Head Start Overhaul

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They're squeezing the last grocer in Sherman Park.

They're loosening the rules and the rules on our babies and head start.

Our beaches are closed.

Our beaches are closed.

Y'all somebody dump sewage in our water.

We're going to talk about that later.

Our beaches are closed.

They dump tons like a couple billion pound gallons of sewage in our water.

Do not go to the Milwaukee beaches.

Done.

Close, finito, finish.

Don't jump in the water.

Go play some volleyball or something.

Run, run, run the entire length of the lakefront.

Go to another part of the lake.

Go up north somewhere.

You got Port Washington.

Uh, what's the other place?

Sheboygan, you know, some of those other places go up, go up the, uh, the coast.

But right now Milwaukee, done.

You cannot go into the lake.

We're going to talk about that in a minute, but first we'll continue on our conversation about black owned businesses.

Black owned businesses breaking in $200 billion per year.

$200 billion per year.

They're close to 3 million black owned businesses in America right now.

And do we really, the question before we left off, the question is, do we really need to.

Name our businesses black owned businesses.

Is it is that really?

Is that does that really matter anymore?

Does black owned business matter anymore?

Does that mean you just man?

I'm a black owned business.

You open up.

It's like Walgreens going to go into a neighborhood and just open it up.

Let me just open up Nah, I for me if that's not enough that is not enough.

I Don't think I don't think black owned

means that you solved that the problem is solved.

Is the food incredible?

Is the service faster?

Is the product healthier?

Is the experience better?

What makes me come back after we celebrate that you're a black-owned business?

Now that's your open.

Now, some of y'all are probably saying, man, why don't businesses never have to hide

That they're white.

Hey, I think you're right.

I think you're right.

Others are probably saying black on is not an exclusion.

It's just information.

Possibly.

And some of you are saying if people refuse to shop somewhere because it is black on, that is their racism, not the owner's branding problem.

Morally, you're probably absolutely right.

But a, but a business owner.

Still has to decide whether the goal is to make a moral statement, build community institution, dominate a market or somehow accomplish all three triple bottom line.

Yes, you need to.

Okay.

I see.

I can, I can understand building a moral institution, building a community institution and dominating.

your market share.

Those are very, very hard truths that come to light when you own a business, especially if it's black, if it's black owned business.

And so in the chat, Rose Young Lyon says that, uh, I ordered food from a Jamaican restaurant through DoorDash.

The manager made the mistake on the menu.

I called to ask about the incorrect order sheet.

First gave me the wrong number.

I called back.

She hung up on her three times.

Okay.

I went there and the mean manager, these are very choice words.

The main manager came out, but did not correct my order.

Instead, he and the cashier lady talked about some needles to say I left.

So how do you support people like that?

I don't know.

Yeah, please don't leave the needles if you, you know, if you left some needles, you probably had.

You know, probably our health worker.

So, so how do I support people like this?

You know, all I say is if I were in that position, in that particular situation, I would offer my support.

I would offer my support.

And, and there's, there is a level of compassion that people do have when you are black owned business.

Maybe that's a part of the moniker too.

is when you do have the moniker of a black old business, there is some compassion you have to have because there are barriers to opening, but barriers to entry.

However, that does not exclude you from having quality service.

That does not exclude you from working overtime to make sure that you have quality presence.

and morality inside of your business.

If you go to Chick-fil-A, everybody has been in Chick-fil-A, everybody, or you have heard about the service at Chick-fil-A.

Every time you get a Chick-fil-A sandwich or ice cream or fruit cup, whatever it is, you could order, you could order a ice water and they'll be like, my pleasure.

Let me tell you, my pleasure, they're not hanging up on you.

They're not they're giving you they're giving you access to Vulnerability they're giving you access to them being helpful and humble They're giving you access to them So Yeah, I would suggest I would suggest and I wish before I before I came came off the the break is I would suggest for people such as yourself

to go to those businesses that you are comfortable with and offer your service.

If you are a business owner and you want to offer your service in terms of volunteering or helping them clean up afterwards, do that.

And if they refuse, then that can be the last straw.

Now, you may not want to go that far, but there are a lot of business owners that will accept individuals that can come in and knock that out.

They're not looking, as long as you're not looking to.

to be a part of their staff and you want to help.

I'm pretty sure that they would more than willing to do that.

LaRon Taylor says, I never advertise that my business is black owned.

It is not in the name.

I pride myself on having the best product and service.

Nobody knows I'm the owner unless they follow my social media pages.

I have no ego to bruise just like Spock.

All right, I got you.

Yeah.

That's right.

I know.

Just like Spock.

Yeah, you're right.

Yeah.

A lot of people.

Okay.

La Ron Taylor says also it works the other way because the business is black on.

Doesn't mean you can go in there and act a fool.

Act the same way you are a white business because you know, but what about it?

I mean, that's true.

Or act the same way you work.

You, you would add a Chinese business or Laotian business or Pakistani business or, you know,

Latino business, whatever, like, you know, wherever business act the same way you would at every spot, at every spot.

Now, it's important, it's important to remember that if we did have a strong central core unit of people that control the moniker, the.

the term black owned.

If we, and I believe even early on that we were trying to do that with Bronzeville here in Milwaukee, uh, 1921, uh, Oklahoma, uh, places like Rosewood in Florida, different places, man, around, around the country, you name it.

Those places were looking to galvanize that, that.

black owned moniker and keep it, that black owned vision and keep it.

But has it, has it run its course is my, my thought.

I think black owned is an identity.

It's not automatically a business strategy, but if you can turn it to make it a business strategy, if people can go realize that it.

It is a possible business strategy in black on because I think that's where that's where it can be a powerful strategy.

When it, when it, it builds trust, it communicates real cultural knowledge.

It connects, it connects the, the community to the company.

It connects the community to the company.

A black on hair care, imagine this, a black on hair care company may understand

black hair better.

But in our community, our black hair care is so is packaged and sold by another group of individuals.

