5/4/26 6PM: Guests Join

This is The Truth on Filbert with Denise Thomas and Dr. Ken Harris.

You know, there's this cliche that we often hear,

keep the lights on. We got it. We got to keep the lights on.

And to have this be a literal, precise and relevant question being,

how do you keep the lights on when the protections turn off? That's a real big question.

We keep putting, we keep bypassing local leaders who are supposed to do things like

make sure we are safe, make sure that business is good, make sure we don't have

potholes in the street, make sure that the leaves aren't in the drain so that we get

flooding, pick up our garbage, all that's that all the issues we have in the walk

are not getting done because everybody's brain is stuck on trunk.

When are we going to get it done?

Live at the Avenue. Here's Denise Thomas and Dr. Ken Harris.

You're listening, the truth unfiltered on your host Dr. Ken Harris along with the

let me see those magnanimous, stupendous, uh,

locoacious and all around pain in my finger Denise Thomas.

Hey, what's up, girl? Are you?

Just your finger. I need to do better.

Just my finger. Just well.

I need to keep the entire body and soul, but I'm doing great, Dr. Ken.

Thank you for asking. How are you?

I'm good. I'm good. So we have guests today. It feels like it's been like

600 years since I've talked about that. It's been like two weeks.

So we've got two guests in the studio today, because you know,

I had to drag them in on the Sunday night. I just didn't want to be here by myself.

So I just tried to invite myself. There's a new center that's being built.

Now we talked about this in Milwaukee and you've been here long enough

and they've lived here long enough. We've been talking about building a black

cultural center in Milwaukee for like 10 million years, right?

And so then this guy decides to move to Madison a couple of decades ago

and say, I'm going to build my own.

So he built the center for black excellence and culture.

And in the studio today, my guest Reverend Dr. Alex G.

And also

620 WTMJ

101.7 the truth teammate

fraternity brother, which both of them are by the way.

Jason Fields, what's going on?

What's up, Dr. Keane? What's up, DT?

What's going on, Jason? And you know what? I have to put some respect on Dr. G's name,

because I originally refer to you as Alex.

I did not know that you were such, well, I should have known,

because any constituent of Dr. Keane and Jason Fields, obviously have a high caliber level.

So Reverend Dr. G, thank you so much for raising us with your presence and please pardon my

initial reference to you. Listen, no apology necessary. It is my honor to be here. Thank you.

And Dr. Keane for allowing me to be here today. I'm glad to be here with my with my colleague,

Mr. Jason Fields. So we were we were talking a few what months ago. How about we got to figure

out how to let Milwaukee know when we got to this. And I don't I'm trying to remember where I was.

Was I was I driving to Indianapolis or driving from Indianapolis. I was I was on the road on a

three four hour driving trip. Right. And Jason calls and you know when Jason calls you talk.

Yes, you do. You know, like, you know, five minutes is 50. So, you know, and talked about how

do we let people know? And I'm thinking to myself, well, I don't know Sunday night, we're on the

biggest stick in the state. You know, we get other states. We get Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin,

Iowa, Minnesota, Washington, New York. Oh my. So I think yeah, I don't have them come here.

The center for black excellence and culture. Now before we dive into that, I want to know

something about like where you from, how you started, how you did all this stuff. Which one you

want to take first, Dr. Ken? I'm from Madison, Wisconsin. I've been there since I was six years old.

Okay. So my family moved there in 1970. I was born in Chicago where my mother and father were raised

and my mother came. Great parents. Great. Yeah. Well, a great parent. Uh, well, I'm talking about

Chicago. I'm, you know, that's where he from. Yeah. Yeah. They tripping. That's right. You've

been in Milwaukee so long, Dr. Ken, I keep, I keep forgetting that mom came for a visit in 1970 to

her friend and Dorothy. She saw that campus and, and all those lakes. And she packed us up like

the clampets did and moved us out. And when she, she came on vacation, saw it, put a deposit down

on the department came back and got us my sister and myself and drove us to Madison. We moved

here in 1970. Wow. We've been there every since. Wow. And so you grew up there. I grew up there

with the college there, met my wife, senior year. You were doing it up in Madison. I did. I did.

