Latest / The Breakfast Club / One Fist In The Air ( Donkey of the Day, Cheryl McKissack and Don Peebles Interview, and Positive Note)

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One Fist In The Air ( Donkey of the Day, Cheryl McKissack and Don Peebles Interview, and Positive Note) · The Breakfast Club

0:01
Speaker 1: This is a miracle. There is no question that there
0:06
Speaker 1: are problems in this country between police and community. Yes,
0:11
Speaker 1: you are a donkey to the latest on that police
0:15
Speaker 1: killing of a black man not a new development in
0:17
Speaker 1: the deathly Spas shooting rampage. Yes, it was a really
0:19
Speaker 1: bad day for him and this is what he did,
0:21
Speaker 1: and so we are in a state of emergency. Okay.
0:25
Speaker 1: White suprematist violence is always has been the number one
0:28
Speaker 1: threat to otracide. But I'm also very proud that my
0:31
Speaker 1: wife was white because the practice club bitches. All right,
0:36
Speaker 1: please tell me why was I your donkey of the day. Wow.
0:40
Speaker 1: Donkey of the Dave goes to the fourteen Republican lawmakers
0:42
Speaker 1: who voted against making June team for national holiday. Where
0:46
Speaker 1: do I even begin with this? First of all, let
0:48
Speaker 1: me give you their names. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mole
0:51
Speaker 1: Brooks of Alabama, Andrew Clyde to Georgia's Scott Dessarles of Tennessee,
0:55
Speaker 1: Paul Goser of Arizona, Ronnie Jackson of Texas, Dougla Maot
0:59
Speaker 1: full of californ On your Thomas Massey of Kentucky, Tom Mclickintock, No,
1:03
Speaker 1: Tom McLintock of California, Ralph Norman in South Carolina, Mike
1:08
Speaker 1: Rodgers at Alabama, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Chip Roy of Texas,
1:12
Speaker 1: and a man with two first names, Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin.
1:16
Speaker 1: That's a great name if you're a gender fluid Tom Tiffany.
1:19
Speaker 1: I can taste all of manna's in my mouth right now,
1:21
Speaker 1: so much sodium. But all those individuals voted against making
1:27
Speaker 1: June teenth a US federal holiday commemorating the end of
1:31
Speaker 1: slavery in the United States. Now they don't matter because
1:35
Speaker 1: the House overwhelmingly passed the bill and it has been
1:37
Speaker 1: signed into law by President Joe Biden. Let's go to
1:39
Speaker 1: ABC seven and wife of the report, please President Biden
1:42
Speaker 1: making it official. For the first time since nineteen eighty three,
1:46
Speaker 1: there's a new federal holiday on the calendar. June teenth
1:50
Speaker 1: has been known by many names, Jubilee Day, Freedom Day,
1:54
Speaker 1: Liberation Day, Emancipation Day, and today a national holiday. June
2:00
Speaker 1: team marks the date that the last enslaved African Americans
2:03
Speaker 1: were granted their freedom. This is a day profound and
2:07
Speaker 1: might be profound weight and profound power, day in which
2:10
Speaker 1: you remember the moral stained a terrible toll as slavery
2:16
Speaker 1: took on the country and continues to check. Now, why
2:19
Speaker 1: am I giving these fourteen Republicans who voted against making
2:22
Speaker 1: June teenth or national holiday, donkey of the day. It's
2:25
Speaker 1: because I think it's very important to highlight these individuals
2:28
Speaker 1: because it shows you that white supremacy racism never take
2:31
Speaker 1: a day off. They are always actively fighting against us. Okay,
2:35
Speaker 1: they are so against any type of black progress that
2:37
Speaker 1: they wouldn't even vote to give themselves an extra day off.
2:40
Speaker 1: You know how racist you have to be to not
2:42
Speaker 1: want an extra day off. You shouldn't let your prejudices
2:45
Speaker 1: and biases stop you from practicing self care. We all
2:47
Speaker 1: know vacation days are a form of self care. So
2:49
Speaker 1: why would you stop yourself from getting an extra vacation day,
2:53
Speaker 1: from getting the time off you deserve. I'll tell you why.
2:55
Speaker 1: Because these people are committed to make sure to making
2:58
Speaker 1: sure your black hats don't get nothing. Okay, I tell
3:00
Speaker 1: folks don't practice bad habits, and that's what these fourteen
3:03
Speaker 1: Republican lawmakers did. They're not practicing bad habits. They used
3:06
Speaker 1: to voting against black people in black issues. They're not
3:08
Speaker 1: gonna start voting for US. Now, okay, I bet you
3:11
Speaker 1: would vote to make National Maynnaid's Day a federal holiday. Though, Okay,
3:15
Speaker 1: you human jaws of Hellman's are tired of sharing National
3:17
Speaker 1: Manonaid's Day with Singo to Mayo, aren't you. Oh that's
3:20
Speaker 1: a snapple fact. You didn't know National Maynonaid's Day is
3:23
Speaker 1: on the fifth of May. So when you see certain
3:25
Speaker 1: white people out celebrating on Sinko to Mayo and they
3:28
Speaker 1: got Mayonnaids on their tacos, now you know why. Okay,
3:31
Speaker 1: I bet you would vote to make National Maynad's Day
3:33
Speaker 1: of federal holiday as long as they're moving from May fifth,
3:35
Speaker 1: because you don't want the Mexicans to have any joy either.
