from providers who understand them to treat their disease.
Yeah, so that looks like Showing up and advocating for people with sickle cell, you know People with sickle cell have to go to the emergency rooms a lot And they always have to take somebody with them there to make sure they get the proper treatment and so if we could connect the
There's a gap between the providers who's taking care of the people at Sickle Cell
and the
people living with it so they can get better care.
I think that that's the best support we can get from people.
So just keep speaking up and advocating and going to the emergency rooms and
that'll help.
it.
I'm just showing up at community events.
So I go out to a lot of community events.
We table a lot of events like we're in barbershops.
We go to churches.
We go to schools to help give the information out of what sickle cell is and how they can help us do blood donations.
And just just talking about sickle cell, they can also help do funding and that funding helps goes to research it to come up with more cures and just therapies to help people with sickle cell.
Of course.
So what do you wish more people understood about living with sickle cell disease?
I know you said you also have sickle cells.
So what do you think more people should know or what do you wish people understood about living with sickle cell?
I would say the pain, you know, the day-to-day life living with sickle cells, you couldn't be in pain every day.
And so it's hard to go through life like that when you're in pain constantly or you have day-to-day pain.
So just understanding that there's times that you may not be able to show up to events or things that you want to do.
It prevents, causes stress on you because you have to think about work, taking care of family, taking care of kids.
And so that's what I want people to know.
It's like it's a daily grind living with sickle cell.
People have a lot of troubles sometimes they were sickle sale, but I think if we could support them and just have an understanding of what they're going through physically mentally, I think that it helped people who live with sickle sale.
Yeah, of course.
yeah, so groups like this is talking about sickle cell helps people but
Poor groups aren't there for adults and so children with sickle sale get a lot of support through hospitals and different organizations But I think adults is lacking just trying to get people in the room to just show up and support people who are adults who transition from that age
It's online is a good tool to use where you can see other people living with sickle sale because a lot of times people feel like they're all alone by themselves They don't have anybody that can relate to them And so you know you can go online and see people but the thing is getting people in the same room together So they see that and I think like coming to events diversity hosts or just seeking out communities to other nonprofit organizations That deal with sickle sale is a good way
him.
Of course.
So I know you did a really great job of talking about how we people can show support and what that would look like.
But can you tell us what the wider Milwaukee community can do to show support?
I would say the wider community kids just donate blood registered.
become a blood donor that helps people with sickle cell.
I say that because the treatment we require requires us to have blood transfusions.
Medication doesn't always work and help with the pain.
And so when you don't have the medication working, you need something more and that blood donation gives us health.
It gives us.
the ability to do what we want to do, stay out of the hospital and be with our families, go to Bucks games, you know, whatever we want to do.
And I think that's important that people understand the need for African-American donors because it's lacking.
It's only 4% of the whole as donors is African-American.
And so I think we got to step that number
up.
Oh, wow.
Thank you for that.
Yes.
get typed in cross, see what their blood type is, donate blood.
And also, with the type and cross, you can also figure out, too, if you're a sickle cell trait carrier.
I think that's important.
You know, you get more information on that to see if you can pass that gene down to kids when you decide to have children.
So I think it's important to come out to events like that and learn about your blood, learn about what's happening in the community as far as health.
Wow.
amazing resources out there.
No, I just want to know where people can find you, where they can reach out and how they can, you know, help out.
So I'm down here at Versity so you can always come down here at Versity online.
Just just check me out.
James Griffin.
I'm out here, so.
So first he had Drive on King.
here.
Yeah, this is where we had the community.
And we're here because it's a lot of people in this area that live with sickle sale.
And so we wanted to be in a community where we could support those people with resources and information.
So
So I'd imagine.
There was data that showed like, yo, this neighborhood has a high.
rate of folks and you all were very intentional because I'd imagine traveling to a place that's offering resources far away when you have to deal with that pain or whatever.
And it sounds like you said they have to go often to these hospitals and stuff.
So I think that was very careful of you all to be like, you know what, let's be in a neighborhood where folks don't have to travel too far with the discomfort or whatever and they have very quick.
Rapid access to some of these resources so want to commend y'all for even putting that type of thought into it as well because a lot of people in Organizations, I think people are more so doing it now, but Location to your customer base or the people you are trying to reach is you know, sometimes often forgotten That's people's pick their locations.
