Does Protesting Work?

Yes, welcome back, welcome back.

Man, I think that was a fire show that Ray had.

Larry Sanders.

Man, fantastic.

This is a fantastic day.

I'd like to see people thrive and strive, especially as black men.

We got to do what we have to do, get it done.

And whatever it is to get it done, we hit home runs, man.

Sometimes as black men, I recognize that when that ball is thrown at us, man, we got one swing.

Sometimes that one swing is all that matters.

And we do hit home runs.

Congratulations to my people.

Ah, you're in the grapevine.

I'm your host, Manon Sabir.

You're on the award winning The Truth 1017.

And we're about to pick some grapes.

We're about to pick some grapes.

I got to pick a few grapes.

That's a lot of grapes I want to pick today because I'm a little taken aback by the memorial that got taken down at 430 in the morning this week.

I think it was this morning.

It's 430 in the morning, not 7am, like Madison, Wisconsin told the family.

430 in the dark.

Corey Ruiz, 38 years old, tased, taken to the ground, shot three times.

That's right.

Including one in his, one in his face and the mat and it was in Madison.

Broad daylight, everybody saw it.

So today we're just not covered.

We're just not just going to cover that.

We're going to go deeper.

We're connecting the dots from Corey Ruiz to Dr. Claude Anderson.

I've been quoting him a lot because I think he's a credible face in the black, in the black community and that we have to listen to him.

Has he been telling the truth for a long period of time?

He says, usually.

There's only two things that keep a group in control for centuries.

That's the economy in the military.

The economy in the military that protects it.

Look at Iran, look at Sudan, Gaza, South Africa, Venezuela, Cuba right now, same machine still expanding their territory.

No matter the cost, no matter the cost, they're still expanding their territory.

It's up to them.

They got to do it.

They have to do it.

Then we'll go straight to the money.

The National Urban League's 50th anniversary report just dropped.

That's right.

The National Urban League's 50th anniversary report just dropped.

You won't believe it.

I mean, you may believe it.

You could believe it.

It just dropped and 567,000 black men.

lost their jobs.

That's over half a million black men lost their jobs.

I'm going to say that one more time.

Over half a million black men lost their jobs.

Between 2024 2025 on into this year.

Half a million plus and we're going to break that down.

Because we're not going to just report the pain though.

And I don't want to just report the pain.

I think we get on these platforms, whatever platform it is, and we look at, we search for the pain and then we, boom, we give it to you.

But there's some feel good moments, and it's a lot of them.

It's a woman in Metcalf Park.

Don't know her but I probably you know have ran across her name is Kelly Smith She turned her own Front yard into a food pantry That's right.

She turned her own front yard into a food pantry for her whole entire block I'm pretty sure people are traveling a couple blocks just to get to that So we're probably closed there because we want we're gonna run out.

I think we're gonna run out of time

just even highlighting her.

And I really wish if somebody knows Kelly Smith right now, if you know Kelly Smith, who the young lady who turned her food pantry, her, her front porch, her front yard into, uh, into a food pantry, please tell her to call me to play eight, three, three, two, one, two, one, zero, one, seven, eight, three, three, two, one, two, one, zero, one, seven.

Tell her to give it, give us a call, give us a shout out.

And, uh, hopefully we can get her on.

So we can interview her ad hoc and ask her about her, her food pantry.

So if you know Kelly Smith, tell her to drop us a line, eight, three, three, two, one, two, one, zero, one, seven.

And if you were doing something and remember this, if you're doing something in the community and that, that no one knows about, please call in.

Don't be afraid to give us a shout.

Do not be afraid to give us a shout because we.

We give you the news, but we want to understand and know what you're doing in the community in order for other folks to understand that you're doing your job, that you're doing it.

So right now I'm going to get to the brutality that we are facing right here in America in Madison, Wisconsin.

So this headline struck me because

I'm, I know that there are a number of people that are, that witnessed, and we know the whole entire country witnessed Corrie's being, being shot by an officer.

So we're going to strip away the political, the police statement for a second and look at the sequence, Ben Crump's own legal team laid out from the bystander video.

Corrie's taken Taze, he was taken down to the ground.

Need one officer's knees on his back.

He was remember he was Taze knees on his back.

He's laying down and then the gun a gun comes out.

He shot multiple times close range one to his own face.

So this that is not a struggle that that ended in a tragic split second decision.

That's a man that had already stopped.

He was already controlled and he was a threat to not.

any to no one.

He was a threat to not one person.

He was still absorbing.

When he was down, still absorbing gunfire.

That's the definition of brutality Milwaukee force that keeps escalating long, way long, long after the, his, the danger has already been stopped, already been neutralized.

Ben Crump crawled it.

an incident.

He called it, didn't call, he didn't call it an incident.

He called it, uh, uh, execution.

So after you actually walk through that sequence step by step, it's hard to argue with that word.

So this is not new to us here in Milwaukee.

This is not new to us in Wisconsin.

at all.

We already know what this, what Dr. Claude Anderson had already said.

And I want you guys to keep this in mind.

There are two levels of control that a community must abide by in order for.

the governing power to win.

And as an economic governance and a military governance.

Remember that.

So Milwaukee, this is none of this is new.

This is not new to this country.

It's not new to the state.

This dang sure not new to any of these two cities, Madison or Milwaukee, Madison or Milwaukee.

So almost 60 years ago.

An 18 year old named Clifford McKissie was shot in the net by a Milwaukee officer running for, running for his own porch.

So this is during the riots, Milwaukee riots.

His mother shot at marched into her own kitchen at gunpoint while he died behind her.

So if, if we think that.

This is new.

And for those of you who are younger than, you know, younger than me, this is not new.

This is all the same.

It has been happening.

It has happened and will continue to happen until we, until we do something, until we learn that we have to control the economics of this country, until we learn how to control the military, right?

That's, that's us or we have our hand in it.

