The Witness

He steps to the mic with a boom ping ping wisdom sharper than the beast fear sting

Words like fireflies that light the night.

He turns the dark into blazing bright.

Boom, ping, ping.

The truth takes wing.

Milwaukee's voice let the city sing.

is Wednesday, August 26, 2026.

I have reached out to Leslie Montemuro.

She is one of the owners of the establishment that has been in question and on the minds of many over the past week or so, one of the proprietors of the High Hat Garage, which occupies the space on the northwest corner.

Arlington and Brady Street at 1709 West Arlington, I would like for her To have an opportunity to tell her side of the story and the reason why I reached out to her and not her partner Scott is because in the correspondences that I have seen both to and from

Anyone associated with ownership and management of the hi-hat it has been Leslie's name and so I reached out to her I am not sure if I will hear back, but I wanted you all to know That I did reach out to her to get her perspective.

I have my Sentiments on the matter and how I feel about it and the The list that was provided

I don't believe that any of that is malicious, but I can't understand and empathize how people could see that as being malicious because it's a very sensitive subject when it comes to African Americans and culture and nightlife and entertainment.

We oftentimes have to tip toe.

We are not often welcome.

We try to have our own establishments and we face plenty of those.

institutional and structural barriers because the easy answer is well just open up your own place open up your own bar your own restaurant your own hip hop nightclub ladies and gentlemen I assure you it is not that easy and of the maybe one or two percent of people that do have the credit and do have the capital and the business sense and the business savvy and the consultants and the attorneys

and everything that you would need a very small percentage of people that even have the ability to make that kind of investment.

And when I say make that kind of investment in an endeavor like this, you got to be willing to lose money for two years or more.

And people that have that kind of business sense and business savvy and have the ability to lose money for multiple years will likely take.

their investment and their ability to lose money and put it in a different business endeavor altogether.

Because the ultimate plan for such businesses is exceptionally difficult for them to stay around long enough to remain profitable.

And also catering to a culture that moves so very quickly.

African American culture moves so very quickly.

Things that were in vogue and in style and in fashion.

Six months ago are dead now and it's very, very tough to keep your hand in your finger and your pulse on such a moving cultural target.

There's a part of this conversation that is missing, but also I want to use it as interpreting the moment that we are in because we should feel it all around.

We should feel racial bias in our politics.

We should feel racial bias in policies.

We should feel the racial bias, not just coming from the Trump administration, but now it has fully filtered down.

I want us to feel these walls, not necessarily closing in on us, but the walls are very much defined.

The words of the New Berlin mayor, the New Berlin Common Council met yesterday to condemn the words of the mayor, and a lot of people showed up to the...

Common council meeting in New Berlin.

I'd imagine they probably don't get too many people or too many packed houses in New Berlin Common Council meetings unless there's something on the agenda talking about approving affordable housing, then I bet they get a packed house But we should feel it all around black people believe that as time goes on and we get further

further away from those old black and white civil rights days and the Edmund Pettus bridges and the Martin Luther Kings see that stuff was in black and white it was a long time ago that does not reflect our current reality but for some reason we hold that as gospel that all that stuff was a long time ago no it's not

It's right here right now and it's reinventing itself and sometimes it can be as minuscule as we don't want these artists played It can be as minuscule as we're gonna close this grocery store We're gonna close this Walgreens ladies and gentlemen We should feel it all around and be aware of it and figure out how we are going to Climb over the walls or tear them down altogether instead of just getting so angry and upset.

Here's what is perplexing to me

There's a whole generation of black people that have not told a younger generation what it is actually like.

This is a part of it.

They don't want you.

Oh, wait till I give you the list of brands that we as black people have.

I'm going to call it cultural colonization.

That's what we should have titled this damn show.

Actually, that's probably better than feel it all around.

But we'll leave it Xavier.

We'll leave.

There are certain brands that black people just we grab them.

We adopt them.

We put it in our music.

We put it in our culture.

It's fashion.

And the white brands, the white owners of these brands, they never wanted us.

They never wanted an urban audience and never wanted a black customer ever.

But sometimes we just grab stuff.

We just grabbed Patron and started putting it in music.

We just grabbed Cognac and started putting it in music.

We just started wearing Timberlin boots.

That's probably the best example.

The curators of Timberland booths were like

Why are you blacks wearing our boots?

We didn't advertise in Jet and Ebony magazine.

How did you even find us?

And the worst stereotype is and I'm gonna give you the details of this because sometimes we gravitate toward a brand and the brand never wanted us.

In fact, they wanted to stay as far away from us as possible because we as black people can tarnish the brand.

I know that that's hard for us to conceptualize because we think that it's like it's status if black people gravitate towards your brand.

You know who we really messed up real bad?

Crystal Champagne.

You know, the French people are very serious about the Champagne.

We do not understand why Zeeblex takes the Crystal.

It is a very delicious formal Champagne and they put it all over the BBWs and all over the booties in the raviagios.

We are no longer a prestigious brand.

We're gonna talk all about it, but I want you guys to notice that these are not isolated incidents.

These are...

These are representations of how they're how some people feel about black people in black culture and it's in our politics, too So we have to stop ignoring it and understand that it's reality.

Let's talk to an early calling Alan.

What could this possibly be about?

I haven't even really started the show yet.

I Just happen to come

out.

I

was

going to get my dairy cone and I got to go do some shopping I'm just catching up to you.

Um, another brand that they're doing after rose rice is one Mercedes is one, um

What else did I do?

Tell me about Frank's perfumes.

They lowered the standards of that stuff, so I had to call one of them over to Frank.

I had to talk to one of them frogs.

I had to talk to my wife when she asked for a box.

Just go into the jewelry store and have them repair something, and then they hand it back to you in a plastic bag rather than putting it in a solid box.

And then

when

I called where we usually go, they said, of course.

No, Mr. Becker, we'll always give you a box.

Society is just nasty.

The more you deal with this type of stuff, the more you realize that we're all in the same boat, man.

Most people who don't want the music, if it's like anything else, they just got to stay with it.

Everybody's not bad.

Everybody's not good.

That's all I want to tell you.

I'm driving over here to all these other being in France, you know, capital all these nowadays is like that note.

And the Walmart over here is wild.

You never know what you're going to run into.

Maybe I'll give you a report tomorrow.

What goes down?

Alan, before you go, is your relationship and your marriage to an African American woman one of the reasons why you are now able to see

the racial and cultural bias because prior to you being involved with her, I'd imagine you didn't have this kind of up close and personal view because you've noticed and you're marked on this program how your wife sometimes gets treated differently than you have to go in and let them know that you're.

Yeah,

I do.

Almost everywhere we go, the most racist people.

I'm just going to tell you, I don't like people who think they got money and they got these women are the worst.

They are absolutely

Alan,

do you think you ever would have noticed this if you never would have married a black woman?