So
absolutely.
It was definitely an intention
intentional and they provide other resources like helping people with careers, finding career jobs, foods, pantry, transportation.
So yes, it's a lot of good things happening.
So yeah, man, y'all make sure y'all pull up.
We are at Thrive on King.
Drive y'all.
We got the hunger task force here for diversity sick of sales summit Come get your type and see if you have the sick of sale trade and donate blood as well You just heard the facts less than 4% of the blood donate pop
population population population population is African American so we need we need more of us to to come down and donate blood as well so man come on down hunger task force greater Milwaukee Urban League is here I see children's of Wisconsin is here as well so yeah man anything you want to shout out before we let you go today man
No, just um, just continue to support.
Also, um, I am an author of a book.
So I have a book called breaking silence with sickle sale.
If
check that out, if you know somebody living with sickle sale, it's a great resource to explain exactly what it is.
Um, too.
So you could pick that up here.
Amazon.
sign up.
You come down here, do a blood drive.
You get a book.
So
Donate blood.
Donate some blood so I can get that book.
got
The lunch break with the Reignity and Maybe Shannon will be right back.
Until then, catch up on all the latest local news and what's happening in our community at 10170Truth.com.
You're listening to The Lunch Break with the Reignity and Maybe Shannon, where every discussion is on the menu on the award-winning 10170Truth.
What's up, what's up, you guys are back.
We are live on air.
up, y'all?
Thank you for joining us, Ray.
I'm shaking hands.
Nah, you having too much fun over there.
it.
Damn.
Yo, y'all gotta chill, man.
We are live, y'all.
One on one point, seven to truth, man.
The award-winning one on one, seven to truth, live.
Live on King Drive, man, at Thrive On.
This is, We Are At Diversity.
Sick of Sales Summit.
The summit has just kicked off, man.
I wish I could, you know, I'ma turn this camera so y'all can see.
What's going on and right now getting some information in there?
Wow?
Yeah, man, this is a room for everybody It's packed man.
I'm trying to get down here free food to people
getting that All right, really look you said I had to go get it myself though, but now you gonna tell me it was free.
That's messed
Yeah, it sound like y'all having a time over there.
You know what I'm dealing with.
It's going good.
It's going real good.
Everything is amazing.
Of course.
We're having a great time, man.
OK.
Shouts out diversity, though.
This is an amazing event.
I can share that fact now.
It says share the fact after our second interview.
You ready for this fact?
Okay.
Let's hear it
as a matter of fact Before I share the fact I have something on the menu Okay, let me do this real quick Shannon Life is better when you're covered with a home
an auto policy from American Family Assurance.
You're not just buying coverage.
You're getting an agent who helps you feel protected and prepared.
Someone who understands what you've built and what you're building next.
Because when your home and your ride are protected the right way, you're free to focus on your family, your goals, and your future.
Ensure carefully, dream fearlessly with American Family Assurance.
Get a quote or find an agent at amfam.com.
American Family Mutual Assurance.
Company SI and its operating companies, 6,000 American Parkway Madison, Wisconsin.
All right.
You ready for the fact, Shannon?
That's what's
hear it.
One fact, one fact.
Here's a verified fact from the CDC.
Sick of cell disease is inherited.
It affects red blood cells.
which carry oxygen through the body.
If you're at the summit today, take a moment to speak with a guest speaker or adversity team member and learn more about the people and families affected by it.
That is our first fact of the day.
We got some more facts that we're going to be sharing, Shannon.
We got some more facts that we'll be sharing.
Super excited to
hear those.
that converse
but also
I saw a comment that caught my eye, right?
So it says mean the two cold 2960 made a comment, right?
And it snuck by while we were having our converse conversation
about you know who's in those rooms what's going on how does this continue to happen and The comment says did you Google the ad ads backstory?
It was made in Korea by Koreans don't think the clan is big in Korea But don't let facts stop an ignorant victim hood rant pause so this is what I want to say right and somebody that
knows people from many different backgrounds.
I also know people that are not born and raised in the States, including Korea and other places like that.
And no, like I would say the Klan probably isn't big in Korea, right?
But they also do have an influence on.
