Well, I'm easy, I got women galore.
One
on one seven the truth is your girl Jazz Tyler.
We are live and direct and as promised We have a special guest in the building.
He is more than just the son of a legend.
He is a legend himself He is someone who is very active in the community someone who is also a stand-up man and a great father We have Eric easy right jr.
Junior on the line.
Thank you for joining us.
What's up E?
What's going on?
How are you?
I've
been good.
I'm good.
I'm good.
I'm just got back in town.
This morning from Miami.
Doing drink chaps and now on my daddy duties.
Okay.
Okay.
What was that like?
What was your trip in Miami on drink chaps like?
It was amazing.
It was amazing.
It was amazing.
It was good.
I've been knowing Nori and DJ EFN for a while.
So this new project that I have going on was something I could go out there to promote.
So, it was a good trip.
It was a good trip.
It was a reported ACON studio.
So I got to meet ACON, built a relationship there.
So everything was going to happen.
That's what's up.
That's what's up.
Well, thank you so much for joining us.
I do know that you are on your way, like you said, to your daughter's game.
So I appreciate you being a part of this.
You're good.
You're good.
I want to jump right into this.
I appreciate it.
When you hear this is going to be a crazy question and I don't think I've ever asked you this question before but when you hear easy What what is the first thing that comes to your mind and without being biased because I obviously that's your father But what's the first thing that comes to your mind?
So that it's hard not to be biased I Trance that are you know pretty like the you know most successful individual a black man in the hip-hop industry
Absolutely
Absolutely.
We know that there is a psychological weight that comes with being the child of someone who is famous, right?
And people already have expectations for you.
They feel like they know you.
They feel like they know your family, and they can tell you more about you than you, right?
When did you realize that your father was not just famous, but that he actually changed the culture?
I think that money came later in life.
As a kid, I kind of...
Got understanding that he was famous with different things that happens when we go out in the public But you really did Donald as a child it was more so, you know, I mean Like I want to say honestly during his His funeral and I got older as the older teenager kind of understood like man, you know, what he a lot of things that he did
Yes
One of the things I love about you is your need and love to carry his legacy on.
So I talk about that a lot, the importance of legacy.
What does legacy mean to you?
Not just your father's legacy, but the legacy that you are currently building for your family.
I
mean, it means everything.
You know, I mean, you're here and be more of a marching and
in this world, you know what I mean?
Like everybody has a purpose.
So you don't wanna live your purpose, you know what I mean?
A purpose without having some substance to it.
So, you know what I mean?
Legacy is everything.
You know what I mean?
If I could give my kids how, you know what it is to be humble and full and to carry an advocate you're supposed to.
You know what I mean?
It's that I'm actually
The drop of you know carrying in our family name, you know in sports.
Yeah Yep,
you know, maybe like you know known what you know, I mean, it's kind of like the quote-unquote perspective are like, okay, you have a
You know
famous rapper rapper by her dad, you know, I mean so she's not in as she's more so laying it down for the name that she wants to do I got another daughter wants to be
a pediatrician.
So, you know what I mean?
She's doing it the way she wants to do.
But just more so raise your kids the right way.
You know what I mean?
And doing what they can in life, you feel what I'm saying?
And attacking their dreams with the best abilities that they can.
Absolutely.
Did you ever feel like you were pressured into being an artist because your father was an artist?
Not at all.
Not at all.
So that's something that you did on your own.
I was something that just came on.
It was like a light that just came on because I felt like it wasn't even respected in the game at the time.
But you know, like my daughter, I probably would have been in sports myself.
So it wasn't like an always understanding that I was like or playing that I was going to do this
sport.
You mentioned sports or playing what football?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I play football.
OK.
Yeah.
So when we're talking about fatherhood, I want to tap into that because again, I know that you are an amazing father and the people that know you know that you are an amazing father as well.
But I want to ask you what is fatherhood like?
We're talking about sacrifices.
We're talking about your schedule.
How do you balance traveling and being present at the same time?
I can imagine growing up with a father like yours that
Um, there was times where you didn't get to spend a lot of time or times where you did.
So how do you balance that now as a father?
That's pretty tough, but you make sure that you got to do the, uh, the right quality time and spending
time.
Like, you know, so my baby, she's next to me now.
She'll give me her schedule and make sure like, Hey, that'll make sure that you're in town or, you know, I mean, you're here for these things.
Cause when I'm off the road, I'm with them.
You know me all day every day.
It's exactly how it is now, you know, I mean, I'm doing the pickups drop offs.
They understand that they're very mature and understand and know that, you know, the time that I am gone, because sometimes it might be during birthdays.
I mean, it's for the better of the family.
But as far as them, the things that they want to do, you know, I mean, outside of just like the worldly things, they are kind of mature enough to know.
But they are going to be here, you know, I mean, they go, they go up, but it's the special moments like, you know, I mean, awards, graduation, you know, they're, you know, so it's like, they're there for that.
Absolutely.
You are also
spending the time that you need to.
You are also the oldest.
How many siblings do you have?
And what is that pressure like?
Because you embody the audience.
You embody it, and you really like somebody, daddy.
But what is that pressure like?
Or what is that like to be the oldest and to be the matriarch of your family?
The patriarch, I'm sorry.
It's tough.
It comes with dress hoes, expectations you're supposed to do.
My mom looked at like a father figure as well.
Yes.
I have children.
So, you know, I'm uncle as well.
I'm there for the tough, the sorrow of the plainness.
And so it has its kind of...
You know, let's say stress holds.
You don't want to call it stress holds.
It's more so the pressure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That pressure is a pressure in life that you've got to deal with its family.
I mean, it's family.
It's a positive.
It's nothing that serious should kind of hold you down in a kind of like stress manner.
So it is, it comes a lot.
It comes in a lot.
Yeah.
Yeah, I understand.
I'm not oldest too.
You
got to be, you know, you got to be the absorber.
You got to be, you know, you got to be the shoulder to lean on when it's time to cry.
We're going to sorrow.
You got to be the one who has to understand it, even though they may be wrong and then tell them that they're wrong and then give them the understanding of why they're wrong.
Certain things don't work out that the way that they expect it to be.
You know, and you know, maybe because again, like I have my children.
So I got to do that with him.
So it's like having 20 children.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Don't I know it?
We got to take a quick break.
Do not touch that dial.
We got Eric Ezee Wright, Jr.
on the line.
It's your girl, Jazz Tyler.
One on one, seven to
truth.
stress.
one-on-one
seven the truth is your girl Jazz Tyler.
We are live and direct and as promised we have a special guest in the building.
He is more than just the son of a legend.
He is a legend himself.
He is someone who is very active in the community.
Someone who is also a stand-up man and a great father.
We have Eric Eze Wright Jr.
Jr.
on the line.
Thank you for joining us.
What's up E?
What's going on?
I appreciate that.
How are you?
I've
been good.
I'm good.
I'm good.
I'm just got back in town this morning from Miami.
Do a drink chaps and now on my daddy duties.
Okay.
Okay.
What was that like?
What was your trip in Miami on drink chaps like?
It was amazing.
It was amazing.
It was great.
It was good.
I've been knowing Nori and DJ EFN for a while.
So this new project that I have going on was something I could go out there to promote.
So, it was a good trip.
It was a good trip.
It was a reported ACON studio.
So I got to meet ACON, built a relationship there.
So everything was going to happen.
That's what's up.
That's what's up.
Well, thank you so much for joining us.
I do know that you are on your way, like you said, to your daughter's game.
So I appreciate you being a part of this.
You're
good.
You're good.
I want to jump right into this.
I appreciate it.
When you hear, this is going to be a crazy question.
And I don't think I've ever asked you this question before.
But when you hear EZE, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
And without being biased, because obviously that's your father.
But what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
So that is hard not to be biased.
But
Trendsetter, you know, pretty like the most successful individual, a black man in the hip hop industry.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
We know that there is a psychological weight that comes with being the child of someone who is famous, right?
And people already have expectations for you.
They feel like they know you.
They feel like they know your family, and they can tell you more about you than you, right?
When did you realize that your father was not just famous, but that he actually changed the culture?
I think that money came later in life.
As a kid, I kind of
Got understanding that he was famous with different things that happens when we go out in the public But you really did Donald as a child it was more so you know, I mean Like I want to say honestly during his His funeral and I got older as the older teenager kind of understood like man, you know what he a lot of things that he did
Yes
One of the things I love about you is your need and love to carry his legacy on.
So I talk about that a lot, the importance of legacy.
What does legacy mean to you?
Not just your father's legacy, but the legacy that you are currently building for your family.
I
mean, it means everything.
You know what I mean?
You're here and be more of a march in the
in this world, you know what I mean?
Like everybody has a purpose.
So you don't wanna live your purpose, you know what I mean?
A purpose without having some substance to it.
So you know what I mean?
Legacy is everything.
You know what I mean?
If I could give my kids how, you know what it is to be, you know, humble, full and to carry on the effort that you're supposed to, you know what I mean?
It's that I'm actually
That drop of you know carrying in our family name, you know in sports.
Yeah Yep,
you know may make no known what you know, I mean, it's kind of like the quote-unquote perspective are like, okay, you have a You know famous rapper grab other dad, you know, I mean so she's not in as she's more so laying it down for the name that she wants to do I got another daughter wants to be
a pediatrician.
So, you know what I mean?
She's doing it the way she wants to do.
But just more so raise your kids the right way.
You know what I mean?
And doing what they can to life, you feel what I'm saying?
And attacking their dreams with the best abilities that they can.
Absolutely.
Did you ever feel like you were pressured into being an artist because your father was an artist?
Not at all.
Not at all.
So that's something that you did on your own.
It's something that just came on.
It was like a light that just came on because I felt like it wasn't even respected in the game at the time.
But you know, like my daughter, I probably would have been in sports myself.
So it wasn't like an always understanding that I was like, or playing that I was going to do this.
Sport, you mentioned sports, playing what, football?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I played football.
OK.
Yeah.
So when we're talking about fatherhood, I want to tap into that Because again, I know that you are an amazing father and the people that know you know that you are an amazing father as well But I want to ask you what is fatherhood like we talk about sacrifices We're talking about your schedule.
How do you balance traveling and being present at the same time?
I can imagine growing up with a father like yours that
Um, there was times where you didn't get to spend a lot of time or times where you did.
So how do you balance that now as a father?
That's pretty tough, but you make sure that you got to do the, uh, the right quality time and
spending time.
Like, you know, so my baby, she's next to me now.
She'll, she'll give me her schedule and make sure like, Hey, that'll make sure that you're in town or, you know, I mean, you're here for these things.
Cause when I'm off the road, I'm with them.
You know me all day every day.
It's exactly how it is now, you know, I'm doing the pickups drop-offs They understand that they're very mature understand and know that you know the time that I am gone because sometimes it might be during birthdays You know man that I would it's for the better of the family But as far as them the things that they want to do, you know, I mean outside of just like the worldly things.
They are kind of mature enough to know but
But they are going to be here, you know, I mean, they're going to be here.
But it's the special moments like, you know, I mean, awards, graduation, you know, there are games in Maine, so it's like they're there for that.
Absolutely.
You are also
spending the time that you need to.
You are also the oldest.
How many siblings do you have?
And what is that pressure like?
Because you embody the audience.
You embody it, and you really like somebody, daddy.
But what is that pressure like?
Or what is that like to be the oldest and to be the matriarch of your family?
The patriarch, I'm sorry.
Yeah, it's tough.
Yeah, it's tough.
It comes with stress how the expectations are supposed to do.
My mom looked at that as a father figure as well.
Yes.
I have children, so I'm uncle as well.
I'm there for the tough, the sorrow of the pain.
So it's kind of...
You know, not to say stress holds, you don't want to call it stress holds.
It's more so the pressure.
Yeah.
That pressure is a pressure in life that you've got to deal with its family.
It's a positive.
It's nothing that serious should kind of hold you out in a kind of like stress manner.
So it is, it comes a lot.
It comes a lot.
Yeah.
Yeah, I understand.
I'm not oldest too.
You
got to be, you know, you got to be the absorber.
You got to be, you know, you got to be the shoulder to lean on when it's time to cry.
We're going to sorrow.
You got to be the one who has to understand it, even though they may be wrong and then tell them that they're wrong and then give them the understanding of why they're wrong.
Certain things don't work out that the way that they expect it to be.
You know, and you know, maybe because again, like I have my children.
So I got to do that with him.
So it's like having 20 children.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Don't I know it?
We got to take a quick break.
Do not touch that dial.
We got Eric Eze Wright, Jr.
on the line.
And she girl Jazz Tyler, one on one, seven the
truth.
I'm stepping the truth that your girl, Jazz Tyler.
We are live and direct and we are joined by Eric E. Z. Wright Jr.
Again, thank you so much, Eve, for joining us.
I know you are on your father duties, so I truly appreciate you.
And we're
going to
jump right back into this.
But the next segment, I want to dive more so into the music overall and the purpose of it.
I currently teach 90 students during the day.
I teach them music, operate a studio, and we don't just show them how to make music, but we actually walk them through the history of music overall.
How do you go about educating today's youth on a time period where, because you know, they think we owe, they be like, Miss Jazz, you was born in the 1900s.
How do you go about educating today's youth on the music that your father was making?
back in the 80s and the early 90s?
Well, speaking to him, you know what I mean?
Because we got a big controversial thing that happened where a lot of individuals like old school artists or old school individual, you know what I mean?
Influencers were saying how NWA kind of messed up hip hop.
Wow,
so that was the strong thing that I kind of took to heart And when I go speak to the kids it's in our even speak to individuals to give interviews it's They weren't giving you what this generation of so-called quote-unquote drill rap is
right
Telling you to go out there and do this and do that.
They were giving you an illustration of how they came up I Was it come, you know living in counter California
You felt I'm saying so that's what that rap was.
You know, and it gave you a message and a freedom of speech of what you believed in and what you you know, I mean and what was you know, I mean as far as in Like for example, look at look what they were speaking in the 80s about you know, I mean law And then you have this new generation of what they're going through our now
just now in life with you know I'm saying with you know law enforcement
right
so they were telling you exactly and giving you a message about things that were going on giving you something to set stand up for to understand that what was right and wrong going on in our city with law enforcement
still to this day we have that going on you know man I think every time I look on the internet it's
you know, Perle's brutality, if I may.
So that's what, you know, their, you know, their music did.
And then gave you inspiration at being an individual from come to California.