I started noticing it when I started, when I walked away from my legal stuff, I started teaching, when I started to teach in the inner city.

I realized at that point that there was something going on, it was a disconnect.

And from the way the kids are and the way they're portrayed, you know, it really bothered me a lot.

And that's when I started to, well, prison is when I got out of that out of nonsense.

But I started telling my parents, hey, look, this is what I'm going to do.

And I'm going to dedicate myself to working where they need me, not where I'm comfortable, not where I fit in, but where I could be.

Now, the pillar here and I is, when we first met, she didn't know nothing about my background, really.

You know, I never met my parents or...

in our home and all this.

I'm assuming your parents weren't very accepting.

Maybe your mother more so than your father.

Oh, yeah, my dad was not accepting at all.

That's putting

him out of me.

Come on, man.

I didn't talk to the guy.

Anybody else, I would have smoked him.

But that's my dad.

What are you going to do?

But she was, she was like, oh, Ellen, I'll wait outside.

You wait outside.

You're my girlfriend.

Are you insane?

So

when your girlfriend wanted to visit your parents, how she offered to wait outside because of your father's attitude about black people?

Yeah, she wasn't on the boat my dad yet at the time.

She just didn't want it.

She was not comfortable being around white people, I don't think.

You know, she must have been a little

bit comfortable.

She married you a little

bit.

Little bit.

She can marry me right away.

I don't know how I did that.

I couldn't agree.

The greatest accomplishment of my life is having her love.

But Alan, I got to take a commercial break, but I just wanted to ask you those questions just to, you know.

No, no,

no.

I didn't work before.

Now, I mean, everywhere we go, there's people.

I mean, we got, I think people can jump and she can buy whatever she wants.

And, but that's not my problem.

I don't care about that.

Why are you following her to a store?

You know, I mean, if you've seen her, she don't look like a thief and I surely don't.

Not that that means you're not going to steal, but you know.

Anyway, God bless you man.

Have a good day.

I'm gonna listen while I cook my dog food here.

I gotta get out.

I'm over here by Capitol now.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you for all the additional details that he gives when he calls in.

So I received an email that was sent to staff of the garage from Leslie Montemuro and the reason why I reached out to her to offer her an interview opportunity.

It's because of the email.

I don't even think I'm supposed to have this email In fact, I know I'm not supposed to have it because it was more of an internal memo Well, apparently the garage is gonna close for a couple of weeks Because there have been threats levied against management ownership and the employees because of the list of hip-hop artists That they did not want DJs to play.

I want you to sit with that for a minute.

Okay

For those of you that are now wanting to play the victim because this isn't fair why are they picking on our culture and they're being mean to black people and they're being Unfair to DJs and this is our music and this is our culture and people go to the garage and they have a good time Because they the owner of the business which has a tremendous right to offer whatever it is they want they can offer a menu of drinks or not they can offer food

Different types of cuisine or not, they can request the people that they pay and they hired to DJ.

They can request that those DJs omit certain types of music.

They have the right to do that.

We're not complaining about what's on the menu.

Not complaining about the decor.

They have the right to change and alter anything that is in the plan of their business.

If you're a consumer and you like the changes.

Fair enough.

You continue to go and you continue to support.

But if you're a consumer and you don't like the changes, it could be the food.

It could be the drink offerings.

It could be the decor.

You simply will go somewhere else.

There's plenty of places to go in the city of Milwaukee.

In fact, we are overwhelmed with new places and restaurants and bars you name and something else is opening up.

But the fact that this proves the point.

Hip-hop music is wonderful and it's not violent They have to close the bar because they are being threatened Because the ownership opted not to play or didn't want certain music play why hold up why?

Because the music is violent and what are we doing?

Threatening the people that own that establishment and threatening the employees so it is a perfect self-fulfilling prophecy

And then you got some geniuses all over Instagram and all over social media saying, yeah, black people should boycott Brady Street.

You idiot.

That's the point.

They want us to.

They're used to reverse psychology on black people and we don't even see it.

We don't get into it today.

I hope Leslie ain't listening today.

She might not want to come, but I just want to let her know that I will be fair and I'll be objective.

I'll allow her to tell her side of the story.

And actually her point is being proven.

She didn't want certain hip-hop artists being played because of the violent lyrics and when she put this list out or Somebody approved the list somebody came up with these artists one by one.

Look what's happening.

She's being threatened with violence.

That's just She's she's right and y'all know it.

I wouldn't want y'all either The truth with Sherwin he was on one on one seven if him will be right back

The truth with Sherwin Hughes returns after this on 1017 the truth the truth app and 1017 the truth.com You are listening to the truth with Sherwin Hughes on 1017 the truth the truth app and 1017 the truth.com

Our phone number is 833-212-1017-833-212-1017.

I'm gonna read what appears to be an internal memo that was sent to the staff of the hi-hat.

Apparently they are being threatened and they are closing the establishment for two weeks while management figures out which direction they're going to go in.

Maybe they never reopen.

Maybe they do a rebranding.

But I think it is a colossal embarrassment for the people that had a legitimate case that said, you know what?

This is discriminatory.

This is not fair.

There is a place in which African Americans felt comfortable and we were supportive of that establishment and we were spending money and they are and they're singling us out because of the music that some of us may may like and may want to hear while we're out.

Spending money and supporting this establishment, but then when management decides that they want to go in another direction It's not like they banned hip-hop all together.

They just didn't want a particular list of artists being played in response to that People are now threatening the management and the employees of the bar

What basically we are saying is that not only is the hip hop music violent, if you don't play our violent music will get violent on you.

So that I'm perplexed by that.

Our music isn't violent, but if you don't play it, we'll kill you.

Oh, OK, let's talk to Tracy.

Tracy, you're on one on one seven, the truth.

How are you?

How you doing?^?

I'm good.

Yeah, I called you.^?

I saw I called your show one night, you know the one on YouTube and I hadn't called in here.^?

So this is my first time actually calling in to the actual radio show.^?

All right, thank you.

All right, but I got called in with a home of bro now you gotta do what you gotta do as a business owner and^?

The crowd that comes with that music is not good for business.^?

It is simple as that.^?

People, like I told the other guys, what if we clean up our act?^?

You know, start writing different lyrics,^?

you know,

start making different music,^?

or

even you want to make your own club hip hop, but what's going to happen?^?

It's going to get shut down.^?

So you, we need to change our behavior.^?

It ain't the music we change the behavior you can listen to whatever you want^?

to listen to you support Black people black people being less than true to themselves and changing who not all of us who some of us are to appease white people And you think that's a good idea So if you're a hip-hop artist and there's a white person somewhere that owns a really small venue and they don't like your music Should you as an artist change your music because your music is based on the life you've lived

and you know,

no, no,

okay

But you said they should change their lyrics.

I'm saying if you if you're trying to go to these places and you're trying to fit in somewhere, eventually you're going to have to start looking at what you produce yourself.^?

Because there's only so many venues now.^?