And there, if, if y'all didn't hear what I reported yesterday, our people with hair extensions.

The hair extension community or industry is now being subject to regulation by the FDA because the hair extensions, and as researched by actual black researchers, hair extensions are toxic.

But those hair extensions out of all those companies, all those companies are being sold in

Asian stores.

No, I'm not coming at the Asian community and tell them, man, stop selling because that's their right.

It's their right in a global economy.

And they got them.

They got the largest part of the largest market share on it.

But if we could say, man, this is what we need to do for ourselves because we understand black hair better, though that community can grow and I see a lot of people doing it is on social and stuff like that.

But it's not under the business strategy of black on a black on wellness company may understand black health concerns and and cultural experiences of black families.

A black on media company may cover stories just like us.

We cover stories that are central central to the black experience.

Better than other outlets who don't have the experience that we have That is that is a strategy.

We don't have to call ourselves black on True we call ourselves the truth truth nation will be right back in three minutes

That was good.

That was good.

Welcome back to the grapevine.

Welcome back to the grapevine.

And we're talking, we were just talking about, we were just talking about black owned businesses and what, what you would call a black owned business.

And do you hold it to the same standards that you would if you were in a non black owned establishment?

And I'm, I'm.

This was good.

This was a really, really good subject because I'm very interested in what people will do when they hear black-owned business.

And I had this conversation around with someone around this.

And it actually was a pretty

interesting and heated type of discussion because we had the person who said black on means everything.

But in reality, if it for me, it doesn't.

It doesn't.

I think.

I think that.

I think if you have quality first before you before you have black on, then.

You can, you can win.

You can definitely win.

So, man, I'm a pivot real quick because y'all can't use your beaches.

You cannot use your beaches.

And Robert Lance, yes, real quick, shout out to Homer Bailey for their segment that they're doing this.

I love it too.

I love it.

Um, you can't use your beaches at all.

Not in Milwaukee.

They said, approximately, all the beaches are done.

All the beaches have been out of commission.

They said that, and I want y'all to sit with this.

I want y'all to sit with this.

We call ourselves the freshwater capital of the world.

We are Milwaukee, capital of freshwater capital of the world.

We live beside one of the largest freshwater systems on the planet.

If you haven't thought about it, it is Lake Michigan.

It is the lake system that we have in this area right now.

Straight up.

But this week, if you're a parent looking for something free to do with their children, you can't go to Bradford Beach.

You can't go to McKinley.

You can't go to soft shore.

You can't like, yeah, you can, you can, you'll sunbathe all you want, but you cannot go under the water.

The swimming is, is closed due to sewer overflow.

So the sand is still good.

You go to the playgrounds, all the other amenities, they're open, but the water, you got to stay out because they said that there is not under normal conditions under normal conditions.

So.

I'm going to explain.

They said they said they have, uh, dangerous bacteria.

And when it touches the, when it touches your children, it could, if it could affect them and also infect them.

So part of Milwaukee and shorewood still uses what they call a combined water system.

That means rainwater running off of streets and wastewater.

from homes and businesses, they enter the same exact system.

But under normal conditions, that water travels to a treatment plan and gets treated.

We all know where the water treatment facilities are.

There's a number of them.

But when extreme heavy rain pours more water into the system that it can hold and or process, officials

They face a hard choice, either allow the sewage to back up into people's basements and potentially flood the homes or release some of it.

A mixture of the stormwater and untreated wastewater.

Y'all know what the wastewater is.

Come on.

You know what the wastewater is.

So you, you, they, they released this combination.

into the rivers and also Lake Michigan.

So that release, they call that sewer overflow.

And on August 1st, approximately 96 million gallons, 96 million gallons overflowed on August 1st.

And that's according to the MMSD.

That's Milwaukee Metropolitan and Sewage District.

96

million gallons overflow.

That's stormwater mixed with untreated wastewater into, into the rivers and Lake Michigan.

Early this year in April, there was a big storm and that released 2.7 billion gallons of combined sewer overflow.

So altogether it's 2.

eight billion gallons of that combination flowing into our rivers and also Lake Michigan.

Together, MMSD reports more than 2.8 billion gallons overflowing in our water.

We need to be real precise because that total isn't just

2.8 billion gallons of pure human waste.

It's not, it's not that it's combined overflows.

So it contains a huge amount of rain, groundwater, mixed with, you know, basically untreated sewage, industrial rate, race, street pollution.

So if you're polluting and some of y'all are, this is, this gets on my nerves.

This gets on my nerves, especially in Milwaukee.

If you were riding,

How many of y'all ride down the street and witness somebody take an, like out of the raggedy car, take a McDonald's bag and just toss it out the window or a diaper or, uh, you know, a soft drink, just toss it.

It goes, where do, where do we think that, that garbage goes?

Even if you had a street sweeper, even if you had a street sweeper.

That garbage still has to go and flow somewhere It'll go and flow to our sewers Therefore We're we're we're drinking we are bathing in Quite possibly really poor quality water Y'all don't if we have to do better we have to do better littering does not work

Littering doesn't work.

Pollution, street pollution, industrial race does not work at all.

So if you have, if you see any of you, if you see any of your people and they're, just pick up the waste, that's all you got to do.

That's all you have to do.

So why are the beaches closed?

Why did the beaches closed?

The beach closures.

They even said the MMSD.

They said the beach closures are preventative.

They're clearly preventative.

Y'all.

Listen.

This affects you.

Water is the new war.

This affects you tremendously.

Yes.

Not only does this happen.

You're right, Robert.

Not only does this happen.

Yeah, we may not be surprised that it happens every summer, but it's becoming even more and more of a problem when we're, we're near constantly dumping waste in a fresh water body of water.

And not only are we using, not only are we wasting, are we putting that water into fresh water, we're constantly polluting it, let alone the companies that are upstream and also downstream.

and across the water that are dumping into that water.

And that water is still subsisting.

And we have to subsist with that water.

Shout out to the Freshwater Science Department at UWM.