You're sorry. Wait, wait, where'd you, where'd you do undergrad? Illinois State University. Oh,

I'm sorry. Yeah. Well, at least it's red and white. That's right. That's right. That's right.

That's right. That's right. I'm sorry. I have trouble seeing out of the big team. But, um,

but that sounds cute. Um, let me, let's, let's, let's go. It's going to be a long night. It's

our group in Madison. Work. Yes, ma'am.

I just feel compelled to share this with you. I love you already. Please give a doctor a

candidate's love. Please, please. I'll do respect it. Yeah. Now I got four people. Oh,

Evan, the two of you, Denise. Okay. I can take it. I'm just not, not Dr. Kint. I'm not able to

hear your, your co-hosts. Very well. It's, it's real. We're working on it. Oh, you are. Can you

walk in here or hear her? Okay. We're working. Okay. All right. Good. I just want, I didn't want to

be rude if she's asked me something and I couldn't hear it. But it sounded like she told me to give

you heck like not to go easy on you. That part I did here that she already liked me. The assumption

that someone else says my name is automatically to give me like, what is that? What is? Okay. All right.

All right. So you reluctantly went to UW-Mad as it, because it was the only school that admitted me.

That admitted me. I didn't say it. Maybe. But no, no, no. You, you, you, you have a very, very,

a, you know, you got a really good career at UW. Sure. I did. I did. I worked in the

admissions office. I like Madison. And I, I felt a call to ministry early on in, in Madison. So

that's part of my upbringing. You know, by growing up in the south side of Madison, which is a,

it's not a very large, diverse community. But of the communities in Madison, it's, it's the most

diverse. I have fairly good experiences where people looked out for me. They told me that they saw

the good in me. And the elders encouraged me to do good in the community and to, and to give back.

So I grew up also loving the campus and the city, because my mother was in a very bad marriage and

abusive marriage. My father was an alcoholic and physically abusive. And, and mom was very depressed

when she came to Madison. She was 30 with two young kids, six and four. And she got a light back.

She started looking differently, dressing differently. She found out that she was an intellectual. She

became a social worker. Got her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Madison, although she dropped

out of high school her freshman year. She paid cash from me to go to college and really set us up

to turn around the kind of life that she was living and to give us a different trajectory. So part

of my work is really giving back to a community that's given so much to my family. Okay. And so you

went through, you started the ministry, you, you, you started the church, then you bought a church,

and then you built a church. I did. I did. That sounds like a pattern. Yeah. I did. I started

preaching at 17. I preached in the living room church for about 10 years. My congregation was

probably the kids in the neighborhood. I'd knock on the doors of my friends and say, hey, you want

come to, you want to come to the church service? You want to go to church in my living room? All my

friends, parents thought that I was a cult leader. You know, because it's like the late 70s. So

Jim Jones had his VL basketball down in Guyana. I remember all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. As you

drink it from that cup. And you know, you have people drinking that cool later stuff. So people

thought I was a cult leader. And really, my mom's childhood pastor started that church, but he let

me be Junior Deakin because I was 13 when they started. But no one's alive that remembers him.

So everyone assumes that I started it. And I really have to rebrand it and make, you know, and make

it more accessible and to young people into a diverse group of people and socioeconomically,

you know, people with GEDs and PhDs are part of our congregation. So I brought that flair

to it. But it's a place where I was able to really, to bloom and to grow. And the community gave me

a lot of confidence. But yes, basically started that church and re-launched it. I created a

nonprofit in 92 called the Nihemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development. It's a social service

and leadership foundation and focus on strengthening black families, particularly in early 92 when

work to welfare was ended. Remember W2 was ended. And so we were contracted to help strengthen

families that were being displaced because of that and give them a sense of community as they

redirected their energies towards self-sufficiency. And so I did that. I built that with my mom,

my wife, and my sister. And so for people who understand working with family,

but just imagine working with your mama, your wife, and your sister in them. It was an

brilliant people. I mean, I'm telling these women are brilliant and strong and everybody wanted

me to take their side. But that's a whole other show. But we believed in creating what wasn't there,