Fine, if that's what you want to do.^?

Then you're going to have to deal with owners.^?

If they don't want that type of music there, you can go somewhere else.^?

There's plenty of other places that will allow it.^?

But at what expense?^?

Fair enough.

Because just like you, do you think about it?^?

You just said they had to close for two weeks because they changed their music.^?

And now they're being threatened.^?

Hip hop.^?

I mean, come on now, what is that bringing?^?

That's violence on violence now.^?

We tried to clean it up by changing the music.^?

Now you guys are upset and threaten us.^?

That don't make sense.^?

That doesn't make sense.^?

It's like proving a point.^?

It's almost proving a point to me.^?

Like, yeah, that's why we stopped playing it.^?

And now look, just because we're not playing it, you are really coming at us now.^?

And it could be a domino effect.^?

So it's a slippery slope.^?

You got to be careful.^?

But if I was a club owner for stuff like that, I think I would have my age limit at 45 and up.^?

And I would play hip hop, but it wouldn't, you could select different hip hop, you know, the stuff we grew up on, you know, it was pretty good to listen to with the kids, you know, back in my, Eric D and rock him days and cool O.D and Houdini and L.L.^?

Coochie.^?

plenty^?

of

hip-hop out here.^?

It is pretty good.^?

That^?

can

compete with the stuff^?

out here today.

No one is leaving their house and paying money to buy drinks to hear that music.

But I get it.

I understand.

Right.

Exactly.

Because

we're

always nostalgic about the past.

Like, oh, back

in our day, we were

less.

That's like you could

have a

bar that plays 1950s and 60s, oldies music.

You wouldn't have to worry about problems there either.

But I get the point.

And I appreciate your call, Tracy.

Thank you.

Right.

Have a good one.

All right, then.

You too.

OK.

So to level said Brady Street has always been very sensitive about crime always so prior to us discovering it Culturally so the Brady Street neighborhood was a dump It was low income.

It was poor.

It was overrun with drugs.

It was a counter cultural neighborhood kind of just like

this wasteland, this dumping ground for the unaffiliated and disconnected.

It has always kind of occupied that space.

It's where all the hippies hung out.

Of course, they're doing all their drugs and then harder drugs came in.

A lot of folks may not know this, but they ended the Brady Street Festival.

This is before we were even going to.

We had not yet discovered Brady Street because we still had...

Cultural attractions in the African-American community.

We can give a damn about Brady Street But I don't know if you guys know this the Brady Street Festival closed for more than 20 years because of the violence that was taking place in and around Brady Street And there was no black people down there whatsoever They closed it they ended the Brady Street Festival because they used to take place maybe in the starting in the late 60s because it was always a Hotbed neighborhood for the counterculture.

I think they may have started the Brady Street Festival late 60s early 1970s.

It got so bad that they ended in 1980

that we can't have it anymore because there's too much chaos and violence and drug use, etc, etc.

They didn't start it back up again until 2004.

And that had nothing to do with us.

So you also have to put this into context here.

that neighborhood, which has undergone a tremendous overhaul, lots of investment.

Look at all the bars and all the different restaurants.

That stuff didn't used to be there.

Brady Street used to be an old Italian neighborhood.

Then when the Italians moved out and the hippies and the downtrodden whites, when they moved in, the neighborhood went to crap.

And the city of Milwaukee was like, no, we're going to invest a whole bunch of money.

We're going to put some city dollars in.

We're going to have a business improvement district and we're going to try and rid this neighborhood, which does have some value.

We're going to rid it of these negative elements and we're going to bring Brady Street back and they did but now it's going through that cycle again where they don't want undesirable people.

We just happen to be the undesirable people because if you look at what has taken place on Brady Street not just this summer but even previous summers they've seen this before and they don't want to have to cancel the Brady Street festival like they did for 24 years from 1980 to 2004.

They don't want to do that so if you have to

Alter your offerings and change your music so that the Brady Street does not become a relic of the past and that's exactly what they're going to do So I don't want people to just think it's just black people Brady Street has had issues going back 40 years So just an FYI now back to this internal memo Which does not

Bode well nor help plead the case that black people just are innocent and we just want a fun place to hang out you know what sometimes When you are at the whims of an establishment owned by white people Sometimes white people change their mind altogether.

They do that is the risk that you run when an establishment doesn't have a deep cultural understanding of some of their customers and you almost can't blame them for that

Sometimes white folks change their mind.

Just they'll wake up on a Wednesday.

Say, you know what?

We don't want to care to black people anymore.

They'll just sometimes you go to work the next day and everything's fine.

You're fired.

Sorry.

We don't want you here anymore.

They don't have to give you an excuse or an explanation, but here's the internal memo.

It says to all staff, we understand that due to recent events, you do not feel safe or comfortable coming back to work at this time.

We completely understand and we are on the path to contacting everyone today, meaning all the staff.

We will be closed for the next two weeks while making decisions about the business going forward.

You will be compensated for the next two weeks based on your average current rate for the last two pay periods.

We will be making a compensation

for tipped employees and they give some details of how they're going to do the tipping and how they're going to pay people.

And then it says at the very end, this is from Leslie and Scott Montemuro, who are the proprietors of the I add garage, which is the establishment in question where we found out there was 40 or so hip hop artists that they no longer wanted to play.

They are closing for two weeks because it seems that people are being threatened.

That's insane, y'all.

That's insane.

If they made it clear that they don't want some artists played,

Like chalk it up to the game.

Okay.

You don't threaten the people because now there might be somebody that had a level of sympathy for our community and our culture and our hip hop artists that say, you know what, maybe I'll start a hip hop club if the high hat is being unfair and not playing these hip hop artists.

Now there's somebody thinking, you know what, maybe I'll take the risk and I'll make the investment and I'll start a club where all hip hop is welcome.

But then when this memo gets made publicly, that if you were not, it's like holding them hostage.

They got to close for two weeks because people don't feel safe coming back to work and ask yourself this question.

The staff that work there, the bartenders and the servers and the host and the host, what the hell did they do to anybody?

Nothing.

At the same time, we don't want the world to think that we're savages and think that we're violent, but you got a place that has to shut down for two weeks because they got to figure out what the hell they're going to do and staff doesn't feel comfortable coming back to work.

Come on, we're proving their point.

It ends by saying, please take care of yourself.

We will be in touch soon.

Feel free to feel free to reach out to me directly.

And then they give a phone number and an email address.

But in the version of this internal memo that I have, the phone number and the email are scratched out.

You can almost make out a couple of the numbers because if I would have got the phone number out of Calder, I say, hey, Leslie, want to come tell your story?

The truth would sure when he was but I can only I can make out of four one or four and I can make out the last I see a seven I See a seven and I see two fours I could just start dialing the hope that I get her but I don't want to do all that I'm taking break come back thoughts of Brian on the other side This is so wild you know I mean like why are you threatening threatening the employees like come on Hip hop is too violent.