Look at Diallo, Grant, Rice, Scott, Gardner, Taylor, Floyd, Nichols, and the number beneath all of this in 2025 alone, police killed black Americans at a 6.9 per 100,000.

person rate versus a two 2.9 for white Americans, the same brutality, different decade, different face, the same math.

It's, it's, it's for real.

So Milwaukee, let me ask you a question.

When does a, when does restraining a suspect cross the line into brutality for you?

Is it a taste?

Is it a knee?

The shot after he's down?

I want you to, I want to know, like, what is it?

Where is crossing the line into brutality start for people out in our nation land, the truth nation land?

Where does this start for you?

Because for those of us who've been detained by the cops,

That is one of the hardest that is one of the hardest Jams you can get yourself out out of if you can get yourself out of it So I want you to call in and let me know Let me know where you would draw the line Let me know how where the line crosses also 833-212-1017.

This is a part of our mental health

This is, this definitely is a part of our mental health.

Now here's what I really want to talk to you about today and what, what the city did to Corey Ruiz's memorial at 430 in the morning before the sun even came up.

That's where we're spending a little bit of time because for, for a city to say that they were going to give the family.

who's still grieving this execution.

They're still grieving their family member.

They're going to, the city was going to give them time to take down the memorial at seven 30 and also send people to help, but then reverse the fortune and reverse the compassion also and tap down on them with a, you know, whatever military forces they have and erase these.

the the memorial now that's five.

So we're going to talk a little bit more about this a little bit more about Corey Ruiz Memorial and see what we can come up with when we come back in three minutes on the award winning the truth one on one seven.

Yo, welcome back.

Welcome back.

Welcome back to the grapevine.

I'm your host, Manon Sabir.

And yes, we're back.

Glad you were here.

The memorial comes down.

We're picking some grapes.

The memorial comes down in Madison, Wisconsin.

That memorial for Corey Ruiz, the gentleman who was shot in Madison three times by the officer.

Officer of the law.

The memorial came down.

My question is, does protesting actually work?

Does protesting actually work to everybody?

If you think that I want to know for, for me, even, even my own sake, does protesting work?

Do you feel like, do you feel like things get done with protesting?

I want to, that's the question that's sitting in the room before I even tell you, that's the question that I want to know.

Before we even tell you, go into depth, before we even show you this video of what happened this morning, I want to know, I want to know by the time I'm done, does protesting actually work?

Whether or not it does, it does something in communities.

From what, from what, and I'm going to quote Dr. Cloud Anderson again.

He said, protesting doesn't work.

He said, protesting doesn't work.

He doesn't.

It doesn't force anybody that doesn't force anybody's hand.

So I, I want to know from the, from, from people if pro, if protesting works, the memorial at the shooting on, on Williamson street in, in Madison grew into a full camp tents, barricades, food service for the people keeping visual there, like all of that.

Like.

everything they were people got they got you know people camping now it's just a whole it's just a whole city right in the middle of Madison and we got a video it's a little video I think we can we can show it a little bit what we got.

Madison this is drone footage from our NBC partner station WMTV showing crews removing tents and memorials from a barricaded intersection

early this morning.

The encampment is surrounding the memorial site where Corey Ruiz was shot and killed nearly two weeks ago.

Police in riot gear surrounded the area during the cleanup earlier this morning.

Authorities have arrested at least 10 people and right now our Mike Beermeister is on the ground near the site to show us what it looks like this afternoon.

Mike, what can you tell us?

Well, Andrea, as you can see Baldwin and Williamson is now reopened as you can see the.

protest encampment here has now been removed.

And what we're seeing here is a lot of tense shouting here at the protesters who still remain shouting at police officers that are here on scene.

There's about 50 or so protesters.

But if you look over here, I'm going to direct you to see all of the officers on the other side here that are standing by just in case this escalates to something more.

But this is what it looked like earlier this morning when law enforcement as well as Madison City crews came in to remove the encampment, which has

been at the intersection of Williamson involved when streets for nearly two weeks where Madison police shot and killed Corey Ruiz following a struggle in the streets.

I actually just walked through where the protesters still remain.

Their message loud and clear to police and everyone that's here right now.

Don't shoot.

We want to go up.

Black Lives Matter.

Don't shoot.

We want to go up.

We are intimidated by the cops.

We are scared of the cops.

We will protect us and keep us safe.

Yeah.

And Madison's mayor just released a video statement moment ago where she says the city took the nearly two weeks to try and peacefully resolve this occupation before bringing in law enforcement as well as city crews this morning.

We do know there have been a couple of arrests as well as citations, but we'll be out here live in Madison.

Mike beermeister.

Yes.

So city crews come in.

They you have to take a look at the where Madison sits because it sits in basically in the middle of middle of bottom part of Wisconsin.

And where it sits, you have ATF, DA, you have a lot of folks operating out of that area in Madison.

Well, I think it's called Jefferson County, maybe.

And when you look at it.

They got the power straight up.

They have the power They do definitely have the power So when you have an encampment that's pushing against the city's plans, what are they going to do?

What are the people going to do?

The only way you can make that happen make the memorial continue and Prove a point is to negotiate and rational be rational

with the people that have the power.

That's straight up plain and simple.

So city crews came in, they had, I think they had a bulldozer.

They had stuff inside the bulldozer, whatever, you know, whatever weapons, whatever they had.

And boom, they went in and did what they had to do and got people out.

And yeah, it probably, and no doubt that as a business owner, previous business owner,

I recognize that if something is blocking your business and your business is being hurt, what do you have to do?

What are you gonna do?

If it's hurting your bottom line, you're gonna call the government to tell them to move in so you can make your money.

So maybe, just maybe, the businesses were being hurt or maybe that was an excuse.

And we'll never know because I think the mayor,

She had called for peace, but then she brought a little bit of war.

So here's a part that should genuinely bother you though.

And Milwaukee, no matter where you land on, whether the encampment itself needs to go.

A witness said the timeline the city gave the people wasn't the timeline.

They actually use her words.

They, these are her words.

They, she said they told these people seven AM and it was four 30 AM.