Dr. Ken. So rather than saying, you know, this town needs an animal. Let's move back to some

place else because they don't have what we need. We look around and say, well, can we build a restaurant,

can we build a social service agency? And so that's the way I was raised. If it's not there,

and you believe that it needs to be there, see what you can do to build it. And so that fed into my

my sense of entrepreneurship as well. All right. Jason, talk to us. You know, you know, one,

I think it's funny for me because I'm always looking at, you know, my relationship with both of you

and Denise. And you know, it goes without saying just what I love about what we're doing at the

center is imagine the intellectual capital, the brain trust that we're always together and we're

always feeding off each other. And I've seen you and Denise do it with one another whenever we're

on the radio show. Again, you are the reason why I'm in working on a PhD now and graduating next

year. You the reason why I started went back to school. And so all the things that you put your

foot up my butt to do. And then you passed me over to Dr. G and now he's doing the same thing.

It's tag team. Yes, it is. And so I think the beautiful thing about the center is one when I

look at just everybody that we're talking to now, the four of us, as Dr. G said, you know,

if you see something wrong, you fix it. You don't complain about it, you know,

where are we doing to uplift the community? And not just the typical things that we see,

just the social service agency sports entertainment. We're talking about research, culture,

studying different languages, you know, doing policy research. And those are the things that I think

our community has lacked. And I'm happy to be, you know, as a Milwaukee animatic and more

Madison now resident, but to be on this journey with Dr. G and building a place that for years,

as you said, Dr. Kim, Milwaukee should have had something like this.

Sounds sounds like Denise going to be flying to Madison instead of Milwaukee.

Oh, look at the rate DT. Come on, ma'am. Oh, ma'am. Yeah, her and her new star studied

feelings and, you know, they, she might have a Dianne Sanders on payroll already. Wow.

We expected to see you do some culture in there, DT.

Well, I appreciate the confidence in my coaching. And I just, I have to ask this question.

If that's okay, Dr. Kim, because I know that these two incredible leaders that we have as guests

are busy, I just have to ask this question. And I'm going to direct this to Reverend Dr. G.

Listen, when I was reading the press release, the number that that stood out to me was 32 million

dollars. This is a 32 million dollar investment, which of course, for any and everybody that's

viewing and listening to the show, that's a significant dollar amount. So I have to ask you this.

Reverend Dr. G, because this is the big deal, not just in Madison, not just for

black communities, but across the country. And so I know that there were barriers that you had

to break through to get people to believe in this vision at the level of 32 million dollars.

So can you take us back to the moment where the vision became real, but what gap were you determined

to feel to fill that no one else had? Wow, that's that's a great question. How much time do we have?

Well, we're about to go to break. So when we come back, that is a perfect question from Denise Thomas

to look at. All right. And always remember, citing a limited WTMJ talk and text line is 8556161620.

Remember whenever and wherever you're listening, you can always know the real live on YouTube as well.

Watch the show. Go to youtube.com. We're at 620 WTMJ. It's happening right here in the studio.

Just search 620 on YouTube, subscribe and hit the notification bell every time DT is live and I'm live.

You'll see us. Reverend Dr. Alex G Jason feels from the Center for Black Excellence in Culture,

Madison Wisconsin. We'll be back. Welcome back to the truth on filtered.

You're listening to truth, unfiltered, also called truth on limited because I always get the

you wrong. Denise Thomas, Dr. Kin Harris, our guest today, Reverend Dr. Alex G and Jason feels

from the Center for Black Excellence in Culture in Madison. So you raised, Denise was saying you

raised $32 million and what was the catalyst? What triggered? Like, like, so you said you're going

to raise it and then what? That I pray for is that good enough, Denise? Yes, I just want to know

barriers that you had to bring through to get people to believe in your vision at that $32 million

level. Great question. What worked for me was longevity, because I have been a community servant

for decades and a pastor on top of that. So in the black community that gives us a bit of gravitas

and people tend to give us the benefit of the doubt. But this was not just a spur of the moment

thing. I've been saying this when I wrote an article called justified anger in 2013 and we raised

money to talk about the racial disparities. I remember there was a rollout, we rolled out a plan

called our Madison plan. It was a thousand people there. I said tonight I'm raising $350,000,

but I'm coming back in a few years and raising 20 million because I want to really attack this problem

up the river. So I think I stated that in 2014 because we noticed that there was a huge black

brain drain in the state of Wisconsin. So I would say that that's when it became real to me that

we're going to have to do something larger. But I would say when the pandemic hit and I saw what

was happening in the world I realized, let me dust this vision off. Maybe people will listen now

and they did. That's that's that's scary coming out of the pandemic when everything else is

failing around you. You know, schools are failing, businesses failing, going out of business,

people getting laid off, you know, AI has taken over. It's it's it's genesis was like, you know,

2324 and you decide, hmm, 350,000 versus 20 million and you went further 20 million.