No, it's not

We're not gonna play hip hop because it's too violent.

We'll kill you if you don't play hip hop The truth with Sherwin Hughes will be right back

The truth with Sherwin Hughes returns after this on 1017 the truth the truth app and 1017 the truth comm This is the truth with Sherwin Hughes on 1017 the truth the truth app and 1017 the truth comm

Our phone number is 833-212-1017.

833-212-1017.

Well, congratulations guys, you did it.

The hi-hat is going to be closed for the next couple of weeks, but don't worry, the employees will still be compensated until they figure out which direction they are going to go in the event that they decide to reopen or not.

Perhaps they do a rebranding.

We've seen rebrandings happen before.

I know that Elsa's comes up with great frequency.

Elsa's was a place that

had, I think, openly and willingly catered to the changing cultural tides.

Because the thing about Carl Kopp, I know that people speculate a lot about him.

I actually know the guy, he's not some evil monster.

I think that he has been put in a very, very difficult situation.

Could you guys imagine, you know, you start this restaurant in the 1970s and it just caters to just middle class or upper middle class white people.

That's just what it was for like 35 years and then literally all of a sudden.

Black person discovered chicken wings there and broccoli the brock no don't split no seriously the broccoli is actually a real thing I Don't even know black people a broccoli like I personally love broccoli.

It's a Carciferous.

It's very delicious.

It's good for you.

It's very healthy broccoli is delicious So else it wasn't even a broccoli.

It was the sauce.

It was like this sweet tangy sauce that you get with the broccoli And then it changed there were nights that I went into Elsa's where it was all black people

And they could have done a rebrand when they saw that coming, but for 10 years, 15 years, black people were very much welcome in Elsa's.

And the service that we got, even though we as patrons sometimes...

Went a little bit too far.

You didn't need Steve the stoner coming in there with that Fisher price boombox Doing a damn rap concert and Elsa's you didn't you didn't need that but they didn't close They didn't rebrand.

They still kept chicken wings on the menu But a lot of times when you see Steve the stoner coming and doing a free concert your days are numbered.

Sorry Steve.

I can't listen to this show anyway Just saying you did one at the third street market.

I know he

did

He most certainly did but you were here.

We're they nipped that in the bud.

They're like, I don't know if we want all this here because the Thursday market hall is a very unique place because they They're trying very carefully to excise a particular element that may scare away who I believe they're real Customers and clientele.

I mean you got downtown business people or whatever.

That's some of the customer in the clientele, but it's Suburbanites that are coming into Milwaukee for a show for a convention at the Baird Center.

Oh speaking of which

We're going to be talking about the situation at the high hat because I think there's a lot to unpack here about black people in our culture and how our culture is perceived by us and then how it's perceived by other people.

We don't have a lot of self-awareness as black people.

We think because we love something and it's us and it's authentically us that everybody else is going to love it.

That's not true.

What happens is black people have an art and have a culture that we so desperately want to be accepted by white people And it's not but if there ever is a place or a space that does welcome or accept us temporarily We think that we've made it.

I'll give you an example.

We have a bunch of black clothing brands I don't know how many we have now, but I know back in the day we were proud ourselves on wearing fooboo and wearing fat farm white people never wore that stuff

They never adopted it as their own.

So when black people have something, white people, like they will do some cultural colonization in their own right.

Like there's been some white hip hop artists that have been successful, et cetera, et cetera.

They sometimes try to copy our fashion, but they don't take a black brand and make it theirs.

That doesn't happen, but we as black people will take a white brand and make it ours and think that that gets us closer to acceptance.

It's a really weird phenomenon.

And I think it's steeped in white supremacy.

that we find some kind of prestige in European brands and white businesses and white companies, and we make that a part of our urban culture, oftentimes to the chagrin of those European brands and companies.

Kristal was the best example.

Jay-Z decided he liked Kristal because it was expensive.

And here's the thing, it doesn't even taste good.

It's not even good champagne.

Really no champagne is good.

It just tastes like seltzer.

You know, I'm just not crazy about, I don't like champagne.

Anyway, let's talk to Brian.

Hi Brian.

How are you doing today?

Oh pretty good Brian

here's the thing because you're the second person who's brought that up Nobody wants to hear old-school hip-hop because if they did there'd be people and places playing it all the time.

Nobody wants to hear

Nobody's gonna go out and spend money to listen to old-school hip-hop because the people that are from that era Brian, we're not going on paying $30 a drink.

We're not paying a cover charge We're not standing in line in the wintertime.

We're not doing any of that So just I'm on

a level set people

rap that our what we had some time ago is not relevant right now We're always nostalgic about the past.

Oh if you play hip-hop from our day, nobody wants to hear it

I don't think playing new school hip hop music is viable for a wide establishment to be bringing in violent people to the restaurant because all they're going to do is start fights with that violent type of rap that they have out now so they can either do what or do this, bring in the violent rapper who's going to cause problems in the restaurant to start with or.

Let there be rap and

have no customers because Brian if they play if you thought they were playing old-school rap at the garage Would you rearrange your social calendar to go there and patronize?

Absolutely not and you know that you wouldn't but here's the thing about playing Modern hip-hop music you can rip up or explain something here's the difference with playing

that old school music because we would just listen to the damn music at home and get a bottle of wine and watch TV and listen to that music.

We want to we're not going out to listen to it.

We can listen to it in our damn cars.

Younger audiences that want to hear modern hip hop, you can rip them off.

Now, you got to invest a little bit money, money in security.

You got to have some cameras.

You got to have some few extra bouncers.

But you can charge us $30 for a snifter or a cognac.

You can charge us $15 or $20 as a cover charge.

You can make a tremendous amount of money on us.

That's the difference.

We as old heads, we're not paying that kind of money to listen to music that we grew up listening to.

But these younger people will.

And so it is financially viable until it isn't.

So you might have a shelf life of maybe, I don't know, 18 months or two years if you're playing modern hip hop, but you're going to make four million dollars.

That's the difference.

All right, Brian, thank you for your call.

Didn't really mean to burst his bubble.

We got to stop thinking.

Well, if they play old school, nobody wants to go out and hear that.

If I found out there was a place.

They played music from our era.

I'm like, oh, I'll check it out one night, one time just to see what it's about.

I wouldn't be a regular customer.

Because I don't need to necessarily go out and hear my music.

Because it's my music that I have been listening to since I had ears I'm not going to pay you to play what I can listen to on Spotify I'm not gonna pay you to listen to what I actually can play on my own damn radio show what I can listen to in my car now It's about hanging out and your other people are there and it's a whole social environment People in our age group.

We don't really socialize like that anymore though.

That's an error gone by

I just find it interesting that people in our age and older are if you if you play old-school music and I asked that person Yeah, would you go to an establishment that play?

Oh, no, no, no, I wouldn't go but but the kids would like it.