They told them they'd give them time to pack up.

There was no time.

And see that took weeks to, to even confirm basic facts about how Ruiz died.

They moved, they moved with urgency though.

They moved with, with complete urgency, like ready to go, ready to go.

It was just crazy.

Because for them, how they were talking in the first place, for them, how they were talking in the first place, they said that this was an active homicide investigation.

And if it was an active homicide investigation, you have to have services that correspond with the active homicide investigation, which is don't cause any more trauma

or drama in the community in which there's an active, active homicide investigation.

Think about the optics.

If we think about the optics Milwaukee, a memorial for a man tased and shot in the face.

It's dismantled before dawn with police standing by with their weapons while the actual investigation into his death is still unresolved.

This is untimely.

So whatever you believe about barricades and business impact, the timing tells the story.

They do that all the time.

And protesters have been unmistakably clear.

They have definitely said that they're not done.

I want to know what are they going to do next.

So they said they're not going to stop.

I don't know how organized they are.

It is Madison.

So there is real life.

You know, there are some.

There are some organizations down there that are do good and they have that are really organized.

So this is not over Milwaukee.

No matter what, how many tables tents got loaded into the truck this week, they're not done.

But I got to ask a hard question.

I really want you to sit with this.

And this is my hard question.

And.

Before you get defensive is protesting really working is protests really working for our people right now?

Freedom Inc, which is you let it led the the organized push down in Madison The city still came back at 430 and cleared it out the way law enforcement standing by other other enforcement agencies standing by other enforcement date, you know, they built

Encampments like they got, they got a whole city in the middle of a middle of an intersection, a busy intersection.

But then this, these people wait until 430 and erase it in the hour gone.

All of it goes cleared out.

Is protest the way to do it?

Dr. King said a protester, a protest exists to create a crisis.

so that real negotiation becomes unavoidable.

Dr. King said protests exist to create a crisis so that real negotiation becomes unavoidable.

So here's my question for you.

Did Corey Ruiz Memorial ever create that kind of crisis or did it create an inconvenience?

Did it create a crisis or did it create an inconvenience?

Cause these folks had an early alarm clock, man.

They went out and they cleared the entire thing out.

Y'all, we have to think about that.

If protests alone isn't creating an unavoidable crisis anymore, what's the next tool?

Economic pressure, boycotts of businesses.

Remember Dr. King was boy, they're boycott.

They did the whole, uh, waste desanitation boycott.

And that was a problem.

That was a problem.

We have to, we can't keep pretending and beat around protests as if it's not working, as if it's working.

Is it really working?

We'll see.

I want you guys to answer the question.

I'm going to come to the chat in a minute.

Because Kat, you're on fire in the chat, man.

Now I'm going to take this all the way up to Milwaukee because what's happened to that memorial isn't just about one this early morning in Madison.

It's about who actually controls the entire board that we're all playing on.

I'm going to talk about Claude Anderson when we get back.

We'll be back on the award winning The Truth

1017.

We're gonna be all right.

Are we gonna be all right?

We're gonna be all right Milwaukee.

Welcome back to the grapevine.

I'm your host manon severe We're picking some more grapes and I wonder if we're gonna be all right the protests work do protests work.

We're talking about the gentleman Cory Ruiz that was murdered by a cop in Madison, Wisconsin the encampment got taken down after two weeks and Do protests work the encampment was taken down and

The mayor said, get back to business as usual, basically.

Mayor, Rhodes, whatever, Satya, Mayor Satya in Madison, Wisconsin.

Do protests actually work?

Hit me up in the chat.

I'm gonna hit the chat real quick because that's what we do.

Cats, cats on fire.

How many ambulances had to go around the quarry encampment when, when minutes mattered?

Why did it turn into a free for all?

So nonprofits could put up tables selling their selling their game and businesses.

Protests and strikes work if they are tight and organized, one speaker and intelligence sound voice screaming like a banshee gets on one's nerves.

It worked in the 60s from Milwaukee, nationally now, no leaders now.

Sip said, uh, it's 2020, 2026 protests don't work.

I'm pretty sure, you know, actually I'm pretty sure that.

In the 60s, they probably said the same exact thing, but now we've been over-protest.

We sat in, we kneel, we boycott it, we shut down bridges, put our bodies directly in front of police dogs, fire hoses, natural guards, troops, put our bodies right in rocks way.

What do protests work?

But here's the uncomfortable question.

Honestly, after the cameras leave, after the cameras leave, what do black people actually get?

Did marching change America?

Or did America learn how to wait until we got tired?

Because George Floyd, okay.

George Floyd, the murder of George Floyd sparked one of the largest protests in American history.

Corporations posted black squares, people were taking a knee, all kinds of people, from Colin Kaepernick to you had politicians then later on taking knees and, you know, during all that, there's a famous picture of politicians at the National Memorial taking a knee.

Streets was renamed, but six years later.

People were had DEI departments whole like building out entire DEI departments just to address.

Just to address this.

Now, on one hand, we say that if you look at that evidence, protests did work.

And I'm not either or I'm just trying to find out whether or not protests work.

But six years later, after all of that, our black people safer.

Are police more accountable?

Did the money move?

I mean, we know some people stole some money.

Some people stole a little bit of, not a little bit of money, but how about a lot of money?

They stole, did the power move?

Today, we're putting, we're putting a little protest on trial.

Who putting our protest on trial?

Those protesting work for black people or has marching

Become a pressure like a like a pressure release valve on on a pressure cooker You know how your grandmother would take a pressure cooker and she put them greens in the pressure cooker and then all of a sudden you know when the greens are done the pressure releases boom and Get in those greens tasty taste the smoked turkey you it's good It's good has Marching become a pressure release valve

that lets America calm us down without changing the system.

Will the system change?

That's what we need.

That's exactly what we need.

We need system change.

Think about it.

You could protest and have different outcomes.

A protest can talk about public attention.

It can have the outcome of change public opinion or new legislation.