Right. We did the 300,000 in 2014 and we created pathways for our non-black allies to

join us in eradicating racism and really taking anti-racist stances. So that that happened for about

10 years. But then I asked myself, while our counterparts are waking up or deciding how woke they

want to be, what are black people do to take care of themselves in the meanwhile? And so I canvas

the community and I had listening sessions Dr. Ken that we're over 700 black individuals. It's

the most comprehensive snapshot of the black community by the black community, probably in Wisconsin

state history. And but over a course of years and we have we have dates in place. This isn't just

like we sent out surveys. These are bloods in seats. And they said, this is what we want. We want

a place where our kids aren't treated like problems to be fixed, but leaders to be developed and we

want a place to meet and gather and we want to meet mentors. These black doctors and lawyers come

into town and leave and our kids never meet them. And so I had a chance to really listen to what the

community wanted. But when the pandemic hit, I put all those plans to rest because the world was

crumbling around me. And one of my mentors who was the former county executive Rick Phelps in Madison

called me up and said, gee, you know what? I know this doesn't like the sound like it makes sense.

But with everything that's going on in the world, we need your voice, we need this vision. I think

you need to dust it off and we need to talk about this space that's really key for the black people

for the black community to celebrate your strength, your heritage, and your abilities to survive no

matter what. And that's when I dusted it off and the community was ready to listen. And so Jason,

you were, you know, and I think Denise was as you were a state rep. And then you went from being

in a state rep. And then you started working in Madison. And then you ran across this guy.

After you introduced us again. And what happened with that? Like what was that? First of all,

what was the transition about leaving Milwaukee? Because a lot of people from Milwaukee,

yeah, you know, where are we? You know, I remember when when Denise moved, people were like,

what you're moving for? Yeah. And it's because it was so foreign to people here, it seems.

You know, I think, and again, the three of us being in Milwaukee as long as we have you,

and we've all been adamant about being involved. But then you look at your life and go, okay,

am I making some progress? Am I doing the things that I want to do here? And am I getting

the support? And so after I lost the controllers race by 800 votes, and then we moved to Madison

to manage a economic development organization over eight counties, the CEO. And what I noticed

was that there's a difference in culture in Milwaukee and Madison. Totally. Very, very different.

And you know, not to be offensive, but there, there seems to be when I was doing economic development,

that in Madison, that culture, Black, white, Latino, Asian, what have you, everyone

agree there that hey, we need everybody here to be supportive, to be positive if we want this

place to continue to grow. Now, we still have our issues, but we need to get on board and to figure

out what we need to do. And so you had introduced Dr. Ken said, you know, do you know Dr. Alex G? And

I said, I know of them. And Dr. G and I spoke on Zoom the first day we met. And we hit it off

really well. And the next meeting we had, he had, you showed me, I believe, Dr. what he was trying

to do. And I'll be candid and honest. I'm like, you know, that's, that's cute. Let me have that

Milwaukee mentality. Yeah, I literally Dr. Ken and DT, I'm like, it's not going to happen.

Because we've seen this movie, right? And so here's later, he and I would become good friends.

And I'm watching him. And DT to say that is 32. This is a $32 million debt free building.

So not only did we raise 32 million, it's debt free. And so now I'm watching one of the

reason I'm looking at two black men, Dr. Harris, just self, you know, I include you. Dr. G and

me and Dr. G hit it off. And he says, I'm doing this. He calls me up. Can you, we're doing something

at the books and Peter Fagan at the time when Peter Fagan said, hey, I'm doing something. Can you

invite some people? So I invite a lot of folks to come and hear the presentation. Again, at the

time, it's cute. I'm, I'll call some of my people. I'm like, why Jason calling me, right?