Culture out there and what they think of black people and what they think is acceptable I had a friend tell me she was raised and I believe the Philippines or something She said the first time she saw a black person She was calling them the n-word because she thought that it was acceptable and thought it was normal So you cannot see her and tell me that that didn't have some type of influence over the decision and the same question still stands before you made the decision to
make this ad and post it in America.
There are so many steps that have to be taken before something gets approved to be posted.
This ain't just your backyard boogie where you just posting a flyer.
There is multiple people that have to OK this before it goes out.
So somebody should have said pause.
This is going to America and this can look like this.
So no, this is not a victim hood rant.
It's a reality.
Also moving onward, speaking of Korean.
We just had not a few I believe almost a few months ago.
There was a music video by a large K-pop group that was going viral because there was I believe five Koreans that ended up coming to America and they couldn't find a place to go to school and they ended up going to Howard University, right?
We have this big K-pop group.
I guess quote-unquote paying homage to those Koreans that went to that university and in that video they depicted themselves singing
at Howard, mind you, most of the crowd was white in that video.
So again, that makes it the same point.
Why is nobody saying, hey, these black communities gave you a chance they should be depicted properly in your music video?
That's all I'm saying.
So no, not a victim hood rant.
know
I don't give a damn if the KKK ain't being in Korea.
They ain't hanging niggas in Korea, okay?
But Korea knows about the injustices that black people face in this country.
So don't bring another insensitive, ignorant comment to our posts.
How about that?
about another hood rant.
This ain't no hood rant.
This is about a community that is always getting these type of things being thrown in a face by every culture, not just KKK.
Let's be clear about that.
Okay?
By every culture, Shannon just told you all about the K-pop community that was doing it.
And that's the thing.
We allow everybody to play in our face and go unchecked.
I don't give a damn if it started in Korea.
Converse is what kind of company?
Are they based in America?
So you telling me this American company had a Korean ad and they didn't see nothing that came out before.
The ad was released.
That's another example of people always making excuses for the BS that we got to live through on a daily basis.
And they want us to be desensitized to these type of things.
So to hell with that comment.
Yep.
Well, let me stop being so dissatisfied.
being overly sensitive.
Exactly.
Another comment made to make it seem like we're overdoing it again.
Turn the water up just a little at a time and then you don't even, well, how do we end up in this situation?
Well, I can tell
exactly how.
calling it out.
And even if they quote unquote didn't know better, well, now you do.
Now educate yourself.
No.
You got people literally you have people Literally the race is just because the proximity to whiteness and they feel like this makes me feel better And this makes me feel closer to whiteness if I also hate these people we ain't did nothing to y'all But
I digress
my bad look I read that over the break like
Won't you let that go another hood ran?
Anyways, where was we pivoting to Ray?
They don't
Man
bit more time we can stay here Ray
to talk about the Nolan Wales Updates as well because it's been a lot of that but we could spend the last couple minutes on talking about this um converse ad and The other reason why I think that's it's a very ignorant comment for that person to say because Just because something was
Imp I'll give you this example and It might be a terrible example, but I'm gonna give it anyway, right?
You know what I ain't even gonna give it I'ma just say this Just because something is in Korea that doesn't mean it's a it's not impacting People in a negative way here just because it stemmed from Korea that doesn't mean it's not impacting people in a negative way here
the Holocaust didn't happen in America, okay?
But Jewish people are still impacted by whatever is, was a byproduct of the hate that stemmed from what's going on there and it traveled over here.
Palestinians are still experiencing stuff here in America.
So I don't understand what impacts people does not, it don't stop by,
who created it or where it was created from.
So because it was created by a Korean, they don't know what KKK was.
You telling me not one Korean know what the Ku Klux Klan was?
I would like to think the vast majority of this nation or this country or this planet knows what that white pointy wack hood means.
It's not even fashionable.
But I thought that grit Shannon
Man, listen, don't go anywhere, y'all.
We're gonna get back into it right after these messages.
You are listening to the award-winning
101.7, The Truth.
What up y'all welcome back welcome back.
It'd be like that.
win.
It's been a day, right?
It's been a day.
You, you, you, you,
he been cooking me all
that's brother starving.
do you mean by
I
only
It's
over there.
Man, I have.
I have.
It's super disheartening.
A grand jury did decide not to indict anybody, correct?