People can, for protests, it can help people push people to change budgets or institutional practices at universities.

Remember, a lot of protests happen at universities.

A lot of protests happen at universities.

Kent State, there we go.

A lot of protests.

It can change electoral power.

economic, some economic consequences can change.

So, you know, we can't say that there's evidence that it doesn't.

We can't say that protests don't work carte blanche and generally, but there are longterm improvements in black people's lives in relationship to protests working.

Now, a protest can succeed on television and still

fell in the neighborhood.

A protest can succeed on television from your living room.

When you get home from work, when you finish at nine to five and you got to go around the protest, you got to drive around the protest and hit that home.

Think about it.

You're sitting at home and you're looking at that protest and did it change your neighborhood?

That's what you're asking.

You need to ask yourself that.

If that if that protests actually change your neighborhood.

So here's my here's my other question.

When black people protest.

What should count as victory?

What should count as victory?

Awareness and arrest should are we looking?

Are we actually looking in terms of protests?

Are we looking for for an arrest?

Who should be arrested the person who the person who killed the the the person who was?

shot or murder the offender Should should we count as victory should we count as victory a new law or Measure measurable improvements there we go measurable improvements five years later

Five six years later, what are the should we should we count that as?

Improvements just look at we we made we made full like there were full budgets for a For di departments for diversity equity and inclusion the departments full flesh budgets people were shifting budgets left and right Gone I mean they were moving that money, baby

People had pay raises, all kinds of stuff.

But then, but then did it really, did it really change the culture of the company, of the companies?

Because if you, if you look at the companies now and this person that's in the office right now, he shook up, he shook up the game, he shook up the world and he cut all that funding and he allowed those companies.

to show their true colors.

He allowed them, those, those, those companies to show their true colors.

So I think the, the receipts are real in protesting.

The receipts are real 1965, a peaceful demonstration, Selma, Alabama, uh, president Lyndon Johnson, he signed the voting rights act, you know, like after bloody Sunday.

After Bloody Sunday, he signed the Voting Rights Act.

And the violence was televised nationally.

It was on television.

It wasn't pay-per-view like we got right now.

It wasn't on kick in, you know, Roku and all these other places.

No, it was, it was televised.

People was watching it from their homes.

So, you know, marches, the marchers didn't really raise the awareness.

It was the blood on the bridge.

It was the blood on the bridge that helped at least force the federal government to protect voting rights.

But I think there was even more forces at, at stake in relationship to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

We're not going to get into that, but he did sign it August, August six in 1965.

He signed it and it went, it went through, but that's what they were fighting for.

It was a mass pro there were mass protests in the fifties and sixties that helped produce the civil rights act of 1964 and the voting rights act of 1965 but You have to remember they did bus boycotts sit-ins they there were voting registration campaigns lawsuits This this was organized strategy.

This was an organized strategy This was organized and

And I think we think right now that protesting is, you know, someone with a bullhorn and you're kind of right.

You know, screaming like a banty gets on one's nerves.

Not everybody is screaming like a banty on a bullhorn, but, but if you are talking about something, then you have to have a strategy behind it.

And that's the question that I want.

There's a question I want to ask is, it does protest work.

Does protest work?

The March actually was the microphone.

The organization, economic pressure and political strategy actually carried the message into the law then.

But what are we doing?

Is our message in our organization carrying and switching the law?

There are many, many questions in all of this, but the one major question that we have to ask is, do

protest work.

When we come back, we're going to continue on, we're going to continue on and talk about whether or not protests work.

And, uh, we got some more news to catch up with.

We'll be back in three minutes on the truth,

1017.

Is it because of my people?

Is it because of my sneakers?

Is it because of my jersey?

Is it because of

the periphery?

Yes, welcome back.

Welcome back to the grapevine.

We're picking some more grapes.

And we're talking about everything.

I'm on my soapbox.

This is Taco Tuesday.

We're picking some grapes on the grapevine.

And you all know war winning the truth, 1017.

And if you got anything to say about this topic, let me know.

Hit me up on the chat or call in 833-212-1017.

The phone lines are open 833-212-1017.

I'm going to repeat that 833-212-1017.

Do you think my question is, do you think protests work?

And my second question, I want to let that sit there.

I let it sit there a little bit.

My second question is, does Corey Ruiz, in God bless his soul, get treated differently by this system if Black America controlled more of the actual economic machine in this country?

Does do the people, the persons that were murdered by the system get treated differently?

If black America control more of the economic machine in this country, really, I want to know.

Dr. Claude Anderson, if you know who he is, black world, white wealth, think about it.

I think that's the book.

We can probably pull it up later.

There are only two things that have kept any group in control of a society.

Generation after generation, for hundreds of years, that's control of the economic machine.

That's control of the economic machine and control of the military that protects it.

No, not one without the other.

A group that controls the economy pays for the military that guards it.

And that machine wants to build, it does not sit still.

It expands.

It expands constantly.

It's ever expanding.

It's generation after generation.

I look at the world right now and tell me that Dr. Claude Anderson wasn't on the summit.

Isn't on the summit.

He's still around.

Iran.

The US is openly at war with Iran.

Our gas prices are getting higher and higher.

Then they go down.

Then they go back up.

Market manipulation.

They said Steve Wittkopf and Jared Kushner made close to, I think it was two to $300 billion or something crazy off the market manipulation.

They have manipulated the market.

They squeezed the short squeeze the market.

Uh, I think they said close to over nine times, over nine times.

That's a lot.

Those two individuals themselves did it themselves.

So strike day US openly striking a country over a hundred times in a week fighting over oil choke points and Moving trying to move the entire whole global economy Sudan the world's largest displacement crisis Gen of genocide after genocide going on right now Going on right now It's and from that's from our own US State Department.

They've said this

Over 12 million people driven from their homes and it's barely covered Gaza, a humanitarian catastrophe.

The world's watching real time.

Venezuela, Cuba, decades of sanctions and economic pressure, economies completely zombie, squeezed.