No, they wouldn't they hate our music It they laugh at it and when you compare Like modern hip-hop or even Milwaukee based hip-hop to what we used to listen to it sounds like it's not even in the same genre it's from a

different century.

It's like telling everybody in this modern era of 2026, it's like telling everybody to buy a car from the 70s.

But see, back in our day, the cars were made out of metal, see?

They didn't have all these fancy gadgets and all these computers and all this GPS.

Yeah, see, get a car dealership where there's no car newer than 1986.

That's the way the guy had intended it, you see?

Are you insane?

That's exactly what we sound like.

And we're also trying to figure out a solution for a bar and a restaurant that already has their solution figured out.

They don't want a certain element.

They made it clear.

So what are we trying to do?

Trying to accommodate them by saying, well, what if we played softer, gentler hip hop?

You know, the kind of hip hop where we used to break dance.

You guys remember break dance battles?

That was as violent as it got Hey, you over there.

I don't like you.

I don't like the color of the laces in your suede Puma's I challenge you to a dance off and that is legitimately how people settled their beefs.

We used to have breaking fights Not breaking like breaking things like break dancing.

What do you think about it?

It's the gayest thing I've ever heard my entire life.

I'm mad at you

I'm going to dance better than you.

We're going to determine the winner.

I won the dance off and then you sash away.

And that's silly.

And so we want young people nowadays that would much rather settle a beef either with fists or with guns to listen to music that we play where we settled our beefs with head spins.

Watch my back spin.

I can do more rotations on my back than you.

I just won the battle.

That's crazy.

Let's go back to the Reagan era.

Sherwin, what's wrong?

I'm very angry with DJ Granite Rock over there.

I don't like him.

Oh, you don't?

Let's challenge him to a dance off.

I'll get my crew.

Got a whole bunch of guys wearing.

Deedus sweatsuits behind me.

We got our arms folded.

Yeah, we're the best dancers on the block Somebody brings out a piece of cardboard because you know, you got to break dance on a piece of cardboard It's insane I would take a break come back.

Let's talk about some brands That we as black people have adopted but the brands never wanted us.

You know how you can tell if a brand wants your patronage Look at where they spend money to advertise

Do you think that the hi-hat garage and I'm very much in tune with what businesses, companies and corporations advertise in black media because that shows real support for us and our culture and it shows support for the dissemination of information into the black community?

Listen to the the businesses that choose intentionally to advertise in black media because that's them saying

We want you as customers.

We want to showcase to you what we have, what we offer, and we want you.

You can feel comfortable here.

You can feel welcome here because they're willing to invest in black media.

Do you think the garage has ever taken out an ad schedule here or anywhere else where there's black media?

Do you think they advertise on V 100?

You think they advertise on 98.3?

They absolutely do not.

Now, that doesn't mean that they don't appreciate African American business.

It's just they aren't intentional with it.

And whenever a white-owned business is not intentional in wanting to have black customers and reaching out to black people and our demographic, then they always can change their mind and say, you know what, enough of this.

We don't want this anymore.

We want to change directions or we will close all together.

Do I think that the garage will be closed permanently?

No.

But if they reopen, I bet you they'll have lemon drops on the menu no more.

Take a break, come back, continue our casual conversation here on The Truth.

with Sherwin Hughes exclusively on 101.7 FM.

Don't go anywhere.

I'll be right

back.

But we're not

going out to listen to Planet Rock I would I'm sure you would I mean if cuz it's retro

But eventually a DJ if you want to maintain a crowd and if you want spenders So people that are close to retirement like I am or we can see retirement I'm not spending $200 at the bar like that no more.

That's going into 401k Let's say I got extra 200 laying around back in the day.

I'm going to get in the bottle We kicking it tonight drinks on me.

That also was back when we had dollar night Which was a terrible idea because we would drink way too much like

There's a place called legends.

You guys remember legends.

It was directly across the street from the Bradley Center.

They had dollar night on Tuesdays You know how many of us had to go home because we couldn't eat we go to Tuesday dollar night at legend had to go home because Anything you could ask for called drinks for a dollar.

You get a glass of of cognac and it was $1.

That's stupid.

You spend $7 and you're damn near in the hospital So if I had money, you know extra $200 back then

Man, let's go get some drinks now if I have $200 I only have 50 because 150 is going into my S&P 500 ETF in my 401k So I think to myself, but what can I do with this $50?

I Probably going by a small cart full of groceries and have food for a little while instead of going out to eat all the time

But what I'm saying is the disposable income that I have would not be allocated to Oh, they're gonna play planet rock at at the hi-hat tonight.

Nope I'll let you guys go and then let you post about it on social media and I live vicariously through you So for those people that are thinking like oh well if they just change the music and change the hip-hop when you do that you change the clientele You change the clientele that does not spend money on that kind of entertainment anymore

If you want young people who are stupid with their money, there's some young people, they'll spend, I say young even though some of them are probably my age, I hope that they're not my age because you need to be somewhat financially stable, that are paying $1,500, $1,700 and $2,000 for a damn booth to just stay in there.

I look at that with just complete disbelief and no shade to the places that offer that kind of service, but 10 years from now you're going to look at all the money you don't have.

And so changing the music will change the clientele, but she'll change the clientele that does not appreciate that kind of entertainment.

I ain't gotta go to the damn garage.

I got garage at home.

Literally, I have a garage at home.

Speaking of which, I probably should clean my garage out.

So instead of going to the garage, you know what I would probably do?

I'd go and clean my garage out, and that would be my Saturday evening activity.

We should not have to, but let me also defend our people, our culture.

our community for a second you should not have to change your habits you should not have to change your music and DJs if that's what your set list is and your set list it might be legendary and you have those artists that are banned at the garage then you don't want to DJ there anymore because they are telling you that they don't appreciate your mastery of the craft of hip-hop music they don't appreciate your ability to bring a crowd

Now you have your own little market because DJ is I know in this city and there are many They have their own little niches if somebody here's at XYZ DJ is going to be playing at this location A crowd will actually follow them you guys have built your followings Take your following somewhere else even if we got to go back to what was really fun house parties

That's where it's coming back to everything else is going retro.

Why don't we do house parties and why you love house parties?

Especially when it was hot and it was sweaty and you would just be sweating on each other and I got to take off my shirt and now I got it I got a grind real slowly at the house party and it's very dimly lit all you had is one red light bulb That's all you needed and then his people in the corner humping.

Maybe they're dry humping.

Maybe they're wet humping.

I don't know what they're doing, but they're

in the corner and he got people that are dancing and he got people over here getting some drinks and they're having a good time and ain't nobody bothering you because you're in the basement of somebody's house bring the house party back bring the DJ and you charge seven dollars and you give them a red solo cup and you have you got some the people still make WAP

Xavier, you know what WAP is?

Wapitui, where you make a put a whole bunch of stuff in a bathtub or in a big bin and you put it in the gin and the vodka and you put it in the fruit punch and the Kool-Aid and all of the fruit y'all drink the WAPs.