So when I go to talk to a lot of youth, they're, you know, they're inspired that somebody came from equivalent to where they came from, a hood ghetto per se, and made it.
and was, you know, an entrepreneur, you know, an owner of this.
And was not giving you the thought process that he's out here kicking over, you know, candles, going to other enemies, you know, I mean, brave side doing all this on the other.
So he didn't give you no music like that.
He just gave you an illustration of how it is.
And how he grew up in comic California and where he came from to sit here and, you know,
You know, I rather deal with the money.
So, you know, I mean, it's telling you, like, I, you know, I'm elevated from this and went to a boss to do this.
This music nowadays is kind of, you know, leading you on a demise to be, you know, better in jail.
Yeah.
It's very disrespectful.
Like, there's no code.
I say often.
Super, you know.
You know, like, they were real-life journalists reporting live and direct from...
the conditions that they were living in and that they were around.
That's one of
their lines for a live and direct encounter.
And one of the things that I tell the youth often is, one of the things we have to do is make them understand that we did not put ourselves in these conditions.
And especially during this time, right?
Like now, yes, we have more opportunities.
But during that time, we were oppressed people trying to make the best of what we were given.
And the only tool or outlet we genuinely had was music.
So when we think about NWA, when we think about Eric Wright's senior and the legacy, we know that a lot of work has been put into making the people and reporting to the people so that they do understand.
And you mentioned earlier that one of your dreams is to make sure your father has...
a start on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
How difficult has it been to, or if it has been difficult, I don't know, but has it been difficult for you to get him the recognition that he so deserve?
I wouldn't say.
I wouldn't tell you that's too difficult.
Like I went for bone.
And I met the individuals that are part of it and it really was maybe just me not The conversation and each out myself.
Yeah,
so it's a lot of individuals that felt the love to want to do it and And say what it would take and it's that the other one doesn't just felt like It should have been already something that was like nominated to do
yes
So, you know, I mean, like I grew up in an aspect of while ago is like close mouth doesn't get fed.
So it's maybe like more so me myself stepping out and going to do it.
Kind of like I did with the street is street naming.
So the recognition is there.
It's just these are just dreams to make it more whole.
You know, I mean, the street naming and copying that's going to be there for the rest of our entire life is like monumental for us.
You know what I mean?
He got a Grammy that I accepted.
You know, you're gonna rock and roll Hall of Fame.
It's just this would just complete, you know, I mean, the five factor as you would say, you know, I mean, but my, but my more so biggest dream is just a story basically itself from his youth, you know, up into the person that he was.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And I feel like the walk of fame will come from
that.
Absolutely.
Um, you know, if I haven't told you, yo, your father is, uh,
the goat, very inspirational and as artists who grew up in that time, we most definitely love and appreciate everything he has done.
There would not be no music, no rap music or none of that had they not done the things that they have.
I want to hold back on you.
The last time I seen you was working on a movie.
What do you have going on, Eric?
Acting?
Oh, a little bit of everything.
Yeah, a little bit of everything.
I appreciate it.
So yeah, I've been in two movies and two series out of Detroit.
One's called Operation Get Money, Family Over Everything.
I'm bone.
And then now I started a company with Dr. Dre's son.
It's called Air is a Hip Hop.
So it consists of me, Dr. Dre's son, Rev Run, which is Run DMC son, that master, Jason.
Boy Jojo and Jay, Cal, Snoop Son, Inhale, which is Nate Dogg's son and ODB's son, YDB.
Wow.
So it's called Air's Hip Hop and it's all of us.
So we're doing a docuseries that consists of us telling you the story of the land our fathers laid down in this music game.
Yes.
It was nostalgically giving you that story from starting with a DJ.
You know run DMC will be inspired my father and Ray And then here come back to the West Coast where you have my father Introduced you to dr. Dre dr. Dre introduced you to Snoop Dogg Snoop Dogg a dog and then we go back to the East Coast with ODB sound ydb and then Stay exactly how we're gonna do the show set as well where we give you that story
That is fire.
So the docuseries is kind of based on that and um, yes, I've been working on that for The last six seven months.
I'm still 20 I got a show with ice cube in two days Still on the road, um, you know, I mean still doing every little different venture, you know entrepreneurship deals that I got if it's a clothing brand if it's You know, I mean a hot sauce to say if it's a comic book I put now
So I got my foot in something a little bit of everything.
Yeah, are you?
What was the acting like?
Is that something that you're going to continue to pursue?
Oh, most definitely most definitely.
Yes.
That's that's that's that's just yeah, that's amazing.
It's it's fun.
And why do you think that, you know,
main?
I was going to ask you, why do you think that this docu series is important for the culture?
More so just to give you the story.
Give you the story where it started.
I was starting to individuals that paved the lane for it.
And they had us out here being entrepreneurs ourselves and kind of stepping in the same lane of not similar to the same lane of their fathers and keeping their name going.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
So it's a lot that, you know, come up in this game and probably don't know the story, you know.
You have something, you know what I mean?
We're raised by their parents, a team, give you a little bit about it, and we're just gonna highlight that, if not give you that story of where it started in hip hop on the East Coast and how the individual different sides go.
So, Ares of Hip Hop is actually gonna grow as we look at it.
You know what I mean?
You have, you know, Ares of comedy, you know what I'm saying?
Ares of entertainment, and you have different, everybody has a child and children that is fit in the lane or continue that lane that their parent has started.
Yes, legacy.
It started with a seven that, uh, well, you know, I mean, no, yeah, our legacy.
So me and created, Curtis created it, which is great.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's amazing.
So, um, as we come to an end, we know that September 7th is, um, not only your father's birthday, but the day that Tupac was shot as well.
And that is a very significant day and hip hop for all of us.
What do you guys have planned this weekend?
Or is there any traditions that you do annually to honor your father around his birthday?
I'll be on the road and I just be coming back.
So September 6th, me and, you know, you've had the show.
So that's my celebration, you know, I mean, to represent the legacy.
And then in my family, we always just get together and have a
We just get together and just enjoy the time.
But they're still going to do that.
Hopefully I can make it, because Sacramento is a little ways away.
But sometimes I find myself just, you know, taking some time out for myself and just, you know, enjoying the day and intaking it.
Those are the times that maybe, you know, this year I might just want to sit somewhere and kind of just get my emotions out.
So, but my family definitely is doing something.
If I can make it back in time, because of course I'll be celebrating at night before, but if I make it on a flight back in time, then I'll be, I'll be there with them.
Absolutely.
Before you get out of here, do you have any shout outs?
Oh man, I just see, you know, shout out to my company, Air2Hip.
All the individuals that's a part of that with me, my company, get hybrid work.
So that's a...
That's a social media social media content marketing and branding company that I started Everybody that's been a part of me holding it down you guys appreciate you.
You always been a friend for over I think it's not what decade now.
Yeah Yeah, we can up there We can up there for sure Thank you so much.
I am so proud it don't do that Z
We ain't
that old.
We've been friends for a while.
It's a significant situation we met, but you know what I mean?
It grew into organic friendship.
Yes, crazy situation.
That was
a crazy situation.
I got to give that story to a lot of my young artists.
I'm like, hey, you got to do stuff like this.
You can't.
Y.E.
doesn't do things.
They don't accept this.
I don't travel like this.
It's like, I know, because somebody could actually kind of leave you.
I said, hey, check this out.
It happened to me.
Believe me.
Yeah.
And it's crazy, because I've just seen it for longer than four years ago.
I'm saying, I had a
friend.
Yeah, I had a friend.
Wow, that's crazy.
But I was telling you, give your flowers.
I had a friend, a jazz that looked out for me.
Let me go pop a squad of their cousins.
I was make sure we was all right Make sure we're straight or cousin took care of me.
He still called me to this day when it's crazy.
So
He is crazy Travis crazy.
I think he's talking about my mama said my mama said hey
We got to bring you back so we could do it over but this time I'm gonna be the one to do it.
I'm gonna make sure that is I Know
you don't have my have my had a bad taste my mouth my walk.
I like
I don't know.
Last time I've been there, man, the last and only time I've been there, it was different.
It's not different.
We got to change that narrative.
We got to bring you back to come talk to the kids and get that set up.
Let's
do it.
He can let me know.
I'm so proud of you.
I am happy for you.
And I say my love to you and your family this weekend and Monday.
And I look forward to seeing you soon.
Keep doing great things, man.
Keep doing great things that we can highlight.
Appreciate that very much.
Measure.
Thank you.
We got to go to break.
Much
love.
You always know.
It's always family.
We got to go to break.
Do not touch that dial.
It's your girl, Jazz Tyler, one on one, seven of the
truth.
Yo, all I need is one mic one
beat one on one seven a truth.
It's your girl Jaz Tyler We are live and direct at the award-winning one on one seven a truth.
You are just now joining us I gotta give a huge shout out to Eric easy right junior for joining us via zoom We had a great conversation about his father's legacy about his legacy and the work that he is currently doing inside of the community and one of the things he mentioned was that one of his dreams is to
get his father's name and his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
And I also asked him his thoughts on how to properly educate the youth when it comes to artists that they aren't necessarily familiar with, but not because they're irrelevant.
It's just that when we are talking to the youth about music from back then, they tend to think it was so many thousands of years ago.
But the point is or the point was
A lot of people have biased opinions about the music that NWA made, right, depending on what generation you were from.
But the bottom line is, when they started that group, when EZE started that label, the goal was for them to be what we consider as hood politics.
Hood politicians, hood journalists, they were reporting directly from their neighborhoods what they seen, what they were going through.
and putting it in music because they had no other way to express themselves, but also to get the information out there.
And this is something that he made a good point.
One of the points that he made was you can't be biased about the music that NWA made and not mention the drill music, right?
And the difference is the code.
When you listen to the current rap now, the drill music,
You hear a lot of disrespect.
You know, I was talking about they're going to, uh, Nitty didn't left this dad go dead and that I looked to the right.
I was like, what is this?
Hey, earlier than that was flying around.
Nitty killed the net in here.
And then he said, I'm going to leave him right there so his homies can see it.
And I'm sitting here just running my mouth and look to the right, like, uh, OK.
Cool.
We just got to leave a little homie right there and teach him a lesson, right?
Um, sorry, y'all got sidetracked, but the moral of the story is when you listen to the music now, um, is very, it can be very disrespectful.
You have ops talking about your name on their ops, uh, grave site, so on and so on.
And I wanted to just compare and contrast as far as the difference between the two.
generations when it comes to the music.
And we have to get back to a point where we are reporting live and direct from our conditions, right?
Where we are talking about something that actually matters.
Did it come out in the way that some people wanted it to?
Absolutely not.
But at the end of the day, it was a reality.
It was a reality, right?
That reality is these are the conditions that we are living in.
We got people that's on drugs.
We got people who want to work a job, but they can't.
And then when we resort to doing criminal activity or doing things in the streets, then we end up getting locked up.
There is no other outlet.
And from his testimony, we're still seeing the same thing.
He's still seeing the same thing that his father was talking about back then in the city of Compton, in the city of Los Angeles, in America overall.
So not much has changed.
Not much has changed whatsoever.
So again, I just want to send a huge shout out to Eric He did mention that he is doing a docu series with him himself.
Dr. Dre's son ODB son Rev run son.
I believe he says Snoop Dogg son and Someone else's son and basically what they are doing is
you know, creating a timeline of music.
And it started with, you know, Eric, who introduced us to Dre, who introduced us to Snoop, who introduced us to Nate Dogg, and then going to the East Coast, River and Run, and, you know, ODB, Wu-Tang.
So I think that that's amazing.
I think that he's obviously not only keeping his father legacy alive, but he's encouraging others to keep their fathers.
um, legacy alive as well.
And that is so admirable to me.
So huge, huge, huge shout out to, um, Eric Wright, Jr.
EZ, Jr.
for joining us and for all of the work, um, that he is doing.
So at the six o'clock hour, we have, um, Milwaukee's own Sean Wilson will be in the building.
Uh, we will have a, uh, amazing conversation about prison reform, about community, about.
the state of the city overall.
Have a great conversation.
If you guys aren't familiar with this brother, he has been doing some amazing work, not just in the city of Milwaukee, but across the entire country, work that is needed.
And we so desperately need this information and his expertise.
So we're going to do a deep vibe, do a deep dive and sit down.
Man, listen, you know what, brothers?
My mouth be moving faster than my brain or my brain be moving faster than my one or the other.
But I've got to slow it down a little bit.
Slow it down a little bit.
I be wanting to say so much.
That is the problem of being a creator.
I'm telling you, I have all types of amazing thoughts and questions inside of
my
head right now.
But again, I am Excited I know today started off a little you know heavy, but again, we have to address Certain things to make sure we understand what is happening and continue to have these conversations Yesterday we had a great conversation pertaining to prison Like some other things and it got real right it got real so
Today, we're going to finish that conversation.
There has been news articles out recently about the state of the prisons in the city.
I'm sorry, the state of Wisconsin and the fact that they are increasing the amount of inmates are increasing.
So, yeah, that's interesting.
We already know that the prisons were overpopulated.
But we are going to, you know,
Take, again, take a deep dive into that.
We gotta go to break.
Do not touch that dial.
It should girl jazz Tyler one on one stepping the truth.
Milwaukee Black Talk lives here on 1017 FM in 1510 AM W269 DL Milwaukee and WGKB Walkershaw live from American Family Assurance
Studios.
1017 the truth is your girl Jazz Tyler.
We are live and direct.
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You are officially.
tapped into the six o'clock hour.
I have another special guest in the building.
We are talking about the senior director of organizing and partnerships at dream.org.
We are talking about a brother who was raised in 53206.
Now hold on, because we all know a lot of people like to claim that zip code, but he actually does come from that zip code and currently does work in that zip code.
We are talking about Sean Wilson.
Sean.
Thank you so much for tapping in with us.
How are you?
I'm good.
I'm good.
I appreciate the invitation.
You know, I've been seeing a lot of my people come on here.
Yeah.
So I appreciate the invitation to come on and top it up with you.
You know, you say you from around the corner.
You say you from 14th in Burla.
I say I'm from 14th in Burla.
I'm still waiting on the paperwork to come back.
I think my family already vouched for that.
I know
you old fish.
Yes, indeed.
So, who is Sean?
Who is Sean?
In a nutshell, you know, Sean is the possibility of transformation, right?
As you just mentioned, you know, I was, you know, raised and grew up in the 5306 zip code.