The regime after regime after regime have been targeted because of independent economy.

That doesn't have the answer to the machine is treated as a threat, not as a neighbor.

That is control.

And Milwaukee, I need you here closer.

I need you to hear this.

South, even South Africa, South Africa right now, right now in 2026 is dealing with the real documented, real documented, what you call xenophobic violence.

Black Africans.

Black South Africans attacking black African immigrants from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, burning their shops, killing people, driving them out by the thousands.

You guys think this is a, this is a, uh, this is unplanned.

This is all planned, all planned to turn people against each other.

Not only are we doing it here, but we're also doing it there.

So if, if we think about it, if we think about it, here's my direct link to, to Corey Ruiz Anderson, Claude Anderson has been warning us about this pattern for years, for years.

And when people don't control their own actual system,

their own economic base.

Then scarcity.

Turns people against each other.

That's what happens when you have scarcity.

Teen takeovers happen.

Black on black violence happened.

Hunger happens.

Individualism happens.

And the people underneath it.

keep fighting over the scraps instead of the source.

They keep continuing to fight over the scraps instead of the source.

Look, Corwee's man shot taste.

In his own city.

They they want they clear his memorial out.

That's just not one bad officer.

That's what an entire machine looks like.

I'm an entire machine that can control the economics and then the military, the functioning of the military.

They can treat a single black life as an error.

Like a, uh, an escape button on your, on your computer screen, on your computer keyboard, press escape done or delete.

That's your button or backspace.

That's a button.

Or even just a space bar.

Tap the space bar or there's ellipses when you have another thought in your text message.

And then you place another thought.

Whatever is in that space, erased.

That's what happens.

A body on the ground, memorial in the dark, and a machine that never once stopped expanding.

When we are able to control the...

economic machine, then we will be able to win.

We will be able to win.

So really, here's the question.

I'm, I'm a pose it again.

Milwaukee, do you think Corey Ruiz gets treated differently by this system?

Or let's, if we take Corey Ruiz name out, you know, not to disrespect him, but if you take Corey Ruiz out, you put you in.

Does binance beer or, you know, Joe Williams or whoever you are, whoever you are, do you get treated by this?

Do you get treated differently by this system?

If this system is controlled, if the black people, black America have more control of the economic machine in this country.

I mean, not, and I'm not talking, I'm not talking hypothetically.

I'm talking about really.

Structurally, you know, from policies, all that, all of us insulated.

Do we get treated differently by this system if Black America actually controlled more of the economic machine in this country?

I need y'all to let me know, let me know what you think.

Let me know.

I would, what does his, does his resonate with you?

Like, would, do we get treated differently?

eight, three, three, two, one, two, one, zero, one, seven.

And that, let me ask, let me see on the chat real quick.

I'm going to see what they say.

Uh, let's see, let's see.

Cass said, no leaders now, just talking heads who have that God complex, want to brand themselves.

Ah, shaky says the protest starts strong, but what's the end game?

Protest then what?

Yeah.

Protest then what?

Where?

Where are we going with the protests?

Kat said 2.7 billion surplus in Madison while NPS school zero.

Oh, okay.

Kat, you on fire, man.

Organized civil disobedience.

Those are effective.

Kat said, ACLU gals Milwaukee for millions, 2018, 2025, not a dime went to the black man, black man profile, stop frist, no charges.

ACLU made millions off their backs.

Thanks, David Crowley.

Oh, I mean, I'd need some more research on that.

I don't know what, uh, some of that time I was gone.

So yeah, let me know what you, what, what else you find.

You know, I want to understand the, what you, what you're, what you're bringing up, but that's, that's the, we want to understand the truth.

I want to understand the truth behind that.

And if you could bring it up, let me know.

Milwaukee.

We'll be back to pick some more grapes.

We're on the truth.

We're on the truth.

I'm talking the truth nation.

Y'all call in.

Hit me up on the chat.

Let me know what you think about some of these topics.

We got a question to be answered, but we have more questions to be answered on the second half of the grape vine while we're picking some more grapes.

You're on the truth.

The award winning, the truth.

Yes,

welcome back.

Welcome back.

I'm your host, Manon Sibir, the grapevine.

We're picking some more grapes on the award winning the Truth 1017.

Yes.

And we're talking black.

We're talking black.

We're talking black.

Black, black, black, black, black.

And I want to tell y'all something.

I recognize that there's a lot of people that are trying to make a living, man.

They're trying to make a living.

They're trying to make a living.

They're trying to do it, especially in this economy.

Especially in this economy, trying to make a living.

They're looking towards, they're looking towards the future, but the future is kind of looking bleak, especially for black and black Americans, black women and black men.

There were some numbers that came out that I'm not excited about.

And I know you shouldn't be excited about even the amount of people that are without a job, the gig worker jobs are staggering.

are staggering.

Everybody's working a gig worker job.

I was just talking to a brother today and he said he got, man, this man probably got about three, four jobs.

He said he got janitorial service.

He's a, he, you know, he's a mechanic.

You know, he's trying to do it all.

But the National Urban League just released its 50th annual report and they asked, they just asked one question right in the title.

is the American dream dead.

Did y'all really, honestly, did we really believe in the American dream?

I mean, I think we were, we were coaxed into thinking, especially after the 1965, 64, 65 period with the voting rights and also in the 70s with desegregation on into the 80s that

The American dream was peeking up.

It was, it was trending upwards and we were constantly being told that all we have to do is go to school, walk across the stage, get a good job, work for this, work for this company, work for Ford, GM, American Motors, Isles Charmers, Fister, Vogel, work for those companies, IBM, work for those companies.

We were told that.

We were told, okay.

You know, a lot of us were told, don't go to trade school.

A lot of us were told, don't go to trade school.

Now trade schools are filling up.

So is the American dream there?

I mean, I want to understand what, what, and let's get into it.

Let's just get into it.

Black unemployment climbed 7.8% up from a historic low of 4.7%.

That's just in three years.