Because I always call you. DT always called me. And so we go to the book station and a lot of

our friends, the Cory Nettles, Greg Westleason, all these people come. And again, I think we all

were like, yo, this is a nice, it's a nice thought. It's a nice program. But what we didn't know

in Milwaukee, that's different from Madison. And I'm going to say this white folks in Madison

understand that if they want to continue to move and be better, you got to support

credible black leaders who are known for getting things done. Not because we like them.

Not because they call, but because they have a track record of being efficient and effective.

Right. Right. And so as we're doing this long story short, I get, he brings me on. He says,

I'm a colleague. I work for doggie. And it's one of the best moves ever. But I witnessed

people of all races and cultures, of all economic, of all social status, demographics,

get behind this vision and go, you know what? If we want to be the best we can be,

let us all contribute to the growth and improvement of people who that are underserved and

usually not. I have to interject. Can you all hear me? Yes. Can you all hear me?

We probably have to take a break. So I'm going to interject Jason because what you just said

was literally what was in my head. We come back from break. I would, I would be so curious

to gain both you and Reverend Dr. G's perspective on the elephant in the room. And the

elephant in the room, especially as really, and I'm going to ruffle some feathers because this

is a truth unfiltered. So let's talk about what you just said Jason because one of the biggest,

and I'm not even going to sugarcoat, one of the biggest elephants in the room as well as the

biggest challenge is when we talk about talent in the state of Wisconsin, there is a cultural density

that has been overlooked but yet is so critical for attracting and retaining Black professionals

in places like both Madison and Milwaukee. So you brought up two names that obviously

have been major players in the economic and overall growth of talent in the community.

And this is why I'm going to ruffle some feathers. This is what I want to get y'all to insight.

I see this as a model that can be replicated in other cities. But here's the problem.

What used to be the reason why Blacks migrated from the south to the north is now the exact reason

why Black people are migrating from the north to the south, including me. And let me tell you

this because and this is not just me speaking from a Denise or DT lens. This is based on

conversations that I've had with people who move to Milwaukee through employment with aspirations

to build a family to have economic power and opportunity. But here's where it gets challenging

in Milwaukee. And I know I'm going to ruffle some feathers. Y'all know I don't care.

It can't be the same people. It can't be the same people doing the same thing. And that's actually

in all fairness and I promise we're going to go to break. I want to understand not even just

in Wisconsin. For example, we just lost Reverend Jesse Jackson senior. We still seem to be

leaning on leaders who were leaders back in the 40s, 50s and 60s. And we do the same thing in Milwaukee

and we do the same thing in Wisconsin. So for me, this economic engine that you've created, Dr. G,

is so necessary. However, my biggest problem in terms of preserving what you've created

or even I'll say curated is that we cannot keep going to the same people. And we're going to

ensure that this space that you created along with Jason and others to reflect the full spectrum

of the black diaspora. Because I've been very intentional about spending time in the black diaspora.

And I know our fellow white brothers and sisters are probably like, what's the diaspora? We'll

get into that when we come back from break. But I just want to ask you, what do you want

in terms of the next generation of black leaders, black talent? And especially as it relates to

retention and shifting the Midwest narrative, the Milwaukee narrative, can I have sick and tired

of hearing the same name over and over again? Because and I know if I'm sick and tired of hearing

the same name, they've got to be sick and tired of always being attacked. So we come back

just want to know how are we going to leverage this so that the next generation, even the existing

generation of talented black people in Milwaukee that don't have certain last names

are going to help preserve, sustain, and grow the center of black excellence.

855616 is a sighting and limited WTA WTMJ talking text line. You can also hit us on YouTube.

When we come back, Alex G, Jason Fields, and you, you're listening to the truth on filtered.

38 minutes after the hour, I'm your host Dr. Ken Harris along with the effervescent

Denise Thomas, who is with us here. Truth unfiltered. Reverend Dr. Alex G, what is your title

with the center? He had Puba, Graham Puba, like what's your title? President as well as the founder.

CEO president. We're going to CEO. President CEO and I'm also the founder. Okay.