And we all know the challenges that exist within that zip code.
So to be where I am right now is really a miracle, right?
Yeah.
Um, and many individuals who have come from that zip code understands the challenges that they encountered, you know, from birth all the way into adulthood and even still to this day, the challenges that, um, that
zip code experience are still our challenges, right?
My mama still live down
know, I got other family members who are still living down there.
So to be able to do the work that I do and to be where I'm at in my life, it's a miracle.
It's nothing but God.
Yeah.
So have you, have you been over there recently?
I'm over there every day.
Um, it really breaks my heart.
Yeah.
For real.
Like it's, it's hard for me to even ride down 14th.
13th is a little bit.
A little bit better, but 14th is horrible.
It's horrible.
What was the conditions like back then?
I mean, back then, honestly, one of the things that I often say is that growing up in that zip code, there was investments, right?
We had A.O.
Smith, we had Eaton Corporation, which
are two companies that my grandmother and grandfather both worked at, respectively, for about 30, 40 years.
I remember Lee's trailer.
I remember Black business owners, store owners.
Cooper's right there
on 13th.
JJ's.
Loves liquor store.
So, you know, we've seen a lot of black business owners.
We've seen a lot of investments in that community.
And we also saw, you know, our, our grandmothers and our mothers and fathers, you know, going to work every day.
And so we understand what possibility looks like.
We understand what investments look like.
And
we're not, we haven't been able to see that happening in that community.
You know, L Smith is no longer.
Over there on 35th anymore,
you know in
corporation this it's a it's not even even corporation anymore It's a whole new I think it's an office space that's over there right now, but growing up in that neighborhood I mean we had the same challenges that we have right now you had violence
you had
all types of nonsense that was happening over there But we were a community
right
we were a community my god said to me the other day he said yo he said back in our day
There wouldn't be a certain there wouldn't be a thing called the kid boys, right?
Because
somebody would be able to be telling these young cats like, yo, you making a block.
Yeah, you know, what are you doing?
And so I think we've gotten away from that accountability.
We've gotten away from respect.
We've gotten away from like taking care of our communities and the people in our communities, right?
Like we've gone all the way off the rail, but I'm not here to.
Criticize I'm not here to harp about the problem I'm here to talk about the solution
right
and the solution is us coming together and Investing in one another and holding one another accountable the way that we know how
yes, so walk us through Your journey because I teach during the day and I have a lot of youth that listen to this show and we're gonna bring it back to this point of Figure it like you were a person who made a decision and then you
pay the consequences for the decision, but then somewhere along the line, you understood the consequences, decided to change your life, and as you re-enter society, you made something of yourself.
Take us back to what happened.
Don't have to go, you know, details, but what happened in that moment?
What was that transition like into the prison system?
At what moment did you realize you were bigger than your consequences or your mistakes, and how did you get to where you are now?
Yeah, I think I remember I think for me It was at the time of sentencing right when I was sitting there in the judge was handing down, you know My time, you know, ten years initial confinement, you know, ten years Extended supervision five years,
you know
probation ten years stayed, you know, I was 18 Right, you know, so I'm sitting here and I'm listening to those numbers just get rolled out
in the way that, you know, she was looking at me and throwing those numbers out.
Like, absolutely.
I was raised in a household where you take accountability for your actions, right?
But I also understand that I put myself in a position within the system that has historically, you know, treated our people as if we were third class, you know, human beings, right?
And so I didn't understand the...
The totality of what I did that landed me in that situation.
Yeah, I learned that over the years, right?
I learned that, you know, I wasn't unique, right?
I wasn't special, right?
There were countless other brothers and sisters who have come before me who have, you know, made poor decisions and were held accountable for those decisions and in most cases as
as a black boy, as a black girl or black man, black woman in this country, the justice system responds to you a little bit different than
it
does other people, right?
And we have to acknowledge that,
right?
And so I think that there was a different response.
In fact, I know there was a different response to me as a result of my crime, because when I found myself in prison and I was talking to, you know, white guys who
I'm not going to necessarily say they had worse or offenses than me, but at the same time, their numbers were a little bit different from mine,
right?
And I didn't
understand that, right?
But the more I studied, the more I came into a realization of who I was as
a
black man and what my responsibility was to myself first and foremost, to my family, to my community and the world at large, I became a problem.
Right.
You know, I began reading books.
My, my, my bro Rudy, fast, black, Bilal, Hassan, you know, so many brothers, you know, who have invested in my leadership over the years, who were mentors to me, my brother Ezra.
So many of these brothers, you know, took the time to help me better understand the predicament that we found ourselves in and how we got there.
But more importantly, how do we get out?
Right.
I often say,
I got out of prison before I got out of prison.
And I talk
about how that transformation happened mentally before the state opened any gate, right?
That transformation had manifested itself.
And I was moving through the system as if I was already out.
But
while I was in that system.
I was also recognizing the injustices that were happening in the system, and
I
began to challenge those.
And in
challenging them, I found myself in a hole on multiple occasions, right?
And I was OK with that because right is right and wrong is wrong, as they say, right?
So
if you expect me as a resident, you know, at the time as an offender, you know, as what they referred to us back then or
an
inmate, if you expect me.
to be accountable, to take responsibility for my actions, to behave and to conduct myself with a certain decorum.
Then I'm going to also expect the same thing from you as the upholder of this correctional system, right?
And so when I saw them doing things that they didn't have no business doing, I always found myself having conversations with brothers like, yo, like they can't do this according to this, according to that.
And I begin to challenge those things, right?
And the more I began to challenge those things, the deeper my understanding became, the deeper my understanding of the importance of collective leadership became.
And I continue to find myself, I continue to find myself, you know, picking my brother's brain, you know, on how, how do we improve the conditions of our confinement right now?
But also how do we ensure that once we are returning back home to our communities, that we are beginning
to, you know, be the changes that we want to see, be the changes that we wanted to see when we were growing
up.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Um, what was the transition like from.
Sitting in that courtroom, entering into the prison
system.
Send in the courtroom and then from courtroom going into the prison system, I think.
There's a parallel of of slavery that I would I would I would reference
To that to what my experience was like right because Once you're sentenced in the county jail You're no longer allowed to be among general pop right you're a state property now So you go to the state pod waiting for transfer and that transfer takes place where you go from the county jail to Dodge
And you go through orientation,
you know,
my experience going through orientation and many individuals who were sentenced during the late nineties, early 2000s probably had
this.
This is
absolutely,
they probably had, they probably had this experience as well.
But, um, and I don't know how they do it now, right?
But I was dash with some, some, some powder,
you
know, I was, I was sprayed, you know, and I was handed a pair of greens and some state boots and told to get dressed and then I was, you know, shackled in.
hauled off to a dormitory.
And so that's why I say I will parallel it to slavery.
know if they're still doing that right now, but nonetheless, the processing of human beings
is
inhumane.
It's still trafficking.
Yeah, it's inhumane no matter how you dress it up.
And so that was the humanizing experience for me.
And I was angry.
I didn't allow that anger to just
you know, to just build up.
turned that anger into righteous anger,
righteous indignation, right?
Because
again, you begin to question and ask yourself, like, how are they getting away with this?
Like, how are they able to do this, right?
And I want them to.
Do I want to be treated like this?
And that is something that a lot of our youth have to have to start thinking about, right?
Everything you're explaining.
Do you want to be treated like that?
We got to go to break to pay some bills.
When we come back, we are going to dive into this more with Sean Williams.
Sean Wilson.
Do not touch that dial.
It should go just how the one and one step in the
truth.
the other shadow of death.
I take a look at my life and realize there's nothing left because I've been practicing one on one
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Truth nation.
Got a special guest in the building.
Say from Berlin.
I don't know how we got shine Wilson in a building most definitely from the zoo.
Zulu if you if you know you know but the reason why I say that is because I'm gonna keep it funky other than David A lot of the elected officials a lot of people that do the work like to throw out the stats about five three two zero six like to attach themselves But rarely ever do you see them in the zip code or actively doing the work?
Mashaun you are one of the people who actually does come from the zip code and actually does the work Speaking of work
You are with dream.org.
Can we tap into what your role is there?
Yeah, so so dream.org.
We're a national nonprofit that works at the intersection of climate justice and economic opportunity.
I'm the senior director of organizing and partnerships.
And so what that means is I oversee.
partnerships, building power and developing leaders across the country to pass legislation that reduces the footprint of mass incarceration in this country.
And we also work, again, at the intersection of climate and economic opportunity, because we understand that the same communities that are facing criminal injustices are also the same communities that are facing climate injustices.
We're developing leaders.
We're forming partnerships.
We're working with government at the local level as well as at the state level to pass legislation and policy that's going to move us forward as a state, as a community, and as a country.
Yeah.
So one of those, we were just talking offline about some of the work you're doing around the probation
Absolutely.
Can we tap into that for a little bit and explain to us?
So there was an article that came out stating that the numbers are increasing throughout the state of Wisconsin when it comes to the prison system.
And we know that the jails and the prisons have been overpopulated.
But there is a specific reason why this is happening.
Can you break down to us?
What is what is going on?
Absolutely.
So I saw that article come out and and I just pulled the number up on my phone.
We're talking about 23,854,000 people.
That's all that
that is in Wisconsin state prisons.
This is a historic high, right?
This is a verdict, you know, on the Wisconsin Department of Corrections that the policy that you have upheld and sustained for the last 10, 15 years has led to.
a continuum of overpopulation of our state prisons.
And
it's not
safe for the residents,
and it's
not safe for the staff, right?
And they're also facing a staff shortage of over 600 correctional staff, right?
But let's
talk about that 23,854 number, right?
Wisconsin is an outlier,
only in this region, but also in the country.
an outlier in the fact that we send more
Black men to prison than any other state in the union.
You know, we already know that one in three black men in Milwaukee has had some form of carceral experience.
But the reason why that number is where it is is because of failed policy, right?
It's because of inability of our state legislature, our elected officials being unwilling to work through durable disagreements, right?
what our state model is for, right?
But the reason why we're faced with this number is because there's been a gridlock in the state legislature that has prevented policy around decarceration about investment in people over prisons.
And that's the reason why we have the number that we have here in the state of Wisconsin.
But over the last eight years, you know, with
Governor Evers and of course, you know, we have to hold the governor accountable.
But I will say that the governor has done a lot for criminal justice.
Yeah, there's a lot more that he could have done.
Yeah.
But more than anything, he needs he should be commended for what he has done in the in within within the the ecosystem around criminal justice reform.
He restored commutations and we know that with that.
We're in the beginning stages of this.
We know that he's on his way out of office
and
so families are very hopeful.
And then not only that, you know, he's pardoned so many people, right?
He's given people their lives back.
And then we had the opportunity to work with him early on during this administration.
He appointed me as a commissioner on the juvenile justice commission, which is a state.
um agency advising the department of justice where I had the opportunity to use my lived experience right to contribute to policy right to contribute to how um young people within our carceral system here in the state of Wisconsin were being treated right and so I would definitely say that the governor um should be commended um he should also be held accountable because when it's all said and done the buck stops with him right
governor but not
to his defense, but I want to make sure that I give your audience context that the governor cannot do any of this on his own, right?
He has to have the support of the state legislature, right?
And the state legislature has said publicly that they're not going to give Governor Evers a win, right?
And so he has tried to work with the other side of the aisle to move things along.
But there's been a great deal of resistance on that front.
Yeah, so there was an article I touched on this earlier this week.
There was an article that I seen in the news about Tom Tiffany stating if he was to become governor that he will remove all access to tablets.
Can we talk about how detrimental that is, especially when we're talking about overpopulated prisoners?
Yeah, I think that that's a misguided statement.
And if he does become governor, I do think that people should believe him, right?
Yes.
You know, the data says that some of the contributing factors to a person's successful reintegration to society is.
family connection, right?
Maintaining that connection to families, right?
And that's what these tablets are.
These tablets are a bridge for individuals who are incarcerated to maintain communication with their family, right?
They didn't
have tablets when I was in there,
when I was there.
Yeah, they changed now, I'm like, yeah.
You know, but right.
And so my guys, they call me and I'm like, yo, where you at?
They like, yo, I'm sitting on my bunk, right?
like, like you got
a cell phone.
Like the only time we used to say, you know, we sitting on our we sitting on our bunk, you know, is we had a we had a cell phone,
But they they they're using these tablets and there's so many benefits to having these tablets.
Um, there's systems and companies that upload curriculum, educational curriculum to these tablets, right?
Um, there's so many opportunities that these tablets can be used for in opposed to what they're trying to sensationalize, you know, these tablets as being, uh, when they're there, they're nowhere near that, right?
You're taking an isolated incident and you're trying to blow it out of control, but just think about it, right?
These are, we can, we can.
You know, there can be a world where, you know, individuals can access tele-mental health, right, while they're in prison, right?
Because in prison, individuals aren't, you know, speaking to therapists who are helping them navigate and, you know, understand their trauma, right?
So that they can be better.
But these tablets are a tool that can...
make that connection, right?
So we're not thinking innovatively about these tablets.
We're just thinking, why do they have tablets?
They're inmates,
they committed crimes.
That's the response that we're getting from the system, right?
Or I'm not going to say the system as a whole, but certain individuals within the system has this view of the tablets as if they're being misused.
Like there's a reoccurrence of it being misused and that's just not the case.
And that's what I was
Mentioning like when I first started talking about this earlier this week you can't so
This is, not only does it speak to his character as a human being, but his leadership.
It was a very impulsive statement because the idea thing to do would be to actually sit down per prison or just assist him overall in Wisconsin and look to see how often this happens.
Right, instead of just blowing it out of proportion and making everyone suffer.
So that, for me, well, I wasn't, you know.
But that, for me, showed me that he has no idea, right?
And when we're talking about a state that, like you stated, incarcerates black men at the rate that they do, you would think that someone would educate him a little bit more on that.
But we got to go to break.
When we come back, I want to touch on...
the probation reform piece and what that has done and what it is currently doing to our brothers and sisters in the state of Wisconsin.
We got to go to break the pay some bills, do not touch that dial, should girl jazz Tyler 1017 the truth.
1-on-1 7-in-truth this your girl jazz time that we are live and direct at the award-winner 1-on-1 7-in-truth If you are just now joining us, we got a special guest in the building Shawn Wilson.