Shout out to you guys.

And shout out to all the organizations that are at many different places, including Adams Garden Park, that are doing their thing for our communities.

But we have to do our part as a community in Milwaukee.

We cannot continue to pollute because that water has to go right back to us.

And although we think, yeah, man, we're taking a shower.

We got a water filter.

We got water softeners.

We have all of this.

That does not mean that the water is still pure.

That does not mean that it is like you.

I don't know how many of you have been on a mountain or in a mountain, but or on top of a mountain and seeing water run from the top of a mountain down.

But at the top of the mountain, the mountain is that water is clean.

It's pure.

It's, you know, you can drink it.

As soon as it hits the bottom of the mountain, a lot of times you got to kind of, you got to filter that water because it's coming with all the sediment and all the pollution.

from that particular mountain.

That's the same thing, the same concept with this water.

It's the same concept, the same concept.

We have to, we literally have to watch what we do in relationship to pollution.

So health officials in Milwaukee cost their, they instantly know.

What is in every wave washing in onto shore conventional in the conventional bacteria testing can take time.

So after an overflow officials may close the swimming area because there is an increased risk risk of microorganisms.

So that can include and I'm going to give you before you jump into that water, you go.

Here's what here's here's the warning sign.

You can.

There's an elevated risk for E. coli and other organisms that may cause stomach, some type of stomach illness, vomiting, diarrhea, skin irritation, eye infections, ear problems.

Come on.

It's a lot.

It is a lot.

Milwaukee, when we come back, we're going to continue on our.

pathway in understanding why the beaches are closed in Milwaukee.

Stay tuned.

Welcome back.

Welcome back to the grapevine.

You're on the war winning the truth.

One on one seven radio and we're about to pick some more grapes.

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

And yes, we're talking about the sewage run water runoff and the Milwaukee beaches are closed.

It's summertime.

It's supposed to be hot.

You supposed to be at the beach.

You supposed to be invested in kicking in with your kids, having fun, even when even when it's 65 70 degrees outside.

It's okay hit the beach, but you can't you can only hit Part of the beach you can't go into the water because our water is closed.

How was water closed?

How was water closed?

No, no more you can't go swimming in the water How long will this last again?

Again, you got your kids at home Y'all y'all want to do something you guys you got water babies.

I got a water baby

My daughter loves going to the beach, loves, loves the beach, loves the water, loves going to the places where she needs to be in order to be in the water, not just the pool, the pool.

Sometimes she would shoot.

This little girl would be like, man, I won't go to the pool.

I won't go to the water where there's waves and sand.

She throw the sand in the air.

That's when she sees water.

It's, it's time to go.

It's time to go.

And we lived on, on the beach.

And living on the beach, we recognize that it is it is the law is the world's largest playground.

It's the world's largest playground, nothing but water and land.

That's all you got.

So.

You know, for a little girl or, you know, little our young people, they don't understand that sand.

They don't understand that the sand is open and not open or not open because a sewer system miles away.

became overwhelmed.

How we, I think honestly, we deserve and demand answers.

We deserve and demand answers.

And if, if our community isn't outraged, if our community isn't outraged about our water, then we're doing something wrong because not only is this water, some of this water.

has to, some of this water has to go back into our system.

So we have to fill to the water, whatever water comes back into our system, wherever that water comes from, has to come right back to us.

We have to bathe in it.

We have to shower with it.

We have to wash our dishes with it.

And what is actually in that water, even if it's treated, what is actually in that water?

Matter of fact, they had to cut, they had to cut the fluoride.

The the cleaning agent the agent that kind of disinfects the water they have to cut the fluoride in our Milwaukee County water They they did so now And then not only that here's another thing it's Unconfirmed and I thought I wouldn't talk about this, but I think I need to in relationship to water but

An unconfirmed attack by Iran is affecting the IT systems and the computer systems of some of our water systems in the Midwest and around the country.

So water is when we talk about water, when we talk about water, it is a really serious issue.

It's very serious.

So at the very least, at the very least, if you, if you are around somebody and or in your neighborhood, do us a favor, do you a favor, do you a favor and clean up, clean up the pollution, do not let it get to get to the sewage, the great.

Clean up, clean out the sewage great.

Protect yourself, of course, at all, all times, like you fighting the sewer, but do that and make sure that you are alerting your government officials, politicians and letting them know what is going on in your community and how you're trying to combat it and they will help you.

They will help you because this has to be a communal communal.

a community level event all the time.

So.

That's why.

You know, that's back to our sewage water runoff.

When you go down to the to Bradford Beach, McKinley, South Shore, when you see those signs, the signs have to be visible.

If they're not visible, let an official note.

This is why parents straight up need clear information.

and to give to their kids before they go anywhere, before they go anywhere.

Nobody should be near the water and assume that swimming is safe.

Nah, if a beach is marked closed, do not let the children go in, do not put your feet in, do not let the dogs drink it.

They can get sick, avoid swallowing the water, touching it.

People can be contaminated, you can be contaminated.

But here's the bigger question.

Here's the bigger question.

Here's where the story gets bigger than this week's closure.

Are these overflows?

Are these overflows unavoidable acts of nature?

Are these overflows unavoidable acts of nature?

Can we avoid

these overflows.

What do y'all think?

I, you know, I truly do, I truly do think that we can.

Or are they warnings or are they warnings that our infrastructure just hasn't kept pace with the weather Milwaukee is experiencing?

Is, is, is our, our weather becoming more dangerous?

Or are these overflows just, you know, are they simply unavoidable acts?

I really, I'm really just interested in this.

One inch of rain across MMSD, like across their service area, produces and represents approximately 7.1 billion gallons of water.

7.1 billion gallons of water.

Think about that.

The rain comes down.

It hits the roof.

It hits parking lots.

It hits streets.

It hits Center Street, North Avenue, Villard, Clark, Valet, Washington Heights, Metcalfe Park.

It hits all these places, right?

The sewer system fills up.