Party juice?

Yes.

Oh, you call it party juice?

Yes.

Okay, we call it something different.

Okay.

That's fair enough.

That's more like a freshman in college type of thing though.

Is it?

Yes.

I had a lot of fun.

Sometimes they just make it in the bathtub.

You just get your red solo cup and you dip it in it.

Probably not the best idea, but you guys get where I'm coming from.

Maybe we just need to go back to that.

Having house parties where DJs can be DJs.

You are listening to the truth with Sherwin Hughes exclusively on 1017 FM.

Don't go anywhere.

I'll be back for hour two.

The truth with Sherwin Hughes returns after this on 1017 the truth, the truth app and 1017 the truth.com.

He steps to the mic with a boom ping ping wisdom sharper than the beast fear sting

Words like fireflies that light the night.

He turns the dark into blazing bright.

Boom, ping, ping.

The truth takes wing.

Milwaukee's voice let the city sing.

is Wednesday, August 26, 2026.

I have reached out to Leslie Montemuro.

She is one of the owners of the establishment that has been in question and on the minds of many over the past week or so, one of the proprietors of the High Hat Garage, which occupies the space on the northwest corner.

Arlington and Brady Street at 1709 West Arlington, I would like for her To have an opportunity to tell her side of the story and the reason why I reached out to her and not her partner Scott is because in the correspondences that I have seen both to and from

Anyone associated with ownership and management of the hi-hat it has been Leslie's name and so I reached out to her I am not sure if I will hear back, but I wanted you all to know That I did reach out to her to get her perspective.

I have my Sentiments on the matter and how I feel about it and the The list that was provided

I don't believe that any of that is malicious, but I can't understand and empathize how people could see that as being malicious because it's a very sensitive subject when it comes to African Americans and culture and nightlife and entertainment.

We oftentimes have to tip toe.

We are not often welcome.

We try to have our own establishments and we face plenty of those.

institutional and structural barriers because the easy answer is well just open up your own place open up your own bar your own restaurant your own hip hop nightclub ladies and gentlemen I assure you it is not that easy and of the maybe one or two percent of people that do have the credit and do have the capital and the business sense and the business savvy and the consultants and the attorneys

and everything that you would need a very small percentage of people that even have the ability to make that kind of investment.

And when I say make that kind of investment in an endeavor like this, you got to be willing to lose money for two years or more.

And people that have that kind of business sense and business savvy and have the ability to lose money for multiple years will likely take.

their investment and their ability to lose money and put it in a different business endeavor altogether.

Because the ultimate plan for such businesses is exceptionally difficult for them to stay around long enough to remain profitable.

And also catering to a culture that moves so very quickly.

African American culture moves so very quickly.

Things that were in vogue and in style and in fashion.

Six months ago are dead now and it's very, very tough to keep your hand in your finger and your pulse on such a moving cultural target.

There's a part of this conversation that is missing, but also I want to use it as interpreting the moment that we are in because we should feel it all around.

We should feel racial bias in our politics.

We should feel racial bias in policies.

We should feel the racial bias, not just coming from the Trump administration, but now it has fully filtered down.

I want us to feel these walls, not necessarily closing in on us, but the walls are very much defined.

The words of the New Berlin mayor, the New Berlin Common Council met yesterday to condemn the words of the mayor, and a lot of people showed up to the...

Common council meeting in New Berlin.

I'd imagine they probably don't get too many people or too many packed houses in New Berlin Common Council meetings unless there's something on the agenda talking about approving affordable housing, then I bet they get a packed house But we should feel it all around black people believe that as time goes on and we get further

further away from those old black and white civil rights days and the Edmund Pettus bridges and the Martin Luther Kings see that stuff was in black and white it was a long time ago that does not reflect our current reality but for some reason we hold that as gospel that all that stuff was a long time ago no it's not

It's right here right now and it's reinventing itself and sometimes it can be as minuscule as we don't want these artists played It can be as minuscule as we're gonna close this grocery store We're gonna close this Walgreens ladies and gentlemen We should feel it all around and be aware of it and figure out how we are going to Climb over the walls or tear them down altogether instead of just getting so angry and upset.

Here's what is perplexing to me

There's a whole generation of black people that have not told a younger generation what it is actually like.

This is a part of it.

They don't want you.

Oh, wait till I give you the list of brands that we as black people have.

I'm going to call it cultural colonization.

That's what we should have titled this damn show.

Actually, that's probably better than feel it all around, but we'll leave it Xavier.

We'll leave.

There are certain brands that black people just we grab them.

We adopt them.

We put it in our music.

We put it in our culture.

It's fashion.

And the white brands, the white owners of these brands, they never wanted us.

They never wanted an urban audience and never wanted a black customer ever.

But sometimes we just grab stuff.

We just grabbed Patron and started putting it in music.

We just grabbed Cognac and started putting it in music.

We just started wearing Timberlin boots.

That's probably the best example.

The curators of Timberland booths were like

Why are you blacks wearing our boots?

We didn't advertise in Jet and Ebony magazine.

How did you even find us?

And the worst stereotype is and I'm gonna give you the details of this because sometimes we gravitate toward a brand and the brand never wanted us.

In fact, they wanted to stay as far away from us as possible because we as black people can tarnish the brand.

I know that that's hard for us to conceptualize because we think that it's like it's status if black people gravitate towards your brand.

You know who we really messed up real bad?

Crystal Champagne.

You know, the French people are very serious about the Champagne.

We do not understand why Zeeblex takes the Crystal.

It is a very delicious formal Champagne and they put it all over the BBWs and all over the booties in the raviagios.

We are no longer a prestigious brand.

We're gonna talk all about it, but I want you guys to notice that these are not isolated incidents.

These are...

These are representations of how they're how some people feel about black people in black culture and it's in our politics, too So we have to stop ignoring it and understand that it's reality.

Let's talk to an early calling Alan.

What could this possibly be about?

I haven't even really started the show yet.

I Just happen

to come out.

I was going to get my dairy cone and I got to go do some shopping I'm just catching up to you.

Um, another brand that they're doing after rose rice is one Mercedes is one, um

What else did I do?

Tell me about Frank's perfumes.

They lowered the standards of that stuff, so I had to call one of them over to Frank.

I had to talk to one of them frogs.

I had to talk to my wife when she asked for a box.

Just going to the jewelry store and having them repair something, and then they hand it back to you in a plastic bag rather than putting it in a solid box.

And then when I called where we usually go, they said, of course.

No, Mr. Becker, we'll always give you a box.

Society is just nasty.

The more you deal with this type of stuff, the more you realize that we're all in the same boat, man.

Most people who don't want the music, if it's like anything else, they just got to stay with it.

Everybody's not bad.

Everybody's not good.

That's all I want to tell you.