Thank you so much for joining us today Before we went to break we were talking about the article surrounding the increase of Our brothers, I don't like to call them prisoners our brothers and sisters who are currently incarcerated You also mentioned the reason
and also something that you're working on that I think people often forget about where it gets wrapped up in just the whole term prison reform overall, but that's actually reforming the probation, right?
So can we touch on that and how this came about?
Yeah, so, and I want to go back to something that you were saying before you went to break regarding that 23,854 number.
I want people to understand that, you know, this is one, this isn't an abstract number for me, right?
These are real people, right?
These are like family members, friends, community.
These are husbands, wives, fathers, brothers, sisters, et cetera, right?
So I want people to understand that when you hear the number 23,854, understand that these are real
lives, right?
That 95%.
of these individuals who are currently incarcerated are going to return home to our community, right?
And do we want them to return home to our community having experience being warehoused?
Or do we want them to come home returning to our community after having receiving treatment, education, therapy, right?
Do
we want them to come home having taken accountability and responsibility for their actions?
So that once they return home, they're able to navigate reentry successfully because they begun to do that hard work of internal transformation while they were behind correctional control.
So I think that I just want to emphasize that that number is real people.
And so we have to make sure that we're investing in people over prisons.
Come on now.
Come on, Sean.
It's like a church.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I'll take you to church a little bit.
No,
no, no.
But that's real because the society overall, from what we watch on TV, to music, to just, you know, we're becoming numb.
Absolutely.
Not only to death, but just to people, you know, overall.
So it is, I'm glad that you said that it is important for us to be reminded that these are actual bodies.
Yup.
Yup.
And the key driver, you know, as we were speaking earlier is coming from, you know, probation and parole revocations, right?
This
something that I've been working on here in the state for about 10 years now, previously at the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, where I ran the smart justice
campaign,
where our motto and our slogan in fact was invest in people over prison, right?
Because this state, but not only this state, but across the country, there's an inclination that to solve, you know,
societal ills, all we have to do is build more beds, right?
All we have to do is build more prisons, right?
And we'll be able to solve that problem, right?
And I think that the response to this 23,854 number is to build more prisons, right?
I think we have to begin to ask the question of why do we have 23,000 people who are sitting in our jails
in our prisons, right?
Why are people going, one?
Why are they staying?
And what is
happening when they leave, right?
What is the core issue?
Absolutely.
And the reason why a lot of people are being sent up north or heading into Wisconsin prisons is because we have a probation and parole system.
Um that sends you back, you know for breeding or looking the wrong way, right?
This is the biggest driver.
We're sending about two to three thousand people each year back to prison at a cost of taxpayers of over three hundred million dollars, right?
Yeah,
that's not invested in the person's re-entry, right?
That's not invested in slavery.
Because what they're working on farms or if I see an article about something, some type of work that they were doing and obviously
You know, they get paid like 10 cents an hour.
But to me, it just seems as if it's their slavery.
Yeah.
I mean, I would say that it is it is a parallel modern day slavery, essentially, right?
Because you again.
People are being warehouse.
People aren't getting the support in the treatment that they need.
If this, we're going to call something the Department of Corrections, then corrective measures need to be dispersed, right?
And that's not happening in our jails, in our prisons, right?
And so again, we have to begin to ask the question of why are we sending so many people to prison?
Like, why does it need to be a carceral response, right?
everything that a person does doesn't need to be a carceral response.
And that's the reason why we're sending so many people back to prison because probation and parole feels that they need to send this person back to prison if they violate a rule of supervision.
We're not talking about committing a new crime.
We're talking about what a story I heard a couple of years ago was a guy moved from apartment A to apartment B. And when his parole officer came,
to visit him, he wasn't where he was supposed to be.
And he failed to notify her, right?
And that shouldn't cause the individual to be sent back to prison, right?
That should be that should be a that's what's that an office era?
You know,
that's not something major that would that you should disrupt a person's life for.
That's something for you to, you know, hey, next time, make sure you know, you let me know prior to you moving the, you know, keep.
Ensure that we're adhering to policy and the rules that you have, right?
That's holding him or her accountable and making sure that they understand the expectations that are placed upon them, right?
So do you think that one of the issues is the people who are being hired to be parole officers?
Because these are the people that are making.
Some of the decisions to send people back.
Yeah, I think there's opportunity for training for all of every probation and parole officer, right?
I
think that and I said this a couple of years ago that instead of probation officers, what if everybody who came home from prison was assigned a therapist, right?
Somebody who's gonna help them navigate their trauma, right?
again, a lot of a lot of guys aren't
you know, doing that internal work when they're when they in the penitentiary,
They playing cars, they playing chess,
know, they talking stuff.
And the reason why I'm saying this is because I know I was I
did
17 years.
Right.
So you have to have some degree in order to survive.
You can't be so vulnerable.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And so I think, you know, if that would be revolutionary is if you give someone who come home from prison.
a therapist instead of instead of a probation and parole officer and what this person is doing is helping you navigate this new reality called freedom, right?
Because that becomes overwhelming for individuals when they're coming home from prison.
And the fact of walking into freedom, just that is overwhelming.
And then when you add onto it the collateral consequences, man, that take it to a whole other level, right?
The mental
You know the the processing that one goes through
when
you're thinking about housing, you know employment How you gonna get from point A to see like all of these things are going through a person's mind as they're navigating this thing called reentry and social skills
Brad on here a couple of hunting last week and I was asking him about people being institutionalized right and How did you manage to because?
To me, you're not.
And I
don't know because I haven't been in a prison system, but just compared to what I've seen and other people, you've done a great job.
And so shout out to my brother, Daren.
He is another person who is far from it.
But what is that?
Like, how what is that like?
How does that happen?
Listen, it happens if you allow it to happen.
And I know many, many, many of my my brothers who have this same experience may have different takes.
But I think
If you allow institutionalization to happen, it will happen.
Again, I got out of prison before I got out of prison,
when I, as I was walking through, you know, these prisons throughout the state of Wisconsin, and I was moved around, right?
I didn't allow my environment to, you know, make me think that I was less then, right?
I began to turn to the things that I knew that was going to keep my mind off of my current reality and focus on what I wanted my reality to be, right?
My grandmother used to always say, know what weapon formed against you shall prosper, right?
Not necessarily that the weapon isn't going to form, but it's
not
going to prosper, right?
And so I always kept that at the front of my mind as well.
And again, I practiced Islam, right?
And so my faith
studying, working out, and just being in good company with brothers who had already transitioned and transformed their lives 10, 20 years before my arrival, right?
This one brother named Belial, he has a life sentence, right?
And I remember I was walking a yard with bro, and I was just trying to wrap my head around like life, like he has the letter, he has a L, right?
And so,
You know, I didn't I wanted to understand like his mental state, right?
Like how is it that you able to function the way that you are functioning?
Which is at a very high level.
This brother was brilliant, right?
Like a encyclopedia and so he said something to me man that really stuck and he said that I give life You know, he said I yeah, I have a life bit, but I'm able to give
and the way I give life is by talking to young brothers like yourself Talking to other young brothers who are coming in who I know
You know has so much potential has a day, right?
And so It's brothers like that who I carry with me, you know when I'm walking through the halls of Congress or when I'm walking in state capitals across this country I take those brothers with me because they're the reason why I'm able to show up the way that I show up in the The reason why I'm able to lead the way that I lead, right?
I didn't I didn't I didn't acquire leadership
you know, when I begin to work in the nonprofit industry, I acquired leadership on a block, you know?
Yeah.
And it's just evolved.
Yeah.
You know, it's just evolved.
And I continue to maintain, you know, my communications and my connections with brothers who are behind enemy lines to ensure that they know that I appreciate them and that I'm out here working on their behalf to
get them
home to their families.
Yes, indeed.
We got Sean Wilson in the building.
We got to go to break and pay this last bill.
Brother Z, take us to commercial.
One-on-one, seven of truth.
It's your girl, Jazz Tyler.
We are live and direct.
We had an amazing show thus far.
Shout out to my good brother, my friend, Eric Eze Wright Jr., for joining us earlier in the show.
We still have Sean Wilson with us as well.
We've had an amazing conversation about the prison system, probation, the numbers.
Let's talk about solutions.
So what does solutions look like at a court level?
And how can people support and help with the mission that you're currently on?
Absolutely.
So we are right now working on a couple of pieces of legislation to tackle the issue of probation and parole here in the state of Wisconsin.
We're working with Senator Drake.
She's authoring some legislation that stops the practice of sending people back to prison for rule violations, right?
Not committing a new crime.
So we're working on some legislation that does that.
We're also working with her on some legislation to cap supervision at five years, right?
The data says that when
a
person gets past three years, their chances of recidivating goes down significantly.
And so we figured that instead of keeping people on probation and parole for long periods of time, why don't we cap their supervision at five years?
in alignment with what the data says.
So that people can really begin to rebuild their lives and really become a part of the community and still don't have to walk around on eggshells.
And so we're working with her on those pieces of legislation and then the other piece of legislation we're working on with her is a piece of legislation that has a retro activity component to it where it allows certain offenses to
you know, petition their sentencing judge to get off a probation early or to get off parole early.
In addition to that, we have, you know, commutations, you know, individuals are able to apply, you know, who are currently incarcerated to get their sentence reduced.
A lot of people should understand that we're talking about individuals who have been in prison.
for 20 to 30 years who have demonstrated rehabilitation, who have demonstrated transformation.
These are individuals who should have the opportunity to rejoin society.
You know, Brian Stevenson said that we are more than the worst thing that we ever done, right?
And so if an individual has served 20 plus years in prison,
You know, what's the point in us keeping them in prison?
Right?
Why not allow them to rejoin their their families in their community?
So definitely, you know, when you're out on when people are out and about and they run into these these candidates who are running for governor, these.
legislators who are running for office, you know, talk to them about commutations, talk
to them
about, you know, truth and sentencing, ask them how they feel about truth and sentencing.
Do are they going to be working to repeal truth and sentencing?
Because truth and sentencing is the law that has ballooned our prison system, right?
People are sentenced to do 100% of their time.
And so
That's a law that needs to be repealed.
I think we should go back to parole, which is discretionary.
We still have people who are under the old law, who are still going in front of the parole board.
We're talking about people who have been in prison 30 plus years who are going in front of the parole board, you know, praying and hoping for their day.
And so I encourage people to pay attention to what's happening, get educated,
you know,
get involved in the electoral process.
You know, it's important that people are exercising, you know, their, their, their, their, their, their
and voting.
You get informed on these candidates.
You know, I've been completely transparent
in
my support of David Crowley,
you
know, as a voter,
know, as a Wisconsin voter, and also as an advocate, right?
There is no
with you.
We have someone who we know that is going to listen to
us, and oftentimes people get in the
habit.
Absolutely, and people want to...
You know, I'm a I'm a I'm a steer away from the politics.
But yeah, I encourage people to participate in the electoral process, get educated, get informed.
My call to action to Milwaukee, to the state of Wisconsin is to take advantage of the moment in which we find ourselves in.
Right.
Take advantage of the opportunity of moving the state forward
and
being a contributing factor in moving this state forward.
Right.
And
so.
We're in trying times, we're in challenging times, difficult times, and I understand that people are dealing with a host of things that may not allow them to participate in the electoral process, but participating in the electoral process, I'm confident.
you know, will begin to ease
things that they are dealing with that prevents them from being involved in the electoral process, right?
And so, um, yeah, my call to action is to get informed, um, you know, get involved, um, and hold our elected officials accountable for what they should be doing on behalf of us in our community.
So, um, speaking of, you know, some of the challenges, right, for those who may be unaware, how can they, uh, let's say it's someone who, um,
has a felony on their record.
How can they restore, begin to restore their rights so that they can vote?
Yeah, so in Wisconsin, you're not able to vote until you're off probation.
So
if individuals who have returned home and they are still actively on probation
parole, they're not allowed to vote.
Once you have completed your probation, your parole, then you become eligible to vote.
But if you're not able to vote, I mean, when I wasn't able to vote,
One of the things that I always made sure that I did was encourage my family to vote, volunteer to take them to the polls, because I understood and understand the importance of participating in that process and understanding that we have a say in who becomes the next order, the next state rep, the next
governor,
the next president, right?
We have a role in a say in who that becomes.
And so if you're not able to vote,
because you have a felon in your own pro, because you have, because you are on probation or parole, encourage your family to vote.
And if
you're able to get them to the polls, get them to the polls.
Yeah.
What does it look like for someone who may be interested in getting their record expunged or pardoned?
So as, with a pardon, you have to be off a probation, you have to be off of supervision for five years before you become eligible.
And
then
once you have completed,
that five years post your discharge from parole or probation, once you have reached that, then you're able to apply.
Governor Evers, and I'm sure the next governor will have, well, Governor Crowley
will
have on their website the application that people are able to download and complete.
to apply for a pardon.
And so that's one way that people will be able to get a pardon.
And then individuals who are currently incarcerated, you already know the commutation process has been restored and people are applying for that.
But yeah, if people are interested in getting a pardon and getting off, I mean, there's legal routes that you can go to get off a probation or parole early.
beyond that, um, a part in this also another another way where you can get that that feeling off of that, um,
that
felony off your record.
Thank you so much, Sean, for stopping through.
Before we go, do you have any shout outs?
Oh, shout out to the mill.
Shout out to to to the block.
Yeah.
To to the fam.
Shout out to you.
You know, congratulations
on
show.
Congratulations for bringing people who are.
the most proximate to these issues
on
the show.
We often say, you know, within the broader ecosystem of criminal justice reform, and it's a quote from Glenn Martin that those who are closest to the problem are closest to the solution, right?
But often furthest from the power and the resources to change their condition.
And so what we want to do at dream.org and also just, you know, all advocates, you know, we want to ensure that we're getting folks proximate.
to the decision makers, right?
We want to make sure that we're developing their leadership.
We're training them and organizing an advocacy
so that
when they show up to a state capital, when they show up to a city hall meeting, when they show up anywhere, they have the tools and resources that they need to advocate for themselves, their families, or the issues in which they feel themselves most impacted
by.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much, Sean.
Shout out to Sean for stopping through as well as Eric.
Listen, Milwaukee, tomorrow we will be at Moody Pool.
I'm sorry, Moody Park.
I'm telling my age.
Moody Park at 5 p.m.
We know this out in the Milwaukee County for the Unity Walk.
So please meet us down there.
We're trying to go 500 deep next week.
We got some special guests joining us.
Pastor Ken Lock will be on the show as well as other guests.