So it climbed 7.8% in just three years since November, November, 2025, 567,000 black men and somewhere between 250 and 300,000 black women have lost their jobs.

I'm black women.

Let me ask you a question is, did you guys actually.

And y'all could answer, did y'all lose your jobs before y'all quit?

I know there's a great debate between that.

There's a lot of women that have quit their jobs because they were stressed out and they wanted to move around.

A lot of black women quit their jobs because they were stressed out.

They were tired of not seeing their kids.

So how are y'all supporting yourselves?

I just want to understand where are the women who have quit their jobs?

and talk to me about if you lost yours and what are you doing now to supplant whatever was in that, whatever job you did.

What are you doing now?

Black men, you could, I mean, answer the same question.

What are y'all doing now to do something different outside of the job that you had?

I think a lot of us are now

Realizing especially like during this rest movement this rest is is is recovery movement That and also the sober living movement is a lot of people who sobered up a lot of people who sobered up and looked at their life and were like man I'm tired.

I'm tired of working going to the bar and coming home to my family and that's just my only life a lot of folks were like I'm going to I'm going to go to work.

I'm a sober up.

I'm gonna go to the gym

And I'm going to figure out what's going on in my life and create a better prosperity for me.

So what's the highest for us?

This is the highest black unemployment outside of an actual recession in recent memory.

It erased literally.

It erased an estimated $87 billion in black in the black household income.

$87 billion in the black household income.

So the, the gap is, is bloody.

The gap is bloody.

I'm going to go to the chat real quick.

Cause the chat's been going off.

Uh, cat said third hearing something about attorney Goyke case getting dismissed about this lawsuit, the money on me next trial.

He James.

Cass said, so hard, can't catch up, catch a break, no benefits.

That is why it is a dream, not real.

NPS machine, no trade class, it's similar in MATC, ready or not.

Iron class, it's high dropout chemistry portion.

People can't pass the chemistry.

Khan Academy, that's all I gotta say.

And he said, nice to meet you.

Go to work, see y'all.

He said, get a job, get a check.

Or she, I don't know, get it.

Get a job, get a check.

Possibly.

Possibly.

Get a job, get a check.

I mean, yes, you can do that.

But if the jobs are drying up or if you have a job in DEI, if you have a job in diversity, equity and inclusion, those, a lot of those departments either have been renamed and people can't see through the glass ceiling because it's been covered up with dirt and or.

those departments have been cut all together in relationship to Doge.

Doge had a lot to do with a lot of those departments being cut.

So you had a lot of people who were making money from diversity, equity, inclusion from the government campuses and corporations and private companies down to schools, school buildings and universities.

Those have been cut.

So.

The, the, the graph, the gap is really bloody.

It's really wide.

The median black household holds just 15, 15 cents of wealth for every dollar of a white household.

Black home ownership sits at 44% compared to 73% for white Americans.

That's, that's a gap that's wider today than the actual FHA act.

That's the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

That's a, that's a huge gap.

So political, the political powers under threat, the political power, our political powers under threat, especially following a Supreme court ruling striking down, uh, Louisiana's congressional map.

Look at, it had 191 black hailed state legislative seats.

nationwide are now considered at risk.

Mark Morial from the Urban League, the Urban League president, he said, those trying to kill the American dream, this is his quote, he said, those trying to kill the American dream, their priorities are waging expensive wars, building fiscal plans that benefit billionaires, cutting investments in housing, healthcare, food security.

And here's, I think here's the bright spot, especially for black women is small business ownership actually fought against the black woman's unemployment rate.

So out of that, out of that 300,000 black women not having a job, 13% actually started.

Small businesses.

So even while they're losing jobs at a really high rate, black women start building their own tables.

They were building their tables, wiping the tables clean and making it happen.

You, I mean, there's so many women right now that are starting brand new businesses, but that's still a lower percentage than the amount of people that actually lost their job.

So what are the rest of the people doing?

And how are we getting it done?

We need to have answers.

Ladies, I know you.

I know you're doing things that are almost super woman like that are you.

Some of you have two, three, four things going on and you can call it a job.

You can call it gigs.

You can call it hustles, whatever it is.

But if you're, if you are in that space.

If you're in that space, we know you're burning out, we know you've been burning the midnight candle.

Let us know what are you doing to capitalize on this gap.

What are you doing in this gap right now to capitalize for yourself and for your kids?

If you have children, if you don't, it's all good.

But what are you doing to capitalize?

Milwaukee, I've personally felt this.

And yeah, I know you've personally felt this in your own household or your own job search this year, but that 13% rise in black women starting business.

Is that resilience or necessity?

Is that resilience or necessity?

Are you being resilient?

or are you being, are you operating under necessity?

And there's a difference.

There's a huge difference because a lot of people now have recognized that if they're not being, if they're not operating under necessity, they're going to lose everything.

They, they will lose absolutely everything.

So let me know Milwaukee and we'll come back in three.

minutes on the award-winning The Truth 1017.

Can you

feel the beat within my heart?

Can't you see my love shine through the dark?

Can't you see that you must be a part of that beating?

Yes.

Welcome back to The Great Vineyard on The Truth 1017.

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Yes.

Man, that's a fire.

Ooh, that's really good.

That's really good.

I like that.

I like that album.

Hey, y'all.

Welcome back.

Welcome back.

We're picking some more grapes.

We're picking some more grapes today, and I'm I'm excited because.

I'm excited.

There's a few things I'm really excited about, and a friend of mine went on, went on Facebook Live, you know, a while ago.

And, and she was sad.

She was sad because she was sad because she wanted to, she was at a, at the discovery world or someplace like that.

And there was a kid who, there was a kid who was,

You know running around or whatever and she has a son.

She has a son who is autistic and The son when he's three, but he looks like he's I don't know he looks like he's six and She whenever he runs, you know, especially for kids that age

they just run they don't

know

We don't know where they're going, but he's also nonverbal.

And he decided to run away from his mom and when he ran, he ran into a kid.