The deep tunnel that we have, that we spent money on.

fills up the treatment facility treatment capacity fills up strained and Then eventually something have to has to give It has to give It has to give and what happens There's Sewage runoff something this combination of rainwater and sewage

is starts overflowing.

And you got, y'all remember when we had the MMSD deep tunnel project?

I don't know.

Some of y'all were young.

I remember I was younger, but we had the deep tunnel project.

And this area before that, this area Milwaukee was experiencing 50 to 60 combined overflows per year, per year.

And luckily because of the deep water deep tunnel project Milwaukee only experiences 2.2 overflows per year.

That's significantly lower.

However, because the event of rain is such a large event, now we're experiencing an overflow and we may need a deeper.

tunnel type of project.

I'm not a water systems engineer, nor am I a water infrastructure engineer, but there has to be some type of change and it probably is a change on the community level.

It probably is a change on the community level.

If you do not have a rain barrel, grab one, get one.

If you don't have

If you don't have access to better piping in your home, aim to get better plumbing and piping in your home so water can flow cleanly, cleanly to the sewage.

This is impactful.

No beach should be closed, not one bit, not one bit.

The beaches should be open.

Our kids should enjoy it.

Man, I remember when I was young, Milwaukee River was on and popping.

It was just starting to, they were just starting some projects around there.

But I remember my dad even talking about Milwaukee River and also swimming in Lake Michigan.

But there were no, for that, for him.

And even me as a young kid,

There weren't there weren't any closures.

Now there's closures.

Come on.

Come on.

We should be.

We should have the best.

We should have the best beach.

We should have the best water.

It's a fresh water.

It's a body of fresh water right there.

Hey, y'all, when we come back.

When we come back, we're going to have some fun.

We're going to talk.

We're going to close this out and we're going to play a couple of videos.

We'll be back in a minute.

Welcome back to The Great Vine.

We'll pick some more grace.

I'm your host, Manon Severe.

And if you don't know a war with the truth, water was seven.

And looking to discover and support local businesses in our community, then make sure you tune in every Friday at 8 a.m.

to Truth in the Morning with Homer Blow and Bailey Coman for what the business is powered by WeEnergies.

Each week, you'll hear from local business owners as they share what their business is, where they're located, and one valuable lesson they've learned along the way.

WeEnergies is proud to help power local businesses and the communities they serve.

Don't miss what the business is every Friday.

At 8 a.m.

Only on truth in the morning with Homer blow and Bailey Coleman power by we energies delivering the energy that powers local business and The true family fest y'all got to come y'all got to be at the true family fest straight up August 22nd from 11 a.m.

To 2 p.m.

At

Riverside University High School is free and fun for the entire family, featuring great music, community resources, family activities, and back-to-school support to help students get ready for a successful school year.

If you're interested in volunteering, make sure you come out and volunteer.

You got to visit the truce website at 1017thetruth.com to complete the volunteer form or by emailing seara.brown at milwaukeeblackmedia.com.

Bring the whole family and experience one of Milwaukee's favorite, favorite, super favorite community celebrations, true family fest Saturday, Saturday, August 2nd, between 11 a.m.

and 2 p.m.

Special thanks to Educators Credit Union, American Family Insurance, Milwaukee Public Schools, Artist's Work and Education, City of Milwaukee, Department of Community Wellness and Safety and Extension.

Yes.

Welcome back.

Welcome back.

Ooh, if I haven't told y'all real quick, I'm going to tell y'all before I even get off the air.

If I don't tell y'all, I love y'all, I love y'all straight up.

Sandra, what is up?

Talk to me.

This is my free section.

Okay,

good.

Hi.

What up?

Okay.

You were talking about the rider and I was just wondering, um, now, I mean, we made it with.

You can buy water, so that's somebody set up businesses that way.

So, I mean, how are they using water?

Plus, I think it seemed like to me, everything that's disappearing, they want us to do free.

Like, scan your own groceries and that.

No, we don't get no discount.

We scan the scan.

And it's just like the water thing.

I guess it's going to be us figuring out the water, and then we get, we got to do all of that free.

boots right out to walk and shout.

And now this is also, it's gotta be clear they go to the moon and there's always a problem down here on this Earth.

I think they need to stay out of Mars and come down to Earth and fix that problem.

Really?

Yeah.

It's just going up there all the time.

They pollute the air.

Don't they pollute airplanes?

They say to, um, smoke up the airplanes pollute.

Everything is polluting.

So I think man knows what to do.

It's a black guy I saw one time and he takes the range out of the sky.

He's got some kind of machine that can convert it into clear water where you can drink it.

And every now and then he pops up on the internet and they will not accept his whatever.

He probably won't sell them the patent.

They won't accept it that way.

They got people that come up with ideas.

I think they want the patent.

So they can make the money off of

it.

You know, there's there's a lot of people, a lot of black people are working in water right now.

And I think there's even just stay on the line real quick, because there's there's people that there's people that are working in Ocean Tech.

Ocean Tech is Ocean Tech is the next wave of future for people who are in technology.

And if you are not in it for this is far.

If you have people, young people around you, listen to me.

If they're not in ocean tech and also space tech, they're going to miss the boat.

Ocean tech, they need HVAC, they need plumbing, they also need people that are computer scientists, all of that.

If you are any industry that is in technology or associated with technology, they are using that for those particular areas, space and also ocean, water.

So water.

Water is highly, highly important.

For me, right now, I think it's the new war.

It is.

If we don't have water, we're in trouble.

Yeah.

If we don't have whatever, everything goes down.

Is everything just down on us?

And how are we going to start it back up?

We can't.

because it's shut down.

So we got to prepare in advance.

That's what they always say.

And, you know, they got a water center down there in Nevada, down in that valley area, you know, toward Holton, and you can pass it going south.

And that was supposed to help us.

That's what we study in the water.

Yeah, that's the freshwater science

associated

with

UWM.

Yeah.

Okay, tell us

about you telling the truth.

Okay, bye bye.