And as always, please, Milwaukee, have a safe evening.
All right?
About that time, double back tomorrow, 8 a.m.
with the legendary Homer Blow and Bailey Coleman followed by Sherwin Hughes.
The lunch break with Ray Nitty and maybe Shannon.
Ray Nitty will be covering the great vine, and then you can double back with your girl Jass Tyler on tapped in MKE.
Peace and love Milwaukee, I'm out.
Southern trees bear strange fruit.
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root.
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze.
Strangely
hanging from the poplar trees.
Because we have the first hour of this show is going to be serious business.
We have not ended racial cast in America.
We have merely redesigned it.
That is a quote from Michelle Alexander, the new Jim Crow.
And I want that to sit right there for a minute because.
Sometimes the most dangerous thing we can do as a people is convince ourselves that because the language changed, the system changed, the signs came down, the laws changed, the vocabulary changed.
But what happens when the mechanisms of racial control evolve instead of disappear?
Again, good afternoon, everybody.
It's your girl Jazz Tyler.
You are officially...
tapped in and I need you locked in with me today because we are starting this show off differently.
I'm not starting off with entertainment or celebrity gossip or what's trending, right?
I'm starting with the question.
What is happening to us?
What is happening to us?
Another black death is making headlines.
A man was found dead near.
Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles while the Dodgers were playing Okay, so I'm gonna talk about this We do have a special guest today as well five o'clock.
I will be joined by my good friend Eric easy right junior.
He is the son the oldest son of The late great godfather of gangsta rap easy and at six o'clock we have Shawn Wilson He will be joining us as well
But this came across my desk, and I couldn't help but to think, right?
I'm on air every day.
We talk about so many different things that's happening in the news, in the city of Milwaukee, outside the city of Milwaukee.
And some is entertaining, some is informative, some is just simply, you know, downright hilarious.
But the fact that this keeps happening and
Not a lot of people are talking about it enough is a problem to me because this isn't happening in a historical vacuum.
We are talking about black bodies.
We are talking about death.
We are talking about lynchings.
We are talking about investigations and we are talking about families who are demanding answers, right?
We are talking about a history in this country.
Where a tree was sometimes transformed from something beautiful into a symbol of terror So let's go back Not because we are stuck in the past, but because if you don't understand the past you will never Understand the present so the equal justice initiative has documented nearly 6,500 racial terror lynchings between 1865 and 1950 and that number represents
documented cases.
That means there are people whose names, circumstances, and deaths were never properly recorded.
We all know that lynching was not simply a murder.
It was racial terrorism.
It was a message.
It was a public demonstration designed to tell black people, this is what happens when you step outside the boundaries that we have created for you.
And I want you to think about that because the lynching didn't only kill one person.
It terrorized everybody who witnessed it, everybody who heard about it, everybody who understood.
That could have been our brother, our father, our children.
And sometimes the most powerful weapon isn't the weapon itself.
It's the fear of what might happen next.
Now I know somebody listening right now is like jazz.
What are you talking about?
Why are you talking about people are getting lynched?
Well, I'm not sure if you guys are aware but Since June of this year There has been more than 10 cases of black people men and women being found hung from trees In various parts of this country
I am telling you that we cannot allow the fear of being called conspiracy theorists to stop us from demanding transparency, right?
Yes, some of these cases, they are a couple of them.
They are saying suicide, right?
They are lynchings.
We don't need the facts.
We've seen this.
Our ancestors seen this.
Our grandparents have seen this.
And just because we are and I'm speaking directly to the people in the city of Milwaukee in the state of Wisconsin Just because we are up north in the Midwest Does not mean we are disqualified or excluded matter of fact.
There was a similar situation of a brother I believe last year who was found hanging from a tree somewhere in Brookfield At the end of the day facts matter truth matters
Evidence matters, but so does history.
We remember what this country has done.
We're reminded every single day.
We remember what happened when the law looked away.
We remember what happened when authorities knew exactly what was going on and did nothing about it.
We remember what happened when a black body became a public warning.
And we remember that justice has not always arrived simply because the law existed.
Sometimes people had to organize until the law was forced to respond.
That's what the civil rights movement taught us.
That's what the black freedom struggle has taught us.
And that's what I'm saying today, because the days of passive acceptance are over.
Before somebody takes that sentence,
and run somewhere I didn't send it because we all know when it comes to us, the first thing we think about is violence, right?
I'm not talking about unorganized, reckless violence.
I'm talking about knowing your rights, knowing your city, knowing your elected officials, knowing the police oversight structure, knowing your legal resources, community leaders, right?
And if it comes to that point,
Not to be so fearful to the point where you can't stand up for yourself I'm talking about building black community before the crisis happens because if your only strategy is to become angry after something happens you are already behind So today we are going to talk about recent deaths we're gonna talk about history We're gonna talk about why some families are questioning suicide determinations, right?
talking about the political climate of this country.
And we're going to talk about something else.
Who is responsible when a community loses trust?
Because responsibility isn't always about who pulled the trigger.
Sometimes responsibility is about who's supposed to investigate whatever the situation is.
Who was supposed to preserve the evidence?
Who was supposed to answer that phone?
Who is responsible for telling the family the truth?
When you hear about black people dying under circumstances like this it raises questions, right?
And yes, we are filled with so much violence to the point where I hate to say it but some of us are becoming numb Because we're programmed every day we wake up we watch the news we whether it's on TV whether it's in your phone whether it's on social media, right It's always something negative they always start with with violence with something negative
So much to the point where mentally it's hard for us to even contain that amount of violence.
It's actually unhealthy.
So when you hear stories similar, you begin to say, dang, that's messed up.
Dang, that happened again.
But this isn't one of those situations.
This is not one of those situations.
We have to talk about this, right?
There are people turning up.
Not just in the South out all over this country.
And you cannot tell me that these are just suicides or, you know, is no big deal.
It is a big deal.
Do you do you not understand what is happening?
The state that we are currently in.
The things that are happening, the Nolan Wells, Carmelo Anthony's, the Lynchons.
Yes, it has been going on.
It is not anything new, but it is constantly increasing.
and we are not talking about that enough.
We gotta go to break, but when we come back, I'm going to give you the cases that have been publicly reported over the last several months, right?
But we're gonna do something different.
I'm not gonna glorify it, right?
We are not going to exploit people's death.
We are going to ask, what do we actually know?
What don't we know?
And where are the unanswered questions?
Plus, I'm going to ask you the question I think we all are afraid to ask.
Can a black community protect itself without becoming consumed by fear?
Do not touch that dial should girl jazz Tyler one on one seven the truth
You
are officially tapped in with your girl jazz Tyler on the award winning one on one seven the truth if you are just now joining us
I am calling a state of emergency for the entire country when it comes to our people, black people.
There has been numerous of lynchings that has been happening, physical lynchings.
Most recently, a dead man was found hanging from a tree in plain sight near Dodger Stadium in the middle of the game.
So according to Daily Mail,
A dead man was found hanging in the proximity of Dodger Stadium while the team played a home major league baseball game according to a report.
The man was found hanging from a bridge just off Bonara Street and Stadium Way, which is just a few hundred yards away from the bar park.
The LAPD told the California Post.
The unidentified male was discovered at around 848 p.m.
local time on Wednesday.
The Los Angeles Dodgers faced the St.
Louis Cardinals at the stadium on the same evening with the game beginning at 7-10 and concluding around 10-10.
Officers are said to have responded to the scene after receiving a 911 call from a witness who said they saw a dead body hanging in the plane site.
An LAPD spokesperson told the Post that no file play was suspected and an investigation is still underway.
The reason I wanted to read this is because a couple of a couple of things first and foremost The first thing that they always say is that they suspect no file play right and that may be the case for this situation But what's happening is that when you combine stories like this with stories of for example The man who was found in North Carolina the sister who was found in Mississippi the other two gentlemen who were found in Mississippi, right?
and they start to paint narratives or they merge it all together and start to say that it's suicide, then what that does is it sends a signal to our brains to not pay attention to the deep rooted issue here, right?
What is really happening?
Whether someone is doing it over something that has nothing to do with race, it could be, you know, something with the streets, anything.
At the end of the day, it is happening, right?
And I want to establish something before we go any further because I am going to mention
some of the cases over the past several months that have involved situations similar to this.
First and foremost, I am not interested in turning tragedy into content, right?
If somebody lost a family member, that is somebody's mother, somebody's father, child, brother, et cetera.
So when we talk about these cases, we are going to talk about them with humanity.
But humanity does not mean silence.
It means we care enough to ask questions, right?
So over the past several months there have been multiple publicly reported cases involving black people found hanging or deaths involving hanging that have attracted public attention So we're gonna start in Harrisburg, North Carolina in June a 36 year old black man by the name of Cedric Tyhu was found dead hanging from a tree in Harrisburg, North Carolina
Tonya Nicole Miller, age 27, was reported found hanging from a tree in Miami in June of this year.
Justice Kai James, age 21, was found hanging outside a Job Corps facility in Albany, Georgia.
His death was initially treated as suspicious, but later ruled as a suicide.
Gerard J. Jackson, age 28.
was found dead in Michigan after leaving the Electric Forest Festival.
Public reporting has described the death as suicide while family-facing accounts raised questions about the circumstances.
Teja Fortune, 29 years old, was found hanging from a tree behind a vacant home in Jackson, Mississippi in August of this year.
Her family has publicly rejected the idea that she killed herself while the investigation has remained unsolved.
In Raleigh, North Carolina, police reported that a 32-year-old black man was found hanging from a tree.
Police said surveillance showed him alone and said they considered the death as a suicide.
Demetrius Fleming, age 38, was found dead in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina in August of this year after police responded to a reported attempted suicide.
The reason why I wanted to go over that, and that's not even all of the cases that has been transpiring the past several months.
These are some of the cases.
And as you can see, there is a pattern, right?
What I want you to pay attention to the most is the locations.
So we're talking about Georgia, North Carolina, Jackson, Mississippi.
North Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi.
all Southern states, all ranging from the ages of 21 to 36, all black.
Majority men, but there was a sister by the name of Tasia Fortune, right?
And when you look at these cases, every last one of them, they are ruling as suicide.
Every last one of these cases.
of these brothers and that sister that was found hanging from a tree was ruled as suicide.
So if the official finding is suicide, then explain the evidence.
If it was homicide, explain the evidence.
If the investigation is open, tell people that the investigation is open.
If the medical examiner hasn't finalized the matter of the death, then say that.
If the family has questions,
Let the public know what those questions are if the family is denying Whatever the case may be so if they are ruling the case to be a suicide and the family says We're not buying that we don't believe Almost we know that it wasn't suicide Are you going to trust the authorities in Jackson, Mississippi in Georgia and North Carolina?
Or are you going to pay attention to the family and why they feel that now?
We all know that not everybody knows what someone is going through We all know people who smile even when they are hurting so bad inside and tells they tell nobody anything we understand that But to me as a mother as a sister as a daughter There is nothing nobody can tell me more about those closest to me than me
If it was simply a homicide, that's different.
The evidence is different.
But to simply rule every one of these cases as suicide is so suspicious to me.
How convenient in a climate that this country is currently in.
So if you're telling us that it's by suicide, don't just say it's suicide and open and shut the case.
Give us some evidence.
What makes it a suicide?
What evidence do you have?
How do you know for a fact that?
No one did this that is that this is not indeed a lynching.
Why are you so quick to call it a suicide, right?
I Want evidence we want documentation.
We want independent oversight.
We want families in form.
We want investigators held accountable
And one thing's for show, two things for certain, I want the public to stop treating every question as an accusation.
Just because they say it's suicide does not mean it was suicide.
So when we talk about Tasia Fortune, she was a 29 year old mother of four found hanging behind a vacant house.
Her family questioned the suicide explanation.
I got a question for you, Truth Nation, 833-212-1017.
What would make you trust that answer?
Or what would make you not trust that answer?
If this was your family member and authorities say, hey, you know, sorry about your loss.
We found your child, your sister, your wife hanging behind a vacant house from a tree.
Are you gonna question that or are you gonna believe it?
Some of the questions that I have automatically that comes up to my mind is what evidence do you have?
How does she get up there?
Right?
How does a person manage to tie themselves up to a fairly large and tall tree without needing a step stool, without someone else doing it, without any of that type of evidence being around?
doesn't make sense to me.
So what I want to do is actually dig into this more and reach out to these families so that we can have some conversations about this.
I know so many people who children are currently in the state of Georgia.
I have a niece in North Carolina who's in college.
I have family members in Georgia.
I have family members in Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi too.
So when we talk about it's not just You know affecting them it's affecting all of us Hell if you black it's it better be affecting you If you black it better be affecting you So we got to go to break pretty soon after this break we are going to go a little bit deeper into this Because one thing I do want people to understand and when I say people
Again, I don't talk at you all because I know that you are aware of this, but I have such a broad audience I have my students who are in high school listening young adults people in my generation people and You know our elders they listen as well So I'm not trying to explain something that you don't know But I just want to reiterate it in case the students the young people aren't aware and in case people forgot because these are conversations We don't have often
How often do you hear people talk about lynchings or, you know, what is happening in our country currently, right?
I want to remind people that lynching wasn't about just killing, it was about power, who had it, who didn't, who was protected and who wasn't, right?
And we're also going to talk about what happens when political language starts creating an environment where certain people can become easier to dehumanize.
And then I'm going to ask you, who is responsible for protecting our community?
Who is responsible?
Is it the police, the churches, politicians, families, neighbor, all of us?
Who is responsible?
Want to hear from you, 833-212-1017, my condolences, my love goes to every single family who has been experiencing this, not just the past several months, but even the cases that we are unaware of.
even the situations that we are unaware of.
Let's continue this conversation after break.
Do not touch that dial.
1017 the truth.
Welcome back.
You are officially tapped in with your girl Jazz Tyler on the award-winning 1017 the truth.
We are live and direct at the American Family Insurance Studio in the beautiful heart of downtown Milwaukee.
If you are just now joining us, we are talking about
I declare, me, I declare the state of emergency for the entire country because there are too many black people, black men and women who are being found hanging from trees.
And the story seems scattered.
You know, they'll pop out here and there, but they're not receiving the attention via media as much as they should be.
And because I am an educator,
for high school students because I do have family and former students who are in colleges in these states and actually live in these states.
It is very alarming.
Matter of fact, we've actually experienced this in the city of Brookfield this past summer.