I'm driving over here to all these other being in France, you know, capital all these nowadays is like that note.

And the Walmart over here is wild.

You never know what you're going to run into.

Maybe I'll give you a report tomorrow.

What goes down?

Alan, before you go, is your relationship and your marriage to an African American woman one of the reasons why you are now able to see

the racial and cultural bias because prior to you being involved with her, I'd imagine you didn't have this kind of up close and personal view because you've noticed and you're marked on this program how your wife sometimes gets treated differently than you have to go in and let them know that

you're.

Yeah, I do.

Almost everywhere we go, the most racist people.

I'm just going to tell you, I don't like people who think they got money and they got these women are the worst.

They are absolutely

Alan, do you think you ever would

have noticed this if you never would have married a black woman?

I started noticing it when I started, when I walked away from my legal stuff, I started teaching, when I started to teach in the inner city.

I realized at that point that there was something going on, it was a disconnect.

And from the way the kids are and the way they're portrayed, you know, it really bothered me a lot.

And that's when I started to, well, prison is when I got out of that out of nonsense.

But I started telling my parents, hey, look, this is what I'm going to do.

And I'm going to dedicate myself to working where they need me, not where I'm comfortable, not where I fit in, but where I could be.

Now, the pillar here and I is, when we first met, she didn't know nothing about my background, really.

You know, I never met my parents or...

in our home and all this.

I'm assuming your parents

weren't very accepting.

Maybe your mother more so than your father.

Oh, yeah, my dad

was not

accepting

at all.

That's putting him out of me.

Come on, man.

I didn't talk to the guy.

Anybody else, I would have smoked him.

But that's my dad, you know?

What are you going to do?

But she would, she would go, Alan, I'll wait outside where you go.

You wait outside.

You're my girlfriend.

Are you insane?

So when your girlfriend wanted

to visit your parents, how she offered to wait outside because of your father's attitude about black people?

Yeah, she wasn't on the boat my dad yet at the time.

She just didn't want it.

She was not comfortable being around white people, I don't think.

You know, she must have been a little bit comfortable.

She married you a little bit.

Little bit.

She can marry me right away.

I don't know how I did that.

I couldn't agree.

The greatest accomplishment of my life is having her love.

But

Alan, I got to take a commercial break, but I just wanted to ask

you those

questions just to, you know.

No, no, no.

I didn't work before.

Now, I mean, everywhere we go, there's people.

I mean, we got, I think people can jump and she can buy whatever she wants.

And, but that's not my problem.

I don't care about that.

Why are you following her to a store?

You know, I mean, if you've seen her, she don't look like a thief and I surely don't.

Not that that means you're not going to steal, but you know.

Anyway, God bless you man.

Have a good day.

I'm gonna listen while I cook my dog food here.

I gotta get out.

I'm over here by Capitol now.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you for all the additional details that he gives when he calls in.

So I received an email that was sent to staff of the garage from Leslie Montemuro and the reason why I reached out to her to offer her an interview opportunity.

It's because of the email.

I don't even think I'm supposed to have this email In fact, I know I'm not supposed to have it because it was more of an internal memo Well, apparently the garage is gonna close for a couple of weeks Because there have been threats levied against management ownership and the employees because of the list of hip-hop artists That they did not want DJs to play.

I want you to sit with that for a minute.

Okay

For those of you that are now wanting to play the victim because this isn't fair why are they picking on our culture and they're being mean to black people and they're being Unfair to DJs and this is our music and this is our culture and people go to the garage and they have a good time Because they the owner of the business which has a tremendous right to offer whatever it is they want they can offer a menu of drinks or not they can offer food

Different types of cuisine or not, they can request the people that they pay and they hired to DJ.

They can request that those DJs omit certain types of music.

They have the right to do that.

We're not complaining about what's on the menu.

Not complaining about the decor.

They have the right to change and alter anything that is in the plan of their business.

If you're a consumer and you like the changes.

Fair enough.

You continue to go and you continue to support.

But if you're a consumer and you don't like the changes, it could be the food.

It could be the drink offerings.

It could be the decor.

You simply will go somewhere else.

There's plenty of places to go in the city of Milwaukee.

In fact, we are overwhelmed with new places and restaurants and bars you name and something else is opening up.

But the fact that this proves the point.

Hip-hop music is

wonderful and it's not

violent They have to close the bar because they are being threatened Because the ownership opted not to play or didn't want certain music play why hold up why?

Because the music is violent and what are we doing?

Threatening the people that own that establishment and threatening the employees so it is a perfect self-fulfilling prophecy

And then you got some geniuses all over Instagram and all over social media saying, yeah, black people should boycott Brady Street.

You idiot.

That's the point.

They want us to.

They're used to reverse psychology on black people and we don't even see it.

We don't get into it today.

I hope Leslie ain't listening today.

She might not want to come, but I just want to let her know that I will be fair and I'll be objective.

I'll allow her to tell her side of the story.

And actually her point is being proven.

She didn't want certain hip-hop artists being played because of the violent lyrics and when she put this list out or Somebody approved the list somebody came up with these artists one by one.

Look what's happening.

She's being threatened with violence.

That's just She's she's right and y'all know it.

I wouldn't want y'all either The truth with Sherwin he was on one on one seven if him will be right back

The truth with Sherwin Hughes returns after this on 1017 the truth the truth app and 1017 the truth doc

Welcome to our two of the truth with Sherwin Hughes Adidas didn't ask for this song by the way, they didn't but what happened the shell toes became a Cultural icon you can even still rock a pair of shell toes right now in the year 2026 Shell toe Adidas suede Pumas with fat laces on all of the things those brands never asked for our participation now some brands were

much more accommodating and very happy that they found organically a new market because you know black people are trendsetters but what I don't like when we set our trends is that we'll take a benign white brand or a European brand and then we'll buy it put it in our music and now all of a sudden it's top fashion I don't like when we do that because we also expect to get some kind of compensation for that like oh nobody was drinking this before we put it in our music you owe us royalties and the company's like screw you blackie

You're the one that got drunk off a crystal and decided you want to put it in your music ain't got nothing to do with us But Adidas is a damn German Athletic wear brand in fact, we're saying it wrong the Germans say Adidas That's how they said it's German Most folks probably didn't even know that some of y'all probably thought run DMC invented Adidas.

They did not let's talk to D. Hello D. You're on one on one seven the truth.

How are you?

I'm

doing good

I've been driving Uber on the weekends for the last two summers.

So I'm downtown from 8 to 3 a.m.

every weekend.

Unless people frequent down there on Brady Street, they really shouldn't have an opinion about what they're trying to do down there to keep their businesses operating.

Because it's a mess, let me tell you.

What do you mean when you say it's a mess describe the mess for our listening audience?

What kind of mess do you see D?

Well A lot of the people they're not even going in bars or hanging out on the street So maybe this bar is seeing that that they just have people hanging out in front of the bar A lot of people are underage Which seems to be a big problem.