Yes sir. How many titles you got Jason? Like six.

Just cheap strategy all for some. And Dr. and lackey for Dr. River, Dr. Alex.

You know, number two is literally the most powerful place to be in any organization.

I'm a better number two than I am one. There's a there's a great Ted talk on fellowship.

And it talks about how every big movement you see the first person that gets up and says,

we need to do and nobody moves. Yeah. It's only when the second person co-signs and gets up and

they have an example of a guy dancing all crazy by himself at an outdoor concert and nobody's

dancing. They look at him like, man, you crazy. And the second guy gets up and dances with him.

And that's when everybody said, well, if they can do it, I'll do it. And then you do it. And that's

choosing your number two is always the most important position because if you choose the right

person, think about Martin Luther King, think about Jesse Jackson, like you and Denise mentioned.

Think about those people that were in powerful leadership. Their number two was like, I'm going,

y'all coming to and then everybody came. And so when we, when we, the question, I got to remember

the question. We, why don't I just let Denise ask the question again? That'd probably be easy.

Okay. So really the question is from, and I love Jason that your role as chief strategy officer

because I think that is so fitting for your leadership because Jason, you've been in the game

as a leader for quite a few decades now. And that doesn't speak to your age. That just speaks

to the fact that we were born. When you were born, you knew that your purpose, listen, we, we,

turn to Dr. Kim's mic off y'all. You were a born leader. And so again, I just want us to talk about

this preservation around the center of black excellence. And this cultural density that's so

critical for not only attracting, but retaining black professionals in places like Madison, in places

like Milwaukee, because one of my biggest opportunities that I've taken on is making sure that even

if my last name isn't a name that most black and even just all citizens recognize that those

who have the talent that have the intellect, that have the strategy. And most importantly,

Reverend Dr. G and Jason have the willingness and ambition to serve. How do we make sure that we're

leaning on them, attracting and then sustaining them so that they're not part of the people that

come to Madison or come to Milwaukee through employment. But then after year one or two,

say, man, you know, I tried, but because my last name isn't so and so or I wasn't brought into the, you

know, now I'm leaving. Those are some great questions. I'm going to just try to jump in at a

bunch of them. And Dr. Kim, let me know when I need to slow down for for station break for station

identification. A couple of things. I agree with you, Ms. Thomas, that there's a huge black brain drain

in Wisconsin. That sort of set this emotion. I'm Madison's longest serving pastor of any ethnic

background and of any ecumenical affiliation. I've got about 40 years in in a senior leadership role.

46 if you include my my associate status. My congregation is completely different every seven years

because of people not getting 10 year moving to another university, graduating, leaving grad

school, coming into work for state for the state, changing offices. So I noticed that people come in.

I feel like Dorothy and Wizard of Oz when she said, my people come and go so quickly here. That's

where it feels in Madison. We've noticed that people are leaving for other places. So when I started

stating that they got the attention of the business community because they're realizing that they

offer jobs to people, black people and we didn't stay. So when I started my fundraising campaign,

I asked them a question. This is on zoom. It was the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. I said,

you have and we're the only organization they let present. And I said, you have a candidate.

They're perfect. The pay is right. And she happens to be black. She likes the office and everything.

And at the end of the conversation, at the end of the interview, she says, hey, before I sign on

the dotted line, can someone put me in a car and drive me somewhere in Madison and show me an example

of black innovation? I said, where would you take her? It's been six years and no one has answered

that question yet because they focused on corporate climate, and corporate culture, but not city culture.

And what they realize is that their greatest competition for keeping great black talent was not

their office or staff or pay grade. It was life outside the office at five o'clock when she punched

out and wanted to not be the first and only at play. Like she was the first and only at work.

So they understood this is why we can't we can't maintain talent. So that got their idea.

They're they're attention because it wasn't like they need more bus tickets. The kids need more

backpacks. And I just stand there. My family is on welfare. They were not leaving because they

need more vouchers. They need more bus passes and more backpacks. And again, my pro my organization,

neomyodus, that my family was on welfare. We moved to Madison. The people that are leaving Madison,

the black folks are leaving Madison, Wisconsin can afford to leave Madison and Wisconsin because

they can work from anywhere or they're hireable anywhere. So that got the business community's attention.