And I was talking about the young lady in Mississippi, Tasia Fortune.
So according to WBAL-TV,
The hanging death of Tasia Fortune, whose body was found outside an abandoned house, has shaken her family and community in Mississippi, where two other people have been found hanging from trees in less than one year.
Police have not indicated whether they consider the 29-year-old black woman's death suspicious, saying only that they were actively working to determine the circumstances surrounding the death.
A week after her body was found, a pink and white memorial honoring her life stood as a bright spot Monday in the otherwise overgrown backyard of the abandoned house.
So Jackson police officers responded to the home on August 3rd and discovered her body hanging in the backyard.
Again, this is an abandoned house.
Highs County Chief Medical Examiner Investigator Jeremiah Howard later confirmed the identity as
Tasia Fortune.
Her body is now in the custody of the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office.
So this is when it first happened, which was August 11.
Christy Spivey, who is her mother, told ABC News on Sunday that she last saw her daughter on July 26.
Fortune, a mother of four, had lived in Mississippi for more than 10 years and started to travel back and forth to Kentucky.
She had recently went to Kentucky for a family reunion.
She described her daughter as a loving mother who was not behaving out of the ordinary.
Her mother stated she did not do this to herself.
I know my daughter and she did not do this to herself.
On Wednesday, Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes wrote a letter to
Mississippi U.S.
Attorney Baxter Krueger asking for assistance in this case.
In the letter, Stokes referred to fortune as a murder victim.
Jackson Police have commented very little on her death.
They have not identified any suspects or person of interest.
Local media report that a man interviewed by investigators said he had argued with her but had no involvement in her death.
Fortune's death comes less than a year after the hanging deaths of 21-year-old Trey Redd, a black student at Delta State University in Cleveland, and Corey Zucatis, an unhoused white man in his 30 in Vicksburg.
Police in Cleveland concluded Reece's death was a suicide.
Autopsy reports were consistent with the examination.
and his family and attorneys called for an independent autopsy report as well.
So just in case I have to remind you, the medical examiner's office over the entire state of the person who was over that office over the entire state of Mississippi, this is the lady that I talked about last month while I was covering the Nolan Wells case because that case happened in Mississippi as well.
In her track record there is proof.
Her track record has shown that anytime there is a situation with a black man or a black woman being found, hanging from a tree, lynched, or any case where foul play may be involved, she automatically rules it as a suicide.
Automatically rules it as a suicide.
So now I want to go to the part of this conversation that I think is a little uncomfortable.
But it's not going to be too uncomfortable for you guys because you already know I love having hard and difficult conversations.
So we like history when history is inspirational, right?
We love to romanticize over the works of Brother Malcolm X, Minister Huey P Newton and Chairman Fred Hampton.
We love to romanticize the words of Dr. King, right?
Recite the speeches and all of that, right?
But we don't always like talking about the machinery that made those movements necessary.
Jim Crow wasn't simply a collection of rude signs.
It was a system.
A social order, a political order, an economic order.
A system that black Americans
That told Black Americans where we could and where we couldn't live, where we could and where we couldn't go, who we can marry, what schools we could and couldn't attend, what jobs we can have and what jobs we couldn't work, and what happened if that order was challenged.
And lynching was one of those tools of terror used to enforce that order.
You understand?
So I'm refusing to talk about lynching like it's some type of random historical footnote because it wasn't it was an entire system and Again, I stand on what I what I said and what I believe you cannot tell me that every one of these cases are Suicide we just read this story About the young lady in fortune
I'm sorry, the young lady Tasia Fortune in Mississippi.
And it stated that they did interview somebody who stated they had an argument with her.
And for whatever reason, they chose not to look into it.
But again, call me a conspiracy.
There you are.
You want when people want to do stuff and cover it up, they'll get anybody to say anything they'll find.
Whatever.
Like they have ways.
They've been doing it for quite some time.
But again, every case that I have read to you guys today, every situation.
which was several in Georgia, North Carolina and Mississippi has all ruled these lynchings as suicide.
So my question is, and it is a question that we all know the answer to, can systems change their appearance without changing their function?
Absolutely.
What do we always say?
Right?
The KKK never left.
They just put on robes as judges and a police officer uniforms.
Right?
Never left.
Jim Crow has never left, which is why we have the book, The New Jim Crow.
That's what Michelle Alexander argument forces us to examine the new Jim Crow wasn't saying America literally brought Jim Crow laws back It was asking us to examine how racial hierarchy can be reproduced through different institutions and different language So when I look at the present, I'm not asking is this 1955 obviously it's not
But that does not mean that the same system has not been set in place That system has not been dismantled What happens to communities when access to opportunity is unequal right what happens when certain neighborhoods experience concentrated poverty what happens when people are overpoliced what happens when people don't trust law enforcement what happens when political leaders
I want to say this before I continue.
I don't have all of the facts to these cases, but it does not take a rocket science to understand what is happening here.
And when you are doing radio, talk radio specifically, in some shape or form, you become a journalist, which means that you have to
not just find news clippings, not just have conversations, but you actually have to research these topics, these conversations, right?
You have to piece things together and understand by using common sense.
So you take the facts and you take common sense and you merge them together.
And what I am simply saying is I want us to do a better job
at realizing that we are still in the same situation that we have always been in.
I want us to do a better job and making sure that we are teaching our babies about this information too, because again, when you're talking about these states, there are people who are sending their children down to these states to go to college.
You may have family members who live down there as well.
I know I do.
So when we talk about these cases in these situations, we're not talking about it like it's too far-fetched.
We're not talking about it like it's back from the civil rights movement.
We're not talking about it as if it's happening across the world.
It is happening right here in this country today, and it is happening consistently.
And nobody is talking about it.
These aren't just...
People who are 40, 50, these are 21 year olds, 26 year olds, young adults, a couple in their 30s, that's still young.
Either way is happening.
It is happening.
Human behavior is more complicated than we imagine, right?
When we analyze people and I'm speaking to law enforcement investigators, detectives, right?
Speaking about rather, when you study the history of situations like this and you compare it to the stories that's happening today, you will see that there are a lot of similarities and that is my call to action, right?
Let's go back.
Not review the history at surface level.
Let's start pulling up court documents, right?
We are living in a different day and age.
Let's compare and contrast.
Let's do our job like we always do when they count us out, when they don't want to tell us the truth.
These families deserve answers.
They deserve justice as well.
We have to have this conversation about what is happening during this climate in America currently.
Before you send your baby off to college to a HBCU down south, before you take that drive, that road trip with your family traveling through these countries down south, we need to have these conversations.
We got to go to break, should girl jazz Tyler, do not touch that down, one on one seven the
truth.
on the poppy
trees.
I remember having this conversation a few years back.
I believe this was 2018 or maybe 2017 with the Canika Jenkins case.
Actually, I think this was 2015, 16.
The Canika Jenkins case in Chicago where, and I'm sure you guys are familiar with it, but she was at a hotel party with her friends and they had footage, alleged.
Footage of her walking, you know disoriented into a freezer inside the hotel, right?
And when you watch the footage You can tell that it wasn't her because the size of the person was not the size that she was this woman was a little bit thicker a little bit taller And it just looks stage right and even if you are wondering you can't tell me that You're wondering and nobody none of the staff members
Find you see you or or grab you and tell you how you can't go in there or how about the fact that How do you end up in a freezer or the room that holds the freezer without the proper access?
So to that to your point, I absolutely do believe that some situations are Oregon harvesting, but I also believe that the person who runs this country
Amongst other people have done a great job at making ignorant people, the proud boys and all of the others, believe that this type of behavior is okay.
Am I blaming them?
Absolutely.
Because once again, do I need the facts?
No, I don't need the facts.
If it walked like a duck, it quacked like a duck, it's a duck.
It's happening too much.
It's happening entirely too much.
So again, there is nothing that can make me think otherwise.
I don't believe that these cases are cases where they're just strictly suicide.
I don't.
Nothing, nothing inside of me feels as if that is true.
And again, I am, I am eager to.
Reach out to the families to get their their side because one thing I do know about the media in Places like this.
It's all about power.
It's all about connection.
It's all about Relationships and a lot of times people in authority they work together to make sure that whatever information they have That does not coincide with what they are telling the media does not get out
So we have to start bridging the gap and having conversations with people who are physically there so that we can obtain the correct information.
So that we can obtain the correct information.
So my quarter action, again, I apologize this Thursday.
I wasn't, you know, I didn't want to get on here and, you know, kind of.
Down make you guys feel down or anything like that, but again We got plenty of time to joke and laugh and have fun When when there are situations like this constantly happening and I don't see people talking about it.
I have to say something I Have to that's what I have this platform for Again, I do like to stay in a positive realm.
I do like to come on here and lift you guys spirits, right?
But at the same time, I have to give you the real.
I have to give you the truth.
And most importantly, I have to give you the information that nobody else is given or give it to you in a different manner.
And at the end of the day, there has been too many cases this past year of our people, black people being found hanging on trees and they're constantly listing them as suicide.
So we're not going to spend all three hours talking about
Problems without talking about power, right?
So at five we are changing gears.
We are talking legacy hip-hop.
We are talking family We are talking a man whose voice became one of the most recognizable voices in the history of hip-hop Eric easy right junior is joining me.
He is the eldest out of all of Easy easy's children, right?
He's a good friend of mine.
He he does a lot of work
in the community, not just in Los Angeles, but throughout the entire country.
And given the climate we are in right now with hip-hop, rap, you know, I think it'd be amazing and dope to talk to someone who father was a part of starting this culture, right?
I know the past.
A couple of weeks we've been talking about the Tupac murder trial and there's been, you know, biases.
There's been people who support it and people who don't.
But at the end of the day, the bigger picture is the reality.
What is the reality right now?
Music is influencing our children.
Hell, music is influencing adults too.
You know, there's a lot that's going on inside of the music industry.
And we want to sit down with somebody who father was a part of the beginning.
of this, who was there when this was created, who have seen so much.
Eric has seen so much.
Eric Jr.
has seen a lot.
He has done a lot.
And he was old enough to remember a lot.
So we're going to have some real conversation about that.
And then at six o'clock,
I got my good brother, Sean Wilson.
He will be joining us.
Sean is a part of the dream.org organization.
Sean is also a Zulu baby.
He grew up on 13th.
I think 13th.
Yeah, 13th and Berlach, a block from me.
He grew up around my brothers.
He is someone who, you know, made a mistake at a young age.
I went to prison, I believe for about 17, 18 years, got out and.
Boost to the ground and got right to work.
So we're gonna sit down and have a conversation with him as well and with all of these things that's currently happening Inside of our city.
I just want to highlight something that is Simply amazing to me.
I actually had the opportunity to do a panel discussion of fireside chat last year with chairman franham the junior in
Brother Golden child from Chicago and tomorrow the Milwaukee The Milwaukee County Health Department shout out to brother David Muhammad and disease are doing an event an event a unity event at Moody Park 2201 West our Avenue We will be there in attendance.
We are promoting peace positivity and personal responsibility.
This is happening Friday, September 4 tomorrow from 5 p.m.. To
8pm and we are expecting 500 people, right?
Not just people from Milwaukee, but people from Chicago.
So there will be a lot of people driving over here from Chicago to do this event with us.
And I want you to pull up, right?
I want you to pull up.
It's going to be some amazing people there.
This isn't one of those events where you smile and shake hands and.
You know, it's transactional or politically correct.
We are genuinely trying to send a message.
We are trying to grab a multitude of generations and bring them all together so that we can begin to allow the youth to feel comfortable around the elders so that whenever they need to be corrected, they can correct them, right?
We talk about this often.
They say, you don't have no respect for the elders.
Well, how often do y'all spend time with them?
This is the time.
This is the time where all generations are free, right?
A lot of the brothers who was a part of the 94 crime bill who were incarcerated, a part of the mass incarceration have been home for about 10 years now.
Some are still coming home.
So let's take advantage of being able to have multiple generations all together.
So again, this is happening tomorrow at 5pm.
It ends at 8pm.
It will be at Moody Park.
And Sunday there will be something called a family reunion at the mosque on 9th and burly that's 925 West burly that's from 10 a.m.
To 5 p.m.
So this entire Weekend is built around unity and peace Again, not the unity of peace that just looks good for the cameras, but Yeah, we really really really really
are going to have an amazing time.
An amazing time.
Zee, we got some trollers in the chat.
Can you take care of that for me, please?
Thank you.
So do not touch that doubt at the five o'clock hour.
We will be joined by Eric Eze Wright Jr.
via Zoom.
We will have a great conversation at six o'clock.
We will be joined by
Sean Wilson, he's going to join us in studio.
We're going to have a great conversation with him as well.
So do not touch that doubt.
She girl jazz tied the one on one seven the truth.
Milwaukee Black Talk lives here on 1017 FM in 1510 AM W269 DL Milwaukee and WGKB Walkershaw live from American Family Assurance
Studios.
1017 the truth is your girl Jazz Tyler.
We are live and direct.
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Tune in to the journey with Coach Erica every first and third Saturday from 11 a.m.
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You are officially.
tapped into the six o'clock hour.
I have another special guest in the building.
We are talking about the senior director of organizing and partnerships at dream.org.
We are talking about a brother who was raised in 53206.
Now hold on, because we all know a lot of people like to claim that zip code, but he actually does come from that zip code and currently does work in that zip code.
We are talking about Sean Wilson.
Sean.
Thank you so much for tapping in with us.
How are you?
I'm good.
I'm good.
I appreciate the invitation.
You know, I've been seeing a lot of my people come on here.
Yeah.
So I appreciate the invitation to come on and top it up with you.
You know, you say you from around the corner.
You say you from 14th in Burla.
I say I'm from 14th in Burla.
I'm still waiting on the paperwork to come back.
I think my family already vouched for that.
I know
you old fish.
Yes, indeed.
So, who is Sean?
Who is Sean?
In a nutshell, you know, Sean is the possibility of transformation, right?
As you just mentioned, you know, I was, you know, raised and grew up in the 5306 zip code.
And we all know the challenges that exist within that zip code.
So to be where I am right now is really a miracle, right?
Yeah.
Um, and many individuals who have come from that zip code understands the challenges that they encountered, you know, from birth all the way into adulthood and even still to this day, the challenges that, um, that
zip code experience are still our challenges, right?
My mama still live down
know, I got other family members who are still living down there.
So to be able to do the work that I do and to be where I'm at in my life, it's a miracle.