Uh, and the kid happened to be about, I don't know, six years old, probably even seven.

And he ran into the kid and I guess, you know, they both fell down.

The mom of the kid that he ran into.

Um, he wound up, um, the mom of the kid that he ran into, then kind of said something derogatory to this three year old and to my friend of mine.

And, you know, it didn't set her off, but it also made her sad.

And as parents of kids with special needs.

There's a few things that we that we look at There's a few things that we look at when we're When we're looking after our our kids and one of the things that we look at when we're looking after our kids is is Whether or not they're conducting themselves in the proper manner according to what we taught them and the second thing is

is when they're playing or other kids treating them the way that that child interacts and first meets that particular kid.

So there was a, um, there was a, uh, this interaction that my friend had with the parent and it didn't go sideways, but it got her thinking.

It got her thinking about.

What can we do, especially for kids that have autism and or other special needs to help them help them?

Galvanize around a community that is their own a community in a specific space that is their own.

I mean, we have a number of buildings and businesses, but then are we

with some of those businesses, they're inclusive, but some of those buildings are also, in businesses, also allow other kids that don't have special needs in.

But she's asking the community, can we build a place that will allow, that will allow,

the special needs community to have a specific place just for special needs individuals to play play basketball Whatever it is they need to do in this in this spot.

So I there's a video There's a video that I wanted to I want to play and you guys may even find out find

that this is a really good, this is a really cool, feel good moment.

And before I talk about this video, I want, you know, this is really near and dear to my heart, but a young man out of Goose Creek, South Carolina, young man by the name of Leonard, he walks to work about three to four miles every single morning, rain or shine to his job in FedEx, a black man who drives,

That same route noticed him day after day after day after day, man, man, to be drenched in rain, to be drenched in sweat, eight, 30 in the morning.

And some told this, this, this guy who was driving by, he had to do something about it.

So he pulled over, popped his trunk and gifted this young kid, Lenard, a brand new electric scooter.

Plus a spare charged battery.

So it never will dial him ever again.

And literally stood there and taught him how to ride it.

Then and then and right there, like, and I got to be honest with you, like in Milwaukee, a lot of people online, including the man who gave the gift, believe, uh, Lenard may be on the autism spectrum.

And if you look at it.

You can realize that that is that is one of the You know how he his interaction is is quite possibly that so I want to play this video Yeah, so I want to play this video and and tell me what you think this is a feel-good

moment every morning walking up and down this script and I wanted to do something for you step up step out of the way

I know you probably, like I said, I know you probably bad food right now, like with this neighbor wondering where you be going at, bro?

Where you be going to work?

Where

you work at?

Work at FedEx?

And check this out.

Like I said, I always see you every morning, bro.

And it's been on my heart for a minute to bless you with something.

It's been a ball.

You've been walking up and down this script for maybe about a year or so since I've been seeing you, right?

What's your name?

No, no, no, no, where you from from North Austin.

Well, yeah, that's what I want to do for you.

I want to I want to give you this man I Won't give you this It's brand new It's ready to go

And that's yours, bro.

Hold up.

I got a battery for you.

I got a battery for you.

Where you live at?

Huh?

In Goose Creek?

It's the battery.

You put this battery in your box.

Put the battery in your box.

It's already charged up ready to go.

I charge it for you They go about 20 miles per hour Yo, let me get a thank you or something man.

You have a blessed one.

All right Well damn

Know how to do it hold on.

He's he's about to he's about to He's about to run across the street and show this boy how long you've been working that fit it how to ride the Yeah, the scooter

What you do over there?

Put that inside your bag Yeah

So he Watch this guys this is this is the amazing part a

head start this the bricks right here This the bricks sometimes you don't get a head start once you do once you push it a little bit Push down on that and it's gonna take off Not on that one this one this one right here

Watch this, he takes off, he's gone.

Let up and then push it.

I'm telling y'all, who in the world does this?

This is absolutely amazing.

I mean, if you look at it, if you look at it, this is the antithesis to all of the stuff that goes on.

This is the antithesis to what people perceive the crowd, the audience, what people perceive as a person who isn't good.

This man gave this boy, seen him riding, seen him walk into work every day and gave him, bought him a real life electric scooter.

Those scooters aren't inexpensive.

They are for some people.

If you are working, that's a that's a grip.

Bottom of scooter with a rechargeable battery and let them like let them have it.

That right there is an act not only of God, of compassion, of empathy.

That is that is that is quite simply one of the best and greatest ways to.

give your heart to someone else.

So when you see acts like this, it wipes out all the other things that people have done in this world, like stuff like that.

You can ride high on that.

That's a feel good story.

I got another one before before we get out of here too.

We'll be back on the truth radio.

Walking with the Lord, I see footprints.

My mama always told me use my good sense.

Common always looking for the good sense, since we all got good in our essence.

In the hood sense, we all good anyway.

That's why you always hear another dollar, another day.

I see the day as a new beginning, movement of the people, movement of the

women.

Welcome back to The Great Body.

You're picking some more greats to be for Nasibir on the War with the Truth radio 101-7.

All

right, we want to talk about it.

What was true?

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True family fest Saturday, August 22nd from 11 a.m.

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Special thanks to American educators credit union, American family insurance.

Milwaukee Public Schools, artists working in education, City of Milwaukee Department of Community Wellness and Safety and Extension.

Y'all come on out.

August 22nd.

We're going to be there.

And I'm going to give y'all another feel good story.

I got to do it.

We've been talking about triumphs and trials and all that good stuff, but we need some good feel good stories too.

We're going to talk about Kelly Smith.

Kelly Smith and.

You know, I think she's doing what we need to do.

We talked, we had a big segment earlier this, this month about last month about food apartheid, how our neighborhoods are being divested in by companies who are taking their businesses out of their, out of our neighborhood, taking grocery stores out of our neighborhood.

They're there.

We're losing neighborhood, especially on the north side of Milwaukee and somebody took matters and into, into their own hands.

A sister by the name of Kelly Smith right here in Milwaukee in the Metcalf Park area.