Thank you, Sandra.

Yeah, so the freshwater science department at UWM is they are one of the leading

the freshwater science departments in the world.

They study fresh water.

If we do not have fresh water, we are bathing in dirty water straight up.

We are drinking dirty water straight up.

It is affecting us.

It affects the soil.

It affects the air.

If it affects, it affects how we live.

If we do not have clean water and if they don't understand if, if this department doesn't work at its full capacity, then they're not benefiting.

Milwaukee.

So what do we have to do?

What do we have to do?

We have to win the war.

We have to win the war in our communities of on pollution.

We have to win the war on pollution.

We do not need to have our children standing at closed beaches at all.

So I think I probably have more questions than anything.

How much more infrastructure investment will it take to prevent these releases?

How much more and, you know, talk to your, pose this question to your, your politicians.

How much more infrastructure investment will it take to prevent these releases?

Are we preparing for, you know, these large rain patterns in Milwaukee?

As Milwaukee, you know, I think Milwaukee 40 years ago didn't have these large rain patterns, but now we're experiencing these large waves of rain patterns that are affecting us tremendously.

So, you know, I had a little fun today.

I had a lot of fun talking about something serious, but now today I'm the rest of this show.

We only got a couple of minutes.

I'm going to have a little fun and, uh, you know, I was looking on, I was surfing Instagram and I wanted to have a feel good moment and at the end of my show.

And I, I found a video.

The video is this, uh, yeah, let's play.

Now I talk y'all through it.

It's kind of fun.

Sure, I think.

His name

is

Bernie Mac.

He's a bad word sometimes, but maybe he's a church-style.

I don't know.

He says,

I'm kidding, motherfuckers.

I think.

I'm blessed.

I'm hung low.

If I pull my stuff out, this whole room get dark.

Kick it!

You don't understand.

No, mom.

I think you understand.

What?

Do you know what he's talking about?

Of

course!

He'd be pulling his heart out, it's dark, and then Jesus can fix it.

Oh my

god.

Why?

That's not what he means?

Why discovering this?

Listen y'all, you gotta have a little fun.

When we talk about real serious subjects, you gotta have a little fun, man.

Like, there's a lot of times when...

when you are looking at all of these accountabilities and responsibilities, you have to dig into your heart and find the silver lining where some of this is, you know, at the end of the day, it matters, but then it doesn't a little bit.

It doesn't necessarily matter.

You got to pull the kid out.

So.

There's times I have to pull the kid out.

But I want you guys to.

I want you guys to realize that.

If you are.

If you're out this weekend this week and you want to have a little fun.

You want to be with your family.

Go do it.

Please do not pollute.

Please go visit.

Sherman Park grocery store, please have the please have the best moral example if you own a business shop The best business is possible even if it is even if they label themselves black on or not it does not matter you got to have

a high standard for yourself, and you should expect a high standard for others that are serving you.

If I haven't told you once, I'll tell you again.

I do love you.

I love you.

I love you.

And we got Jazz.

Tapping with Jazz Tyler coming up next.

Please do not walk away from that dial.

We're out.

you

I'm your host, Manon Sabir.

And this is the grapevine.

If it's moving through the community, then you heard it here first.

Thanks to Ray and Shannon.

Man, reporting on the last report.

The last report was dynamic.

Talking about the podcast festival.

I got to tell you about a story.

I got to tell you a story.

Yes, this is going to be good.

This is about who gets to eat and what can they afford and whether the last neighborhood grocer.

is standing, standing and can keep standing.

So beginning November 4th, stores that accept SNAP will have to carry seven different varieties of food in each of four categories.

Y'all listen to this.

Protein, grains, dairy and fruits and vegetables.

That's at least 28 varieties.

28 varieties and 84 individual.

stocking units.

I'm going to repeat that.

Beginning November 4th, stores that accept Snap will have to carry seven different varieties of food in each of the four categories.

Proteins, grains, dairy, fruits and vegetables.

My phone line is open.

I'm going to tell you this real quick because we need to make sure y'all understand you call in the truth.

Radio 1017, 833-212-1017.

Let me know what you think about this.

Beginning November 4th, stores that accept SNAP will have to carry seven different varieties of food in each of the four categories.

Proteins, grains, dairies, dairy, fruits, and vegetables.

That is approximately 28 different varieties and 84 different stocking units.

The USDA, get this.

The USDA says the rule puts food first.

The argument is simple.

If a store accepts taxpayer funded food benefits, customers should have to access, should have the access to actual staple foods, not just soda, candy and different snacks.

Now that's been a concern for a lot of people.

That's been a concern for a lot of folks an enormous amount of people who are on snap and They go to the grocery store or they go to these smaller grocers corner stores included and These corner stores in particular don't carry Don't carry or aren't required to carry the

mineral and nutrient based foods that they need in order to survive.

Period.

So, but a gentleman that I'm, that I know is doing the work in our community, especially around food apartheid, food emergency food.

If you want to, if you want to call it for your, you know, archaic vision, uh, food deserts, mow winds.

Maurice Wentz, the owner of the Sherman Park grocery store, he says in the report, just that, that just came out.

He says that small stores operate and this is true.

Small stores do operate on razor thin margins and also budgets.

The, you know, the more inventory and he is right.

The more inventory, there's more vendor costs, more refrigeration, storage, spoiled food.

if customers don't purchase fast enough.

So if you are familiar with the Sherman Park grocery store, the Sherman Park grocery store is on Fidelac and Sherman, Sherman and Fidelac, please visit and talk to Maurice Wentz, the owner of the Sherman Park grocery store.

When grocery costs go up, when grocery costs go up, where do those costs go?

And I'm.

I know we know all too well.

We know all too well where those grocery costs go.

We know where those, where whenever you have something brand new in your grocery store, you got to stock it.

And when you stock it, you got to have the proper storage and it has to be displayed properly.

And if it's not displayed properly, a lot of times it can either go bad and or you can be fine for it.