But the real whammy, Miss Thomas was this because I live in the background of the backyard of a

major research institution. The university was constant Madison. The school of medicine in

the public policy is also showing that the stress that is attributed to being the first and only

black person creates a phenomenon called racial battle fatigue. And when you're constantly swimming

upstream in those waters, it develops illnesses due to stress that makes us more prone to degenerative

diseases. And so when COVID hit and black and brown people started dying more quickly, I was able to

say that's what I'm talking about. Same disease, the same medicines, but black people die on average

more quickly than our white counterparts because of the ever present stress of being black

and intelligent and upwardly mobile. People think that once you live in a big league, you don't have

stress, the more we grow, the more we find that black excellence is in the front to American

exceptionalism. And so there's new kinds of stress that comes at black people once we become more

affluent. When the community said we'd never heard that, they said open up their checkbooks.

I'm sorry, what was that man? I just want to interject, Reverend Dr. G with an underscoring fact.

And a friend of mine, we just had this conversation over lunch here in New York. And he's like you,

Dr. G, he's very intellectual, he's a thought leader, he's a game changer. And I actually

made a light bulb go over his head. He was like, I never thought about it that way. I said 98%

and I know Jason, Dr. Ken, Dr. G, I know y'all know this. The left connect this dot to what you just

said. 98% of black women in America voted for Madame Vice President Kamala Harris during this

most recent presidential election. Six months later, and year to date,

980,000 black women have been either demoted, terminated, or forced out of their employment.

You see it, all the black news anchors that are female. And so, college presidents,

college presidents. And so for our listeners that identify as non-black,

these are the conversations because a lot of times people associate black stress as black anger.

And I'm so glad that you brought that up because racism is a trauma. And when you add on the fact

that black women, and I'm only bringing this up because I'm not a black man. It's like I have to

speak from the lens that I know. When you talk about that, Dr. G, I so thank you for bringing

that up because black women are often stereotyped as angry, problematic, disruptive. And it's like you

don't understand what you don't know and when you don't know, you fear it. And so to bring that up

and make that a part of the solution that we're trying to address, I just had to interject and

underscore that again, a lot of what non-black people are witnessing, they're associating that

with this perception that black people are looking for handouts, they're problematic,

they're always stirring up trouble when it's no. Black people are not looking for handouts. Black

people are trying to navigate the fact that when we wake up in the morning, we have to wake up

five hours just to be ready to meet others where they are when they wake up at 9 a.m.

If that makes sense. It does. And if I could just be so bold as to say, that's why we built the

Center for Black Excellence in Culture. So that before and after you go into that work environment,

you have a place to go and relax. There's a space that my sister built within our center that's

called the black women center. And it's because black women are often called loud,

emboistress, and angry. And she wants it to be a place where black women can be unfettered in

all of their experiences. And the other elephant in the room, and I shouldn't even say this because

I have to still answer the second part of your question, is that because so many of our black

women and many are in corporate world, you know, many, lots of them are. But for the ones in social

services and education, many of them work for white women. And we don't talk about the black

women white women stress that a lot of the black women stress comes from her white female boss.

And so that's that's another show if I've not got myself kicked off. But the other part of it,

Ms. Thomas is this, my background is in leadership theory. I didn't build this for myself. I'm 62

years old. And so Jason and I stopped young men and young women. We give them our cards and say,

hey, we're creating this center. I was buying. We're on the front cover of the state journal today.

I don't know if your front cover is the same in Milwaukee as it is in Madison. You would think it is,

but I'm on the front cover of it and it's talking about the center. I was buying a bunch of copies

before coming here. There's a young sister working at Walgreens. I opened it up. She said,

can I take a picture of it? She took a picture. She said, thank you for what you're doing in the

community. I said, I need you to come to our grand opening. We're next door to Burger King. I'm

talking to brothers that are in there. Hey, you need to come here because we have this pan-African

space. And I'm forgetting the name. He's from from Guinea Equatorial. So he's from one of the few