She took her own, she took her own front yard and she just started feeding neighbors.

She just started feeding neighbors.

So Kelly Smith, she lives on somewhere on North 37th in the Metcalf Park area.

And to anybody driving by, what she's built looks like a simple yard to folding tables against the fence.

You know, one's got food, the other got books, you know, books, personal hygiene kits, clothes, and all of it for free.

So when cars slow down, when the cars slow down,

She doesn't wait for them to, to, to ask.

She just shouts it's free.

And that's so smart.

That is so smart.

While nonprofits on the North side were working through official channels, partnering with the city to build network community fridges.

Kelly was building her own thing.

She was building her own thing.

She was not just doing, she wasn't just listening.

She wasn't just ruminating on the idea.

She did it.

No press release, no funding applications, no, uh, you know, just two tables and the fence and some food and whatever.

So what started as just an idea turned into a free food pantry.

And if I think prior, before, before all this, you know, she probably was just picking up groceries for family members.

That's what, what it, what it said.

She was for whoever got sick, just a generous person, just somebody who wanted to do the, the, the Lord's work.

That is what she wanted to do.

And that is what she did.

Not, you know, a lot of times we get into like this analysis paralysis, all this, you know, you know, the, the, the people are going to catch us.

The government's going to get us in all this other good stuff.

Ah, she just set up some tables and.

And and put together a put put up some food and some clothes and the hygiene stuff and said it was free.

That's it.

That is it.

I mean.

I can't.

This can't get any easier.

This is this is where I feel good.

We got a clip of of this story and I want you to watch this.

This is.

This is fantastic.

Probably one of the

best ideas in the world right now.

I would love to be able to have dry ice with coolers.

I got a few gas donations, so that helps.

So people come and they're like, well, you don't want anything?

And I'm like, it's free.

And they said, well, no donation at all.

I said, well, if you want, if you insist, I could put it in my arm resting, put it for gas money.

So that's what I've been doing lately with the small little donations like that.

Today, these donations came from the Islamic Dollop Center.

So I go there five days a week.

We got some nice ribs and some lunch meat.

Got lots of carrots and mixed vegetables and string beans and all that good stuff.

Some people are kind of self-conscious about having to come to a pantry.

So I leave the non-precious items out at night so people can feel comfortable to come and get things, you know.

We don't want anyone to feel like that if they are in need they have to be ashamed.

So we just leave it for that discretion to come and get it whenever they want

to.

Wow.

Absolutely amazing.

And all she wanted was a sign.

This has got to be, this has got to be the best, not even just best feel good story.

This is probably one of the best stories at this year for someone who comes from a place where in her neighborhood that it's Milwaukee County.

licking Milwaukee County having the second highest food insecurity rate in the entire state of Wisconsin.

And the entire state of Wisconsin.

14.9%.

That's 138,000 neighbors.

It's not even evenly spread.

She knew she saw what was lost.

She saw the pick and say is closing the.

the war greens closing, the CVS is closing and none of that is a coincidence.

And all of that in a, in an area where we're, we're catching food apartheid by the, by the, by the, by the thousands.

We're in food apartheid areas.

This is a food apartheid emergency right now.

And she set up two folding tables and when she set those food, those folding tables up and put her products on the, on the.

on the tables, all she wanted was a sign.

So I need somebody to tune in.

Mario Dickens, can you track this lady down and scoop her up her sign?

All she wanted, all she want is a sign.

That's all she want.

Mario Dickens, somebody tag Mario Dickens real quick or give him a shout and allow him to tune in so we can set them up.

I don't even know what this latest address is.

But for a person to be in a place where the disinvestment is bloody and it is a crime against a neighborhood to leave a neighborhood reeling in pain after the...

the exit of grocery stores that people relied on.

After the exit of grocery stores that people relied on, she decided to, this lady, Kelly, decided to do what?

She decided to place herself in the line of fire, set up two folding tables, put some food out and offer it for free as a, as a food pantry.

Then she uses other food pantries to set it up.

This is, this is.

We can make, I always say black people, not only are we canaries in the coal mine, but we can make something out of nothing.

We are the, we are some of the most well rounded and in very genius level people in the world to come from one place.

to this place, not have anything and build something out of nothing is amazing.

It's absolutely amazing.

So shout out to Kelly Smith.

I don't know where you are, what your address is, but we need to find out what you need and hopefully we can get more people to dig in to your idea.

When we come back,

We're going to continue on this very, very wonderful journey of feel good stories and economic improvement here in here in Milwaukee when we come back on the truth.

Wow.

I remember this song.

This happened in 83, 84.

My raw.

I was six.

Yes, Capital Court was going down, baby.

We need to pull up an old photo of Capital Court.

Probably had like turbo breakdancing out there like this.

Man, listen, remember turbo back in the day?

Y'all ain't gonna remember.

You don't remember turbo.

You do not remember Tarpa.

I mean, you could do, you could break.

That's Meach in the booth trying to break.

Zach like, nah, what is he doing?

What is break dancing?

He doing the boogaloo.

Oh my gosh, this is crazy.

We going off down here, man.

Man, he doing the electric slide boogaloo up in the air, jumping.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, don't go through the wall now.

Hang on.

He gonna do the spider.

Whoa, like this.

It started making brooms, making brooms float in the air.

Hey, y'all, welcome back.

This is the grapevine.

I'm your host, Manon Sebir.

We're picking some more grapes.

I'm talking feel good right now.

Talking feel good.

So before we get out of here, I need to, we need to talk about something.

We do.

We do.

Definitely need to talk about something.

And I'm Milwaukee.

Listen, I'm talking to you right now.

Not the audience, not Milwaukee as audience.

And let's put the phone down, all that good stuff.

Cause what I'm about to tell you might explain half of what you've been calling just stress your whole life.

We're going to talk about stress.

We need to talk about this.

You ever notice how your elders say you got to eat right or it'll get to your nerves.

Grandma, grandma wasn't playing.