It's nothing but God.
Yeah.
So have you, have you been over there recently?
I'm over there every day.
Um, it really breaks my heart.
Yeah.
For real.
Like it's, it's hard for me to even ride down 14th.
13th is a little bit.
A little bit better, but 14th is horrible.
It's horrible.
What was the conditions like back then?
I mean, back then, honestly, one of the things that I often say is that growing up in that zip code, there was investments, right?
We had A.O.
Smith, we had Eaton Corporation, which
are two companies that my grandmother and grandfather both worked at, respectively, for about 30, 40 years.
I remember Lee's trailer.
I remember Black business owners, store owners.
Cooper's right there
on 13th.
JJ's.
Loves liquor store.
So, you know, we've seen a lot of black business owners.
We've seen a lot of investments in that community.
And we also saw, you know, our, our grandmothers and our mothers and fathers, you know, going to work every day.
And so we understand what possibility looks like.
We understand what investments look like.
And
we're not, we haven't been able to see that happening in that community.
You know, L Smith is no longer.
Over there on 35th anymore,
you know in
corporation this it's a it's not even even corporation anymore It's a whole new I think it's an office space that's over there right now, but growing up in that neighborhood I mean we had the same challenges that we have right now you had violence
you had
all types of nonsense that was happening over there But we were a community
right
we were a community my god said to me the other day he said yo he said back in our day
There wouldn't be a certain there wouldn't be a thing called the kid boys, right?
Because
somebody would be able to be telling these young cats like, yo, you making a block.
Yeah, you know, what are you doing?
And so I think we've gotten away from that accountability.
We've gotten away from respect.
We've gotten away from like taking care of our communities and the people in our communities, right?
Like we've gone all the way off the rail, but I'm not here to.
Criticize I'm not here to harp about the problem I'm here to talk about the solution
right
and the solution is us coming together and Investing in one another and holding one another accountable the way that we know how
yes, so walk us through Your journey because I teach during the day and I have a lot of youth that listen to this show and we're gonna bring it back to this point of Figure it like you were a person who made a decision and then you
pay the consequences for the decision, but then somewhere along the line, you understood the consequences, decided to change your life, and as you re-enter society, you made something of yourself.
Take us back to what happened.
Don't have to go, you know, details, but what happened in that moment?
What was that transition like into the prison system?
At what moment did you realize you were bigger than your consequences or your mistakes, and how did you get to where you are now?
Yeah, I think I remember I think for me It was at the time of sentencing right when I was sitting there in the judge was handing down, you know My time, you know, ten years initial confinement, you know, ten years Extended supervision five years,
you know
probation ten years stayed, you know, I was 18 Right, you know, so I'm sitting here and I'm listening to those numbers just get rolled out
in the way that, you know, she was looking at me and throwing those numbers out.
Like, absolutely.
I was raised in a household where you take accountability for your actions, right?
But I also understand that I put myself in a position within the system that has historically, you know, treated our people as if we were third class, you know, human beings, right?
And so I didn't understand the...
The totality of what I did that landed me in that situation.
Yeah, I learned that over the years, right?
I learned that, you know, I wasn't unique, right?
I wasn't special, right?
There were countless other brothers and sisters who have come before me who have, you know, made poor decisions and were held accountable for those decisions and in most cases as
as a black boy, as a black girl or black man, black woman in this country, the justice system responds to you a little bit different than
it
does other people, right?
And we have to acknowledge that,
right?
And so I think that there was a different response.
In fact, I know there was a different response to me as a result of my crime, because when I found myself in prison and I was talking to, you know, white guys who
I'm not going to necessarily say they had worse or offenses than me, but at the same time, their numbers were a little bit different from mine,
right?
And I didn't
understand that, right?
But the more I studied, the more I came into a realization of who I was as
a
black man and what my responsibility was to myself first and foremost, to my family, to my community and the world at large, I became a problem.
Right.
You know, I began reading books.
My, my, my bro Rudy, fast, black, Bilal, Hassan, you know, so many brothers, you know, who have invested in my leadership over the years, who were mentors to me, my brother Ezra.
So many of these brothers, you know, took the time to help me better understand the predicament that we found ourselves in and how we got there.
But more importantly, how do we get out?
Right.
I often say,
I got out of prison before I got out of prison.
And I talk
about how that transformation happened mentally before the state opened any gate, right?
That transformation had manifested itself.
And I was moving through the system as if I was already out.
But
while I was in that system.
I was also recognizing the injustices that were happening in the system, and
I
began to challenge those.
And in
challenging them, I found myself in a hole on multiple occasions, right?
And I was OK with that because right is right and wrong is wrong, as they say, right?
So
if you expect me as a resident, you know, at the time as an offender, you know, as what they referred to us back then or
an
inmate, if you expect me.
to be accountable, to take responsibility for my actions, to behave and to conduct myself with a certain decorum.
Then I'm going to also expect the same thing from you as the upholder of this correctional system, right?
And so when I saw them doing things that they didn't have no business doing, I always found myself having conversations with brothers like, yo, like they can't do this according to this, according to that.
And I begin to challenge those things, right?
And the more I began to challenge those things, the deeper my understanding became, the deeper my understanding of the importance of collective leadership became.
And I continue to find myself, I continue to find myself, you know, picking my brother's brain, you know, on how, how do we improve the conditions of our confinement right now?
But also how do we ensure that once we are returning back home to our communities, that we are beginning
to, you know, be the changes that we want to see, be the changes that we wanted to see when we were growing
up.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Um, what was the transition like from.
Sitting in that courtroom, entering into the prison
system.
Send in the courtroom and then from courtroom going into the prison system, I think.
There's a parallel of of slavery that I would I would I would reference
To that to what my experience was like right because Once you're sentenced in the county jail You're no longer allowed to be among general pop right you're a state property now So you go to the state pod waiting for transfer and that transfer takes place where you go from the county jail to Dodge
And you go through orientation,
you know,
my experience going through orientation and many individuals who were sentenced during the late nineties, early 2000s probably had
this.
This is
absolutely,
they probably had, they probably had this experience as well.
But, um, and I don't know how they do it now, right?
But I was dash with some, some, some powder,
you
know, I was, I was sprayed, you know, and I was handed a pair of greens and some state boots and told to get dressed and then I was, you know, shackled in.
hauled off to a dormitory.
And so that's why I say I will parallel it to slavery.
know if they're still doing that right now, but nonetheless, the processing of human beings
is
inhumane.
It's still trafficking.
Yeah, it's inhumane no matter how you dress it up.
And so that was the humanizing experience for me.
And I was angry.
I didn't allow that anger to just
you know, to just build up.
turned that anger into righteous anger,
righteous indignation, right?
Because
again, you begin to question and ask yourself, like, how are they getting away with this?
Like, how are they able to do this, right?
And I want them to.
Do I want to be treated like this?
And that is something that a lot of our youth have to have to start thinking about, right?
Everything you're explaining.
Do you want to be treated like that?
We got to go to break to pay some bills.
When we come back, we are going to dive into this more with Sean Williams.
Sean Wilson.
Do not touch that dial.
It should go just how the one and one step in the
truth.
the other shadow of death.
I take a look at my life and realize there's nothing left because I've been practicing one on one
seven and truth is your girl Jazz Tyler.
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Truth nation.
Got a special guest in the building.
Say from Berlin.
I don't know how we got shine Wilson in a building most definitely from the zoo.
Zulu if you if you know you know but the reason why I say that is because I'm gonna keep it funky other than David A lot of the elected officials a lot of people that do the work like to throw out the stats about five three two zero six like to attach themselves But rarely ever do you see them in the zip code or actively doing the work?
Mashaun you are one of the people who actually does come from the zip code and actually does the work Speaking of work
You are with dream.org.
Can we tap into what your role is there?
Yeah, so so dream.org.
We're a national nonprofit that works at the intersection of climate justice and economic opportunity.
I'm the senior director of organizing and partnerships.
And so what that means is I oversee.
partnerships, building power and developing leaders across the country to pass legislation that reduces the footprint of mass incarceration in this country.
And we also work, again, at the intersection of climate and economic opportunity, because we understand that the same communities that are facing criminal injustices are also the same communities that are facing climate injustices.
We're developing leaders.
We're forming partnerships.
We're working with government at the local level as well as at the state level to pass legislation and policy that's going to move us forward as a state, as a community, and as a country.
Yeah.
So one of those, we were just talking offline about some of the work you're doing around the probation
Absolutely.
Can we tap into that for a little bit and explain to us?
So there was an article that came out stating that the numbers are increasing throughout the state of Wisconsin when it comes to the prison system.
And we know that the jails and the prisons have been overpopulated.
But there is a specific reason why this is happening.
Can you break down to us?
What is what is going on?
Absolutely.
So I saw that article come out and and I just pulled the number up on my phone.
We're talking about 23,854,000 people.
That's all that
that is in Wisconsin state prisons.
This is a historic high, right?
This is a verdict, you know, on the Wisconsin Department of Corrections that the policy that you have upheld and sustained for the last 10, 15 years has led to.
a continuum of overpopulation of our state prisons.
And
it's not
safe for the residents,
and it's
not safe for the staff, right?
And they're also facing a staff shortage of over 600 correctional staff, right?
But let's
talk about that 23,854 number, right?
Wisconsin is an outlier,
only in this region, but also in the country.
an outlier in the fact that we send more
Black men to prison than any other state in the union.
You know, we already know that one in three black men in Milwaukee has had some form of carceral experience.
But the reason why that number is where it is is because of failed policy, right?
It's because of inability of our state legislature, our elected officials being unwilling to work through durable disagreements, right?
what our state model is for, right?
But the reason why we're faced with this number is because there's been a gridlock in the state legislature that has prevented policy around decarceration about investment in people over prisons.
And that's the reason why we have the number that we have here in the state of Wisconsin.
But over the last eight years, you know, with
Governor Evers and of course, you know, we have to hold the governor accountable.
But I will say that the governor has done a lot for criminal justice.
Yeah, there's a lot more that he could have done.
Yeah.
But more than anything, he needs he should be commended for what he has done in the in within within the the ecosystem around criminal justice reform.
He restored commutations and we know that with that.
We're in the beginning stages of this.
We know that he's on his way out of office
and
so families are very hopeful.
And then not only that, you know, he's pardoned so many people, right?
He's given people their lives back.
And then we had the opportunity to work with him early on during this administration.
He appointed me as a commissioner on the juvenile justice commission, which is a state.
um agency advising the department of justice where I had the opportunity to use my lived experience right to contribute to policy right to contribute to how um young people within our carceral system here in the state of Wisconsin were being treated right and so I would definitely say that the governor um should be commended um he should also be held accountable because when it's all said and done the buck stops with him right
governor but not
to his defense, but I want to make sure that I give your audience context that the governor cannot do any of this on his own, right?
He has to have the support of the state legislature, right?
And the state legislature has said publicly that they're not going to give Governor Evers a win, right?
And so he has tried to work with the other side of the aisle to move things along.
But there's been a great deal of resistance on that front.
Yeah, so there was an article I touched on this earlier this week.
There was an article that I seen in the news about Tom Tiffany stating if he was to become governor that he will remove all access to tablets.
Can we talk about how detrimental that is, especially when we're talking about overpopulated prisoners?
Yeah, I think that that's a misguided statement.
And if he does become governor, I do think that people should believe him, right?
Yes.
You know, the data says that some of the contributing factors to a person's successful reintegration to society is.
family connection, right?
Maintaining that connection to families, right?
And that's what these tablets are.
These tablets are a bridge for individuals who are incarcerated to maintain communication with their family, right?
They didn't
have tablets when I was in there,
when I was there.
Yeah, they changed now, I'm like, yeah.
You know, but right.
And so my guys, they call me and I'm like, yo, where you at?
They like, yo, I'm sitting on my bunk, right?
like, like you got
a cell phone.
Like the only time we used to say, you know, we sitting on our we sitting on our bunk, you know, is we had a we had a cell phone,
But they they they're using these tablets and there's so many benefits to having these tablets.
Um, there's systems and companies that upload curriculum, educational curriculum to these tablets, right?
Um, there's so many opportunities that these tablets can be used for in opposed to what they're trying to sensationalize, you know, these tablets as being, uh, when they're there, they're nowhere near that, right?
You're taking an isolated incident and you're trying to blow it out of control, but just think about it, right?
These are, we can, we can.
You know, there can be a world where, you know, individuals can access tele-mental health, right, while they're in prison, right?
Because in prison, individuals aren't, you know, speaking to therapists who are helping them navigate and, you know, understand their trauma, right?
So that they can be better.
But these tablets are a tool that can...
make that connection, right?
So we're not thinking innovatively about these tablets.
We're just thinking, why do they have tablets?
They're inmates,
they committed crimes.
That's the response that we're getting from the system, right?
Or I'm not going to say the system as a whole, but certain individuals within the system has this view of the tablets as if they're being misused.
Like there's a reoccurrence of it being misused and that's just not the case.
And that's what I was
Mentioning like when I first started talking about this earlier this week you can't so
This is, not only does it speak to his character as a human being, but his leadership.
It was a very impulsive statement because the idea thing to do would be to actually sit down per prison or just assist him overall in Wisconsin and look to see how often this happens.
Right, instead of just blowing it out of proportion and making everyone suffer.
So that, for me, well, I wasn't, you know.
But that, for me, showed me that he has no idea, right?
And when we're talking about a state that, like you stated, incarcerates black men at the rate that they do, you would think that someone would educate him a little bit more on that.
But we got to go to break.
When we come back, I want to touch on...
the probation reform piece and what that has done and what it is currently doing to our brothers and sisters in the state of Wisconsin.
We got to go to break the pay some bills, do not touch that dial, should girl jazz Tyler 1017 the truth.
1-on-1 7-in-truth this your girl jazz time that we are live and direct at the award-winner 1-on-1 7-in-truth If you are just now joining us, we got a special guest in the building Shawn Wilson.
Thank you so much for joining us today Before we went to break we were talking about the article surrounding the increase of Our brothers, I don't like to call them prisoners our brothers and sisters who are currently incarcerated You also mentioned the reason
and also something that you're working on that I think people often forget about where it gets wrapped up in just the whole term prison reform overall, but that's actually reforming the probation, right?
So can we touch on that and how this came about?
Yeah, so, and I want to go back to something that you were saying before you went to break regarding that 23,854 number.
I want people to understand that, you know, this is one, this isn't an abstract number for me, right?