They should be giving out wristbands or something to keep underage kids from hanging out down there

There's people fighting.

There's shootings on the regular.

I mean, it's not just there.

Like it stays fair.

It just happened.

I drove by there Sunday night without even hearing that something happened.

I could already tell that something happened just by the people standing in the street.

So like there's a serious problem in this city.

And I think a lot of people are not seeing what's going on.

But you know, I will say that

This summer looks a little better than last summer when everyone was down on Water Street Like that was just that was chaos down there when they had to bring out the horses almost every weekend

And

you're saying they're not doing that

anymore on Water Street.

They're not bringing out the horses anymore

No, because most of the people went to Brady now and it's a it's a much smaller crowd now like there was it was almost all underage

kids down there on the water street last year.

Okay.

Maybe they took away the

trucks.

Yeah.

I mean, I'll be right in the middle of it.

It was it didn't make any sense.

All

right.

So let me say one more thing.

Okay.

Um, yeah, we they have to do something to clean up.

What's going on down there because I heard that there's bars tumble not renewing their licenses you understand so Unless people are down there and they see what's going on like who is complaining about this are these actually people who are going out or it's just somebody trying to Be an activist they think that this isn't racism this people trying to save their establishments You make a good try to say

it

Ladies and gentlemen, does that deserve more of a critical analysis?

If you don't want a certain element and you know exactly what I'm talking about when I talk about that element, you have it pictured in your mind.

And if you don't want that particular element, like a subculture, like a subgenre.

African-Americans you know who I'm talking about the ones that They don't care about somebody else's property.

They don't care about their behavior They will fight anywhere.

They'll fight in front of the police They just they don't care okay now that is not All African-Americans we know that in fact everybody knows that's not all of us, but that element does exist

If you don't want that element and you make some changes because you can do like a cultural analysis of what that element Gravitates toward maybe it's certain types of food Maybe it's a particular kind of music.

I'll let you do your own analysis, but you can figure out What attracts this element That quite honestly is dangerous and it drives away paying customers because a lot of you all

are not going to go to a play.

Some of y'all won't even go to a particular part of town because that element exists or that element may show up at any point in time.

Think about the businesses that are located in said part of town that are absolutely losing revenue because of this element.

I want you to really focus on what this element is and you don't want them around either.

You don't want to hang out with them.

You don't want to see them coming because they're problematic.

If you don't want that element, are you racist?

I need you to answer that question.

If there is an element that brings danger, treachery, and wanton destruction of property, they don't act appropriately when they're in public.

They have a propensity towards being angry

and

violent.

Now, this is not everybody, but you know who I'm talking about.

You don't even have to limit it to a race.

You might have a bar somewhere in some other part of Wisconsin that all of a sudden it gets adopted by a motorcycle gang or some Some bikers or something in the bar is like you know, we're just a little small town bar We cater to the families around here.

We have a nice little fish fry out here on Friday nights But for some reason this motorcycle gang Adopted our bar, you know, we're located right off the side of a highway and I guess some motorcycle people I'm just giving you another example that bar might say well, we're gonna take Waylon Jennings out of the jukebox

Or we're not going to serve Budweiser beer here anymore because that is what this element of people, these motorcycle gangs, that is what they drink.

Would that be considered racist?

Or would that be a business owner saying we have to make a different decision about what we are offering because what we were offering was bringing the wrong kind of element?

We have to start looking at things through a different lens.

If there is a particular element that we know is problematic and troublesome, and we talk about that element all the time because we're trying to figure out what the hell to do with them.

Where should they go?

Is their education lacking?

Do we offer them job training?

Do we tell them to get into the trades?

We don't know what to do with them.

Businesses don't know what to do with them either besides excise them.

So we know exactly.

What this is about, but we have to stop calling it racism when a destructive element takes over a space because that's what they do.

They colonize a space and they make other people feel unsafe.

Now again, this is not all people.

This is a small subset of people, but we all know this.

It only takes one.

You can have a wonderful festival where everybody gets together and has a good time and is diverse and people are getting along.

And they're meeting each other because we need places and spaces like that in Milwaukee because for too long, we've all lived in our separate spheres.

And when you live in your separate sphere, then generalizations and stereotypes become the rule of the day.

But when we have places where everybody can feel comfortable hanging out and maybe the music is very diverse and the people are diverse, you've got Muslims.

You know, you've done a good job when the Muslims come out.

You've got you've got Asians God bless the Asians they come on out to and you have this incredible space where it's very diverse and then one idiot brings a gun and shoots their gun Maybe they don't hurt anybody.

Maybe they kill somebody and that's it.

It's over That one person is who you have to watch out for so if you're a business owner you got to be concerned about a couple of things obviously the market What is the economy doing?

Do people even have money for your product?

You got to be concerned about that

You also have to be concerned about risk Certain people bring a risk to your business to your license and if you have to do things to mitigate that risk Because you know that if this element takes over then you very well may lose your business and lose your investment I have known people that have

put themselves in permanent financial holds because they took a risk they were an entrepreneur they borrowed a bunch of money because they knew they just knew that this was going to be a successful concept bar restaurant nightclub concept they will never get out of debt because one person found somebody in their bar they had a beef with them and they shot them that's it liquor license not renewed

They're still on the hook.

That's what we don't understand if you own a bar or a restaurant You're living on borrowed money for a very very long time and the only way in which you can do two things pay that money back and then after all the money that you borrowed To redo the kitchen to redo the interior to put in new bathrooms.

You got to get it up to Fire code you got to make sure it's wheelchair accessible all that stuff costs money you might have borrowed 200 300 400 thousand dollars so you can have this real beautiful spot

that you can call your own and you open it up and then some idiot shoots somebody or you have a whole bunch of fights and now you lose your liquor license meaning your ability to repay your debt is gone and you will never be profitable because you lost your only road map to profitability and that was your license wouldn't you want to also make sure that element doesn't harm your investment now your wife is leaving you oh yeah fellas you think that she won't leave

You think she won't go broke lose your job.

She's the first one that's leaving first your liquor lice and then your woman and so if you can prevent that element From ending your damn marriage You can't call it racist There are several well documented cases of where a racial or ethnic minority often through music street fashion or youth culture

effectively commandeered the cultural meaning of a brand without the company's permission sometimes to the discomfort of its executives and we got to be mindful of this sometimes we as black people will find a place will find a space and we like it it's new it's innovative and it's you know something totally different and we adopt it

And let's say it never catered to black people ever before, but we find it and we just adopt this location.

Maybe it's a restaurant, maybe it's a nightclub, whatever it is.

But the owners never wanted us in there in the first place and they tolerate us for a very long time.

Then we bring our most sinister element and we know that when that element shows up, then that business is now in jeopardy.

How many of you are willing to sacrifice your life and your livelihood to cater to this sinister element, knowing that they don't care.

Not a damn thing about your business.

They don't care.