Um, I actually read like one thing that said that one of the messages was like somebody questioning whether or not the people on that island were racist so it kind of gives you the
idea of what environment he was in if his other friends are questioning what's going on around here or if they're they're kind of racist so it definitely paints it paints a better picture of what was happening in those final moments for sure.
Yep you had you had some questionable I want to say was either snapchats or text messages I can't remember exactly
what they um excuse me what they uh labeled those as but there were some questionable messages right that asked those questions like oh did you see those guys they were standing behind us and like yeah some of them looked
real
yep you
I don't know how
So maybe you can help me understand that, Shannon.
And then the other thing I want to sit with you is yesterday.
We talked about how interesting it was that this isn't even being brought up, right, that if you know somebody's kid is missing and you have their phone, the kid's phone, why would you not call the parent and be like, hey, I know Nolan meant a lot to our kids.
We still have his phone.
They didn't find his phone until the same day they found his body.
And she had to track it to the parents house So I wanted to see what was the reason for holding on to that?
Mm-hmm insane like I said like you said that I've never heard of a drowning where water wasn't taken in How do you drown before he got into water because that like it sounds like if he's not breathing he wouldn't be taking in water, right?
Correct
he
wasn't breathing before he was found in that water That's what it tells me and I also did see that there was bruising in the back of his head the back
of his
body So clearly they were beating him from behind basically and he obviously passed away And then he was put into the water which is super disheartening and like it genuinely Sucks to have meant that
Some of our lives just won't be protected the way we would hope it would be because how does a grand jury even come to that type of conclusion?
It's super sad to even hear and I'm man prayers to those parents you also do like I Had a thought about like the Carmelo Anthony case and about what's going on with the Nolan Wells case It's super sad because we want to give our kids a better life.
We want to give them better education We want them to have a diverse
background of friends and all these things but at the same time at what cost like Man, it's just a scary thought to have and I don't even know what the solution is for that
it
And all of a sudden, there's this one witness who happened to so, who just so happened to see Nolan Wells slip awkwardly off of the boat, off of a boat at 330, at an exact time, 330.
Nobody saw any of this before, but all of a sudden,
I'm just hearing for the first time somebody saying they saw him slip off.
Oh, yeah, I did
my right.
I guess it was a what do you call anonymous tipster, huh?
Like it's
crazy like that.
Y'all want to
like exactly.
Yo, what a play.
It's like one of those things where okay, you saw him slip off the boat and then what you just kind of let him frolic in the water.
What
Crazy.
It doesn't make sense.
And like they said before, somebody else said that, oh, in the beginning, the claim was that he stayed with a girl and the girl was like, I don't know what I was talking about.
What are we talking about here?
So it's interesting to hear how this story changes and how nothing really makes sense and nothing is.
connects the dots to make it sound like you can't convince us that he drowned.
And I guess that would be another victim hood rant, according to some people.
But it's
not.
It's
the
facts.
It's
looking at these people with some type of care.
There is no time and space where this could have happened to any other race.
And it'd be a group of black boys and nothing happened.
We see what happens when a group of black boys get accused of something they didn't do.
Man, you don't even need no proof.
proof pointed to him trying to get away.
right?
hood mentality, right?
Right?
so.
him the length of a no
scared
getting chased around
random man with a gun right
it didn't
for after they acquitted him.
Yep
Didn't get revealed that that same man had done it before after they acquitted him.
It was something else that came out before with I don't I can't remember if it was a I Can't remember what it was, but it was something that got revealed that was very like suspect, but it was I feel like it was involving him and his son This time mm-hmm in my opinion.
Yeah, but Yep, so
You know just just our random Ignorant hood rants I guess for today like we don't like we not seeing these things happen
Right, but right before we go.
I got a little something on the menu.
Let me let me tell them a little something real quick When you know you're covered
Life is better when you know you're covered.
With a home and auto policy from American Family Insurance, you're not just buying coverage.
You're getting an agent who helps you feel protected and prepared.
Someone who understands what you've built and what you're building next.
Because when you're home and your ride are protected the right way, you feel free to focus on your family, your goals and your future.
Ensure carefully, dream fearlessly with American Family Insurance.
Get a quote or find a nation at MFM.com, American Family Mutual Insurance Company, SI and its operating companies, 6,000 American Parkway Madison, Wisconsin, man.
Thank you for rocking with us.
the lunch break crew.