These are real people, right?
These are like family members, friends, community.
These are husbands, wives, fathers, brothers, sisters, et cetera, right?
So I want people to understand that when you hear the number 23,854, understand that these are real
lives, right?
That 95%.
of these individuals who are currently incarcerated are going to return home to our community, right?
And do we want them to return home to our community having experience being warehoused?
Or do we want them to come home returning to our community after having receiving treatment, education, therapy, right?
Do
we want them to come home having taken accountability and responsibility for their actions?
So that once they return home, they're able to navigate reentry successfully because they begun to do that hard work of internal transformation while they were behind correctional control.
So I think that I just want to emphasize that that number is real people.
And so we have to make sure that we're investing in people over prisons.
Come on now.
Come on, Sean.
It's like a church.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I'll take you to church a little bit.
No,
no, no.
But that's real because the society overall, from what we watch on TV, to music, to just, you know, we're becoming numb.
Absolutely.
Not only to death, but just to people, you know, overall.
So it is, I'm glad that you said that it is important for us to be reminded that these are actual bodies.
Yup.
Yup.
And the key driver, you know, as we were speaking earlier is coming from, you know, probation and parole revocations, right?
This
something that I've been working on here in the state for about 10 years now, previously at the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, where I ran the smart justice
campaign,
where our motto and our slogan in fact was invest in people over prison, right?
Because this state, but not only this state, but across the country, there's an inclination that to solve, you know,
societal ills, all we have to do is build more beds, right?
All we have to do is build more prisons, right?
And we'll be able to solve that problem, right?
And I think that the response to this 23,854 number is to build more prisons, right?
I think we have to begin to ask the question of why do we have 23,000 people who are sitting in our jails
in our prisons, right?
Why are people going, one?
Why are they staying?
And what is
happening when they leave, right?
What is the core issue?
Absolutely.
And the reason why a lot of people are being sent up north or heading into Wisconsin prisons is because we have a probation and parole system.
Um that sends you back, you know for breeding or looking the wrong way, right?
This is the biggest driver.
We're sending about two to three thousand people each year back to prison at a cost of taxpayers of over three hundred million dollars, right?
Yeah,
that's not invested in the person's re-entry, right?
That's not invested in slavery.
Because what they're working on farms or if I see an article about something, some type of work that they were doing and obviously
You know, they get paid like 10 cents an hour.
But to me, it just seems as if it's their slavery.
Yeah.
I mean, I would say that it is it is a parallel modern day slavery, essentially, right?
Because you again.
People are being warehouse.
People aren't getting the support in the treatment that they need.
If this, we're going to call something the Department of Corrections, then corrective measures need to be dispersed, right?
And that's not happening in our jails, in our prisons, right?
And so again, we have to begin to ask the question of why are we sending so many people to prison?
Like, why does it need to be a carceral response, right?
everything that a person does doesn't need to be a carceral response.
And that's the reason why we're sending so many people back to prison because probation and parole feels that they need to send this person back to prison if they violate a rule of supervision.
We're not talking about committing a new crime.
We're talking about what a story I heard a couple of years ago was a guy moved from apartment A to apartment B. And when his parole officer came,
to visit him, he wasn't where he was supposed to be.
And he failed to notify her, right?
And that shouldn't cause the individual to be sent back to prison, right?
That should be that should be a that's what's that an office era?
You know,
that's not something major that would that you should disrupt a person's life for.
That's something for you to, you know, hey, next time, make sure you know, you let me know prior to you moving the, you know, keep.
Ensure that we're adhering to policy and the rules that you have, right?
That's holding him or her accountable and making sure that they understand the expectations that are placed upon them, right?
So do you think that one of the issues is the people who are being hired to be parole officers?
Because these are the people that are making.
Some of the decisions to send people back.
Yeah, I think there's opportunity for training for all of every probation and parole officer, right?
I
think that and I said this a couple of years ago that instead of probation officers, what if everybody who came home from prison was assigned a therapist, right?
Somebody who's gonna help them navigate their trauma, right?
again, a lot of a lot of guys aren't
you know, doing that internal work when they're when they in the penitentiary,
They playing cars, they playing chess,
know, they talking stuff.
And the reason why I'm saying this is because I know I was I
did
17 years.
Right.
So you have to have some degree in order to survive.
You can't be so vulnerable.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And so I think, you know, if that would be revolutionary is if you give someone who come home from prison.
a therapist instead of instead of a probation and parole officer and what this person is doing is helping you navigate this new reality called freedom, right?
Because that becomes overwhelming for individuals when they're coming home from prison.
And the fact of walking into freedom, just that is overwhelming.
And then when you add onto it the collateral consequences, man, that take it to a whole other level, right?
The mental
You know the the processing that one goes through
when
you're thinking about housing, you know employment How you gonna get from point A to see like all of these things are going through a person's mind as they're navigating this thing called reentry and social skills
Brad on here a couple of hunting last week and I was asking him about people being institutionalized right and How did you manage to because?
To me, you're not.
And I
don't know because I haven't been in a prison system, but just compared to what I've seen and other people, you've done a great job.
And so shout out to my brother, Daren.
He is another person who is far from it.
But what is that?
Like, how what is that like?
How does that happen?
Listen, it happens if you allow it to happen.
And I know many, many, many of my my brothers who have this same experience may have different takes.
But I think
If you allow institutionalization to happen, it will happen.
Again, I got out of prison before I got out of prison,
when I, as I was walking through, you know, these prisons throughout the state of Wisconsin, and I was moved around, right?
I didn't allow my environment to, you know, make me think that I was less then, right?
I began to turn to the things that I knew that was going to keep my mind off of my current reality and focus on what I wanted my reality to be, right?
My grandmother used to always say, know what weapon formed against you shall prosper, right?
Not necessarily that the weapon isn't going to form, but it's
not
going to prosper, right?
And so I always kept that at the front of my mind as well.
And again, I practiced Islam, right?
And so my faith
studying, working out, and just being in good company with brothers who had already transitioned and transformed their lives 10, 20 years before my arrival, right?
This one brother named Belial, he has a life sentence, right?
And I remember I was walking a yard with bro, and I was just trying to wrap my head around like life, like he has the letter, he has a L, right?
And so,
You know, I didn't I wanted to understand like his mental state, right?
Like how is it that you able to function the way that you are functioning?
Which is at a very high level.
This brother was brilliant, right?
Like a encyclopedia and so he said something to me man that really stuck and he said that I give life You know, he said I yeah, I have a life bit, but I'm able to give
and the way I give life is by talking to young brothers like yourself Talking to other young brothers who are coming in who I know
You know has so much potential has a day, right?
And so It's brothers like that who I carry with me, you know when I'm walking through the halls of Congress or when I'm walking in state capitals across this country I take those brothers with me because they're the reason why I'm able to show up the way that I show up in the The reason why I'm able to lead the way that I lead, right?
I didn't I didn't I didn't acquire leadership
you know, when I begin to work in the nonprofit industry, I acquired leadership on a block, you know?
Yeah.
And it's just evolved.
Yeah.
You know, it's just evolved.
And I continue to maintain, you know, my communications and my connections with brothers who are behind enemy lines to ensure that they know that I appreciate them and that I'm out here working on their behalf to
get them
home to their families.
Yes, indeed.
We got Sean Wilson in the building.
We got to go to break and pay this last bill.
Brother Z, take us to commercial.
One-on-one, seven of truth.
It's your girl, Jazz Tyler.
We are live and direct.
We had an amazing show thus far.
Shout out to my good brother, my friend, Eric Eze Wright Jr., for joining us earlier in the show.
We still have Sean Wilson with us as well.
We've had an amazing conversation about the prison system, probation, the numbers.
Let's talk about solutions.
So what does solutions look like at a court level?
And how can people support and help with the mission that you're currently on?
Absolutely.
So we are right now working on a couple of pieces of legislation to tackle the issue of probation and parole here in the state of Wisconsin.
We're working with Senator Drake.
She's authoring some legislation that stops the practice of sending people back to prison for rule violations, right?
Not committing a new crime.
So we're working on some legislation that does that.
We're also working with her on some legislation to cap supervision at five years, right?
The data says that when
a
person gets past three years, their chances of recidivating goes down significantly.
And so we figured that instead of keeping people on probation and parole for long periods of time, why don't we cap their supervision at five years?
in alignment with what the data says.
So that people can really begin to rebuild their lives and really become a part of the community and still don't have to walk around on eggshells.
And so we're working with her on those pieces of legislation and then the other piece of legislation we're working on with her is a piece of legislation that has a retro activity component to it where it allows certain offenses to
you know, petition their sentencing judge to get off a probation early or to get off parole early.
In addition to that, we have, you know, commutations, you know, individuals are able to apply, you know, who are currently incarcerated to get their sentence reduced.
A lot of people should understand that we're talking about individuals who have been in prison.
for 20 to 30 years who have demonstrated rehabilitation, who have demonstrated transformation.
These are individuals who should have the opportunity to rejoin society.
You know, Brian Stevenson said that we are more than the worst thing that we ever done, right?
And so if an individual has served 20 plus years in prison,
You know, what's the point in us keeping them in prison?
Right?
Why not allow them to rejoin their their families in their community?
So definitely, you know, when you're out on when people are out and about and they run into these these candidates who are running for governor, these.
legislators who are running for office, you know, talk to them about commutations, talk
to them
about, you know, truth and sentencing, ask them how they feel about truth and sentencing.
Do are they going to be working to repeal truth and sentencing?
Because truth and sentencing is the law that has ballooned our prison system, right?
People are sentenced to do 100% of their time.
And so
That's a law that needs to be repealed.
I think we should go back to parole, which is discretionary.
We still have people who are under the old law, who are still going in front of the parole board.
We're talking about people who have been in prison 30 plus years who are going in front of the parole board, you know, praying and hoping for their day.
And so I encourage people to pay attention to what's happening, get educated,
you know,
get involved in the electoral process.
You know, it's important that people are exercising, you know, their, their, their, their, their, their
and voting.
You get informed on these candidates.
You know, I've been completely transparent
in
my support of David Crowley,
you
know, as a voter,
know, as a Wisconsin voter, and also as an advocate, right?
There is no
with you.
We have someone who we know that is going to listen to
us, and oftentimes people get in the
habit.
Absolutely, and people want to...
You know, I'm a I'm a I'm a steer away from the politics.
But yeah, I encourage people to participate in the electoral process, get educated, get informed.
My call to action to Milwaukee, to the state of Wisconsin is to take advantage of the moment in which we find ourselves in.
Right.
Take advantage of the opportunity of moving the state forward
and
being a contributing factor in moving this state forward.
Right.
And
so.
We're in trying times, we're in challenging times, difficult times, and I understand that people are dealing with a host of things that may not allow them to participate in the electoral process, but participating in the electoral process, I'm confident.
you know, will begin to ease
things that they are dealing with that prevents them from being involved in the electoral process, right?
And so, um, yeah, my call to action is to get informed, um, you know, get involved, um, and hold our elected officials accountable for what they should be doing on behalf of us in our community.
So, um, speaking of, you know, some of the challenges, right, for those who may be unaware, how can they, uh, let's say it's someone who, um,
has a felony on their record.
How can they restore, begin to restore their rights so that they can vote?
Yeah, so in Wisconsin, you're not able to vote until you're off probation.
So
if individuals who have returned home and they are still actively on probation
parole, they're not allowed to vote.
Once you have completed your probation, your parole, then you become eligible to vote.
But if you're not able to vote, I mean, when I wasn't able to vote,
One of the things that I always made sure that I did was encourage my family to vote, volunteer to take them to the polls, because I understood and understand the importance of participating in that process and understanding that we have a say in who becomes the next order, the next state rep, the next
governor,
the next president, right?
We have a role in a say in who that becomes.
And so if you're not able to vote,
because you have a felon in your own pro, because you have, because you are on probation or parole, encourage your family to vote.
And if
you're able to get them to the polls, get them to the polls.
Yeah.
What does it look like for someone who may be interested in getting their record expunged or pardoned?
So as, with a pardon, you have to be off a probation, you have to be off of supervision for five years before you become eligible.
And
then
once you have completed,
that five years post your discharge from parole or probation, once you have reached that, then you're able to apply.
Governor Evers, and I'm sure the next governor will have, well, Governor Crowley
will
have on their website the application that people are able to download and complete.
to apply for a pardon.
And so that's one way that people will be able to get a pardon.
And then individuals who are currently incarcerated, you already know the commutation process has been restored and people are applying for that.
But yeah, if people are interested in getting a pardon and getting off, I mean, there's legal routes that you can go to get off a probation or parole early.
beyond that, um, a part in this also another another way where you can get that that feeling off of that, um,
that
felony off your record.
Thank you so much, Sean, for stopping through.
Before we go, do you have any shout outs?
Oh, shout out to the mill.
Shout out to to to the block.
Yeah.
To to the fam.
Shout out to you.
You know, congratulations
on
show.
Congratulations for bringing people who are.
the most proximate to these issues
on
the show.
We often say, you know, within the broader ecosystem of criminal justice reform, and it's a quote from Glenn Martin that those who are closest to the problem are closest to the solution, right?
But often furthest from the power and the resources to change their condition.
And so what we want to do at dream.org and also just, you know, all advocates, you know, we want to ensure that we're getting folks proximate.
to the decision makers, right?
We want to make sure that we're developing their leadership.
We're training them and organizing an advocacy
so that
when they show up to a state capital, when they show up to a city hall meeting, when they show up anywhere, they have the tools and resources that they need to advocate for themselves, their families, or the issues in which they feel themselves most impacted
by.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much, Sean.
Shout out to Sean for stopping through as well as Eric.
Listen, Milwaukee, tomorrow we will be at Moody Pool.
I'm sorry, Moody Park.
I'm telling my age.
Moody Park at 5 p.m.
We know this out in the Milwaukee County for the Unity Walk.
So please meet us down there.
We're trying to go 500 deep next week.
We got some special guests joining us.
Pastor Ken Lock will be on the show as well as other guests.
And as always, please, Milwaukee, have a safe evening.
All right?
About that time, double back tomorrow, 8 a.m.
with the legendary Homer Blow and Bailey Coleman followed by Sherwin Hughes.
The lunch break with Ray Nitty and maybe Shannon.
Ray Nitty will be covering the great vine, and then you can double back with your girl Jass Tyler on tapped in MKE.
Peace and love Milwaukee, I'm out.