Spanish-speaking, not Portuguese, but Spanish-speaking countries in Africa. We stop young people and say,

we have a music studio. We have editing spaces. We have a library for children. We have performing

art spaces. If you want to do poetry, we have designed this through the arts because we want

young people to come in. I'm not trying to create a place for old black people to come and count our

money. We can do that and we deserve to do that. We worked hard, but this is a place where we

mentor the next generation. We pass things on. We have a leadership training,

structure where we are finding lenders and web designers. I have attorneys lined up to help

these young black professionals set up their for-profit and non-profit businesses. This is

designed to feed the next generation and not filter our own, to fill our own coffers. This is

about the next generation. Siding unlimited WTMJ Token text line is a 556161620. If you have any

questions for Reverend Dr. Alex G or Jason Fields or Denise Thomas or me, Dr. Ken Harris.

When we come back, I want to talk about the grand opening celebration that's coming up this week

on Wednesday and I'm really upset with you because you put it during my show. That is a

absolute. Anyway, we'll get to that later. You're listening to Truth Unfiltered. Welcome back to

the Truth Unfiltered. Denise Thomas got to Ken Harris Truth Unfiltered. Siding

unlimited WTMJ Token text line is a 556161620. By the way, let me check the Token text.

So I just wanted to make sure. So you got this grand opening celebration coming on Wednesday,

May 6th from 2 to 6 p.m. You got curated tours of the architectural landmark. You got high

level networking. You got all sorts of things on. You got all these. Tell me some of the dignitaries

that are coming and why didn't I get a personal engraved black and gold. Invitating like I

have an invitation. So I'm just I'm just wondering. Well, all the people in our mailing list got that

engraved invitation. Okay, all right. I just want to set the record because you, you know,

you're on there. And the more you give the higher up, you get on that list, you start getting

stuff more. I know I get nothing. You didn't give nothing. Not yet. Not yet. I'm still. No,

you got to do that. See, that's how you get in the mailing list. You give something and then

it's a letter. And that's one of the things I want to talk about. How do people give money to

this center? Because there are a lot of people in Milwaukee who have given. Yeah. But

a little is not too much. Right. And a little is not too little. All right. I mean,

all gives counsel. Your first question. The governor is coming and Congressman Mark Polkhand is

coming. The others is so hard to tell because we sent invitations out and not everyone responds.

There's some people just responding in the last few days. We decided not to have a huge event,

like we did at groundbreaking groundbreaking. We had about 600 people outside. It was the

hottest day of the summer. Now we know the people want to see the insights. They don't want to

hear people talking. Plus we have over a thousand people registered to come. And we have,

you don't have that much space to hold them. So we have to let people in at 300 at a time. So

from two to six, we'll be a guided curated to where we're going to have our major donors there.

But it's a very, very short program. And then we want to start bringing people through to see the

space. People can go to our website, theblackcenter.org and give and no gift is too small. We love

reoccurring gifts because that really helps us with it with the upkeep. But it's a lot of people

pitching in that made that has made this work. A third of our of our funding has come from

government, a third from business and foundations, and then a third from individuals. So we need

individuals to continue giving because everything we've raised now has been to build this debt-free

facility. We are now still in the hunt for money, but that's for program expansion. So we are

still looking for money so that we can launch our inaugural programming. So. And Dr., Dr. G, I have

to be taking notes on who attend because Jason and Dr. Ken will tell you that I'm not shy,

especially when it comes to black excellence. And so as black people have been the foundation

of this country, I definitely will be finding out who came to support because for me,

when you come to these types of events, it signals alignment and that you value cultural

infrastructure and that you value economic empowerment and the advancement of communities that have

long been underrepresented. So I will be taking notes on who showed up.

Yes. Sounds like a plan. Reverend Dr. Alex G, thank you so much for being here. My pleasure,

my pleasure. Jason feels teammate extraordinaire. Good to see you, big brother. All right. DT.

Love you. All right. You're listening. The truth I'm filter. I'm your host, Dr. Ken Harris,

along with the namesake, Denise Thomas. We'll be right back in the eight o'clock hour.

We got some interesting stuff coming up from Milwaukee County and some issues.

One of our teammates has run into you might have heard about it, but it's been a little quiet.

Evidently, there's some racial issues in Milwaukee County. I'm shocked.