So for, you know, for more a person like that and or these smaller grocery stores, they have a lot.

They have work to do because they then they now will be, uh, there will be violations if they don't adhere to these snap rules.

And this is beginning November 4th.

So I, I almost understand that they are, they are concerned, but what do you all think?

What do y'all think?

Tell me what bothers you because large grocery chains and pharmacies have been disappearing from our neighborhoods, from black neighborhoods for years, but in the last two and a half to three years, our spending habits, we have been inundated with disinvestment and it's

It's taking a toll on us.

It's taking a huge toll on us.

They study our spending habits, they collect our money, then decide our neighborhoods are no longer profitable.

No longer profit profitable enough to serve.

But when a black owned neighbor, black owned grocery store stays when a gentleman by the name of Maurice Mowentz.

puts his name, his money and his reputation on the line.

Suddenly we discover, we just discover another set of rules has to be absorbed.

Our, our, my belief, our belief, my belief is our families deserve fresh, healthy food bar none.

Our families deserve fresh, healthy food bar none.

We know this.

This is not anything new.

But you can't demand more inventory without asking whether the neighborhood store has the capital, has the refrigeration, the shelf space, and customer.

customer volume to, to, to carry it.

Like the, the, you have to put people in the door.

So this is a part of a program, part of a government off that often misses a rule can sound equal on paper and still hit a small neighborhood store very differently than it hits Walmart.

Walmart, I know Walmart, while, while these world, while these world gets.

Doesn't get it.

You have to, and we already know with Walmart, things happen, man.

Things happen.

They have grown tremendously since they started and they will take over a neighborhood and then ultimately when they're not making enough money, they'll leave it.

They will, they will leave it and you know, that's a part of, that's a part of your commerce.

especially in America.

The USDA, the USDA says this about nutrition.

Mo Wint said, Maurice Wint says it could rise and raise costs for families who can at least afford it.

Let me say that again.

Mo Wint.

Our neighborhood Sherman Park Grocer says it could raise costs for families who can least afford it.

And I think both things can be true.

The question is, are we willing to help small stores meet the actual standard?

Are we willing to, are we willing to help small stores meet the actual standard?

Are we going to just regulate them out of the neighborhoods that need them?

We got to think about it.

We have to think about it We have to think about it.

Are we this is my question to everybody Are we willing to help these small stores are we gonna just you know push them out of out of the neighborhood?

This is a real fight.

I think that is not gonna end For a while You have to remember what I said earlier

The USDA says this about nutrition, that it could raise costs for families who can least afford it.

This is very serious.

We're living in a time where a city, we're living in a time where a city can quite possibly, yo.

We're living in a time where we are... We're in trouble.

We're in trouble, man.

It's plain and simple.

We are in trouble.

So, hopefully our communities can connect each other because we have a number of different...

communities, smaller micro communities here in Milwaukee and all of them are experiencing similar issues around nutrition and affordability and also, uh, disinvestment.

And when we are, when we were facing that, the, the role of the role of people like Mo Wentz and his voice.

is for him to speak out on this and say that this is going to be a problem because the margins are already razor thin.

We're going to find out that not only are the margins razor thin, but it's going to force a lot of people.

Out of the market a lot of people like him a lot of mini grocers out of the market.

I'm sure that's pretty pretty much some more mini grocers in the market This is this is very serious When we when we return we're gonna talk about head start we're gonna pivot to head start we're talking about rules written far away That land directly on our families is another major proposal that dropped today

And we want to talk about Head Start.

We'll be back in three minutes.

Welcome back.

Welcome back to the grapevine.

I'm your host, Manon Sabir of the grapevine.

We're picking some more grapes and I'm glad you are back because we were just talking about neighborhood food and what we can do with it.

Shout out to Sherman Park Neighborhood Grocery Store.

on Sherman and find a lot.

Y'all doing your thing.

You holding tight.

Please hold tight.

We don't forget about you.

You guys go ahead and visit Mo Wins over at Sherman Park Neighborhood Grocery Store and make sure that you shop there regularly, regularly.

He has what you need and if he doesn't, make sure you request it.

Make sure you request it because this is important.

If we are not shopping with our many grocery stores, then

We are doing them a disservice.

Please go over there and shop with them as much as we possibly can.

Shout out to Moe Winsmoe.

If you listen, call in.

You're more welcome to call in and promote your business, man.

We love to hear from you straight up.

And a lot of times, a lot of times, people that are listening, maybe even new listeners, so you are more than welcome to call in any period of time.

So, before I left, before I left,

started talking about Head Start.

Head Start and it's new overhaul.

It's new government overhaul.

I don't know if you're going to a degree with the Trump administration on this or not, but you know, let's talk about it.

Let's talk about it.

The Head Start, they did a pivot.

I don't know however, however many kids you have in your home and have been a part of Head Start, but I think 700.

1,000 kids in the United States are affected and are going that go through head start and have gone through head start in the last year.

And, you know, we're, let's talk about it.

So while we're talking about the rules written far away, that land directly on our families, another major proposal had dropped today in this, the federal government is proposing a major overhaul.

They're a huge overhaul of head start.

If you are not familiar with Head Start, Head Start is a program that provides early education, mills, health services, and family support to hundreds of thousands of our children.

I know a few Head Start programs that do a really good job.

Supporters say that some people say removing federal mandates could cut bureaucracy, lower costs, and...

allow local programs to serve more children.

But some of the advocates, the early childhood advocates that they warned that the standards involve class size, staff to child ratio, health screenings, curriculum and family services can be weakened and left to states with very different requirements.

So they said this is a proposal.

It's not, it's not final, but this, if it goes through this, this will affect your, your, your child going into headstart.

The public has 60 days to comment.

So if you are, if you do have a, if you do have a child that's in headstart, make sure that you are and or you have a niece, nephew, cousin, little sister, little brother.

that is in Head Start and going through Head Start, please, please look out for this particular proposal because this can affect them and it also will affect you.

Ultimately, these are long-term effects.

One person in one of the articles that I read about Head Start said that they're deregulating, but

They're also, and they're bringing money in, but they're funding some parts and taking away the regulations that will allow, that allow kids to have, and the administration to have kind of this, you know, I guess this box around special education where a lot of most, not most, but a lot of our kids are affected.

So we need to have,

We need to have a conversation.

There has to be a conversation.

If you know anybody in Head Start, please give them a shout.

Give them a shout.

This means your opinion does not have to stay inside your kitchen though.

It doesn't have to stay inside your group chat, your Facebook posts.

You can put it right into the official federal record.

So parents with disabilities may, and this is really close.

This is really close to my heart.

Parents with disabilities that have children with disabilities because consistency and staffing and specialized support are not luxuries.

For some children, this may determine whether preschool actually works at all.

But here's my question.

Here's my question.

When government says flexibility, do you hear freedom for local programs or permission to give children less?

when government says flexibility, because when they give flexibility to a program, what I hear, what I hear, I hear corruption for me.

I hear like, man, you know what?

Let's take, let's deregulate and push, give people money, give certain programs money.

And then at the top, the people who are the administrators are, are lining their pockets underneath.

I, I hear that.

And I don't hear it.

Once I, once I hear that it, it.

sends me a red flag.

That means that, you know, people aren't saying this, but they're afraid of this.

And Head Start, we have so many children in Head Start that it, it almost tells me that this is going to be a little bit of a problem.

This could be a little bit of a problem, maybe even a free for all for some people who are part of the Head Start program.

I don't, but I'm not a part of the administration, but I would love to.

to know what, what your, what your opinions of this are.

I don't know how many, I think there's like 1600, 1600 fixed 1600 headstart programs in the United States right now.

And depending on your zip code, depending on your zip code, forehead start, you, depending on where you are in that zip code, that's where you're, you will be placed.

So some zip codes will be placed in areas with higher funding and some people with in kind of the lower income zip codes will be placed in.

Here it starts with lower funding.

That is, that is the issue.

The, the problem, the problem comes when you deregulate a specific system where you deregulate the rules, then.

you start to understand, okay, dang.

Well, if they're deregulating and the people at the top are passing out this money, who's actually, you know, are certain people getting raises?

Are certain people over here providing extra programs?

You know, like for example, there's a school and there's a school, this is, God's honest truth.

There's a school in Chicago, it's called Frederick Douglass High School, Frederick Douglass School, Gray School, whatever.

And it has it has a thousand seats, 1000 seats.

There are only 27 kids in that school.

There are 28 teachers, 28 staff members, actually.

And each child per year, the state of Illinois spends $93,500 on each child.

$93,500 on each child in that school.

And it only has 27 kids that go to this thousand seat school.

So what are we doing?

And what are we doing in the Head Start program that can regulate all of this?

Well, Head Start programs in the rural areas get more money than the ones in the urban areas.

I would like to know Mr. Government.

I would like to know.

So y'all listen up.

I want to pivot a little bit because this is very important.

August is National Black Business Month.

August is National Black Business Month.

They are approximately 3.1 million black owned businesses and congratulations to

all the black owned businesses here in America.

But that comes to, I had an argument, not an argument, maybe a discussion, strong discussion.

What, do we really need to mention?

Do we really need to mention that our businesses are black owned?

Do we really need to mention that our businesses are black owned?

Is it, is it?

One of those, I was listening to Dr. Voice Watkins and he said he took a trip.

He took a trip to wherever, you know, somewhere down south and he went into a restaurant and the restaurant was well run.

It had, he took a picture.

It was nothing but like, it was probably like 80% white people, 20% black people.

Let's just say it like that.

And he walks in and he didn't know.

that the business was a black owned business by a black family.

And he so afterwards he researches this business and he finds out that it's a black owned.

It's a black owned business.

And he wanted to.

He wanted to to mention he mentioned that because.

Because you have a business because you have a business.

doesn't mean that you have to label it black on.

It just means to be, he was saying that it just has to be well run.

It has to be well run, that you are raking in the money from everybody, not just a black owned business.

But y'all tell me if y'all agree with this or not.

If you have a business, should you actually name this business black owned or not?

And I'm pretty sure that if you do have a black owned business, that means that you're employing, you know, more than one person that is black.

But are you, are you then actually employing the rest of your staff as a black owned business?

Are you employing those people that are black?

You're not necessarily discriminating, but you're giving a little bias towards those individuals.

I'm curious to know from some of the business owners, the black owned business owners, what you, what you feel about this.

Should your business actually be called black owned or should you just have a business?

And should you just be running it?

When we come back, we're going to continue to talk about August being black national black business month.

And should we continue to call our, our businesses black owned when we come back in three.

Welcome back to The Grapevine.

I'm your host, Menon Severe.

August is National Black Business Month and there are approximately 3.1 million black owned businesses in America.

3.1 million black owned businesses in America.

That's close to 200 and they generate close to $200 billion in sales.

Those are big numbers, man.

Those are huge numbers.

They employ most of those black owned businesses employ more than one million people.

They generate more than $200 billion in sales.

Every black business begins with somebody deciding to risk something.

Deciding to take their side gig, their side job and make it into something that they can live on.

They can do for people, serve a community.

Every black businesses does that.

They decide to risk their savings, their credit, you know, their sleep.

Majority of people have stayed awake over and over and over again, wondering, a lot of them wonder whether or not they're going to make payroll, whether or not they're going to make payroll.

Take a look at, take a look at Maurice Wins, Mo Wins, the Sherman Park grocery store.

I mean, at.

You could, you can, you know that having margins in the grocery, in the grocery department, the grocery category in America, in Milwaukee, especially while Pick and Save and Century and some of those other places were, were thriving to have that around you and still survive and still come out on top.

That's a, that's a.

That's a chart towards being amazing.

But those cold nights where you don't know whether or not you're going to make it, whether or not you're going to have that, those sales, that's, that's the hard part.

So shout out to you, but somebody, somebody in that black owned business, open their doors without knowing whether.

their own community would actually walk through those doors.

And this is why I don't, you know, me for me, black being having a black owned business doesn't, I don't, it doesn't matter for me to say, man, my business is black owned.

No, it doesn't matter.

Does not matter at all.

Not one bit.

Not one bit.

What matters, what matters for me in all of this is that not only are we looking at these individuals using their savings and their credit and staying awake all times a night, not knowing whether or not they're going to

Keep these doors open or not Those that is that is the the black challenge.

That's the black owned challenge a black owned business challenge.

That's when you have individuals who are sacrificing completely Sacrificing completely who they are Because you know, I be it behooved me to say that

I, I wasn't, uh, that I didn't have, or that I didn't have gray hair going into business, manless shoe, gray hair, ball spots, all that, all of that.

But here's the challenge I want to, I want to give everybody.

Here's the challenge I want to give everybody in my great vine, great vine challenge.

Move.

One purchase, not your whole life, not every dollar you own, just one purchase you, you make all, you already make every week.

If you buy coffee, try to buy sustainable coffee, sustainable black owned coffee, if you, if you will, if you eat lunch out multiple times, multiple times a week.

Guess what?

Choose a couple of black owned restaurants.

And if, and if you are, if you are, if you are really conscious, a lot of people who are conscious of black owned businesses will make suggestions to improve that particular business that they are patronizing.

If you need grocery stores, visit the German part grocery mart.

Get.

And if they don't have what you need, man, guess what?

Guess what you need to do?

Guess what you need to do?

And you already know.

Make it happen.

If you need clothing, hair care, health care, childcare, fitness care, legal help, graphic design, catering, look for somebody in your, our community that's providing it.

That's providing.

We even got great doctors and dentists.

We got great, we have great dentists here in Milwaukee.

Fantastic dentists.

But my challenge to you is do one purchase because if 10,000 Milwaukee residents move just $20 a week, that will be 20, that'll be two.

$100,000 moving through black owned businesses.

If 10,000 Milwaukee residents move just $20 a week, a week, that will be $200,000 moving through black owned businesses.

Y'all think about that.

Al, what's up?

Well, you know, it's wonderful.

You see in there, well, maybe you should tell these black businesses have some class and stop being ratchet and ghetto.

Cause that's why a lot of them black businesses don't last.

It's not.

Hey, what's up?

It's not having your country.

Ignite down south relatives.

We don't know how to talk who want to act like his chest is all puffed out.

People don't spend any money for that.

Or.

tell them if mama got an attitude and her eyebrows go to the back of her crown, she should not be on the racial store nor answer in the phone.

And first and more, when it comes to black businesses, why keep saying you're a black business?

I feel like you limit yourself.

You dumb yourself down because it's like saying, I only want black money.

You want all money.

And this is not the 70s and 80s.

Everybody don't do word by mouth no more.

And

you ought to open up on time and stop closing before you supposed to.

People say it's almost like, when you say I'm a black business, I want you to have pity on me and spend your money.

How about run your business like a business, advertise your business, make sure everything in your business is top tier.

If I'm a business,

I'm not going to tell nobody I'm a black business.

Because number one, this is Milwaukee.

Black businesses can't survive off of black money because we're too personal.

Sometimes we're too cheap because they want like a $5,000 job for $200 or what they say.

Or if I got to pay that, I'm going to go to the white man with ski, ski, school, school to the white man there.

Just

so you are a business and run it like a business.

Open on time.

Advertise.

If I tell you I have a business, it's no guarantee you're going to tell somebody else I got a business.

And we don't care if you're Christian.

Okay, we got to stop doing that.

Oh, they're Christian.

That might make me not come to you at

all.

Your presentation and your delivery is top tier, or they say, oh, well, you know, they're so-and-so, or they're Christian.

I don't care about all that.

I want to know, is your business top tier?

And we have been with the businesses where they said, oh, they're Christian.

And they got their wife with the role of sin, who trying to be like all up in your face and don't know a skeet, skeet, school, school, from an oil chain to a spark plug.

And what did I do?

I took my business to somewhere else.

So they have to hit the reset button and then when they run a business like a business then they'd be able to compete with the white people and do a consumer hostile takeover and take their business and bring it to your business

That's deep Al.

I think you on point today You on point that's deep Hey look I'm not gonna lie.

I don't got a point man.

You have to run your business

Like it's supposed to be the moment you put it's almost a. Saying it's a black owned business doesn't mean that people will visit your business.

And right now, right now, what Alice saying is almost like a limit, almost like a barrier on your business because it's almost saying like.

It, for me, it's almost saying that you are, you are just catering to black folks.

And right now in this economy, in this economy where half a million black men lost their jobs in 2025 and a quarter million black women lost their jobs in 2025.

Due to this administration's output and input, we have to realize as a community that we have to galvanize, we have to galvanize our standards and raise them.

We have to galvanize our businesses and raise the businesses.

We have to galvanize the people and raise the people up.

We have to let them stand on platforms that if they are going to win, if they're going to win, they got to answer the phone, be open on time.

Like Al said, provide high quality food and vegetable and whatever it is, whatever they do, high quality products and treat the customers like their dollars matter, no matter where their dollars come from.

And even in Milwaukee, if you look at it, there's a lot of, there are a lot of businesses, a lot of people, a lot of people are moving in different parts of Milwaukee County and other counties surrounding Milwaukee County.

Those people, those people are still, they're bringing their money into your community, whatever, wherever your community is.

It could be Oak Creek, whatever, right?

Let's let's continue to talk about this when we come back.

We'll be back in three minutes.

I Yeah, we're just gonna go off.

We're gonna go

off

Yes,

yes.

I'm your host, Manon Sabir, the grapevine, and you're in the award-winning The Truth 1017 radio.

Welcome back.

Welcome back.

We'll pick some more grapes.

We're talking about black-owned businesses.

And should you really name your business a black-owned business?

should you really name your business a black owned business?