3:38
Speaker 1: But let's focus why did the fourteen Republican lawmakers vote
3:41
Speaker 1: against Juneteenth. I mean, we can all assume the real reasons, right, racism, bigotry, prejudice,
3:46
Speaker 1: the usual, but let's humor them and listen to some
3:49
Speaker 1: of their reasoning. This is Andy Biggs of Arizona explaining
3:52
Speaker 1: why he voted against it. The Democrats labeled a juneteenth
3:58
Speaker 1: National Independence Day, and what it is really is the
4:03
Speaker 1: Emancipation Day. They could have made this a really harmonious
4:08
Speaker 1: celebratory bill, because I think everybody would have passed this
4:12
Speaker 1: thing out unanimously if they would have taken this through committee,
4:15
Speaker 1: and they would have changed the name to June tenth
4:18
Speaker 1: National Emancipation Day. But they've weaponized this bill like like
4:22
Speaker 1: they weaponize everything else they want to divide. And that's
4:26
Speaker 1: just a shame, because I support the celebration of June
4:30
Speaker 1: tenth the name. You agree with what the bill is
4:33
Speaker 1: about the emancipation of the slaves, but since you disagree
4:36
Speaker 1: with the name, you're voting against it. I will never
4:38
Speaker 1: understand how people who don't have lips can give so
4:41
Speaker 1: much lip service. I mean, Andy sat there and said,
4:43
Speaker 1: you agree with you, you know, emancipation of the slaves.
4:46
Speaker 1: You agree this moment should be commemorated, but you don't
4:48
Speaker 1: agree with the name. If you don't like black people,
4:50
Speaker 1: just say it. Bro Chip Royer, Texas released a statement.
4:53
Speaker 1: I have a transcript of it, and he said, this
4:55
Speaker 1: name needlessly divided our nation on a matter that shoot
4:58
Speaker 1: instead bring U gathered by creating a separate Independence Day
5:02
Speaker 1: based on the color of one skin. Chip Listen to me,
5:05
Speaker 1: America is a melting pot. It is so many ethnicities
5:08
Speaker 1: in this country that all make this country what it is.
5:10
Speaker 1: So the data enslaves were emancipated should be a great
5:13
Speaker 1: day for all Americans. Okay, the emancipace and the slave
5:15
Speaker 1: should be celebrated simply because this country promises freedom, liberty,
5:18
Speaker 1: and justice for all. You can't have that if you
5:21
Speaker 1: have a group of Americans and I put Americans in
5:23
Speaker 1: air quotes in bondage. Okay, not to mention, this country
5:26
Speaker 1: has plenty of cultural holidays and heritage celebrations. If June
5:29
Speaker 1: Team is considered an ethnic holiday, so what. Okay, let
5:33
Speaker 1: us the sentence of the enslaves celebrate and y'all just
5:35
Speaker 1: enjoy the day off. If you want to be mad
5:38
Speaker 1: on your day off and post why June Team shouldn't
5:40
Speaker 1: be a national holiday, fine, but at least enjoyed the
5:43
Speaker 1: day off. Hell, we do it all the time. White
5:45
Speaker 1: man's holidays happen. We get the day off, we get
5:48
Speaker 1: on social media and remind y'all you know, in the
5:51
Speaker 1: words of Frederick Douglas, what to the slave is the
5:54
Speaker 1: fourth of July. Hey, we're not enslaved anymore unless you're
5:56
Speaker 1: in prison. But I think we all know what that
5:58
Speaker 1: what Frederick Douglass said then still stands true now because
6:02
Speaker 1: it's hypocritical for a nation to celebrate its independence, it's freedom,
6:05
Speaker 1: yet doesn't bestow all those same freedoms to everybody. Okay,
6:10
Speaker 1: we know this, all right, We know Fourth of July
6:12
Speaker 1: not about us, but we still take the day off
6:14
Speaker 1: and go to a great cookout. Okay, the real story
6:17
Speaker 1: behind Thanksgiving as dark as hell. America loves Thanksgiving parades, food,
6:22
Speaker 1: but that's through the lenus of a colonizer asking Native
6:24
Speaker 1: American their perspective. It's origins were a murder, okay, a
6:28
Speaker 1: massacre that killed hundreds of Native Americans, and to them
6:30
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving as just a reminder of said murder in the
6:33
Speaker 1: systemic racism and oppression that Native Americans still go through
6:36
Speaker 1: in this country. But guess what, they still take the
6:39
Speaker 1: day off. Okay, if we have learned to live with
6:41
Speaker 1: the holidays we don't like in this country, so can y'all. Okay,
6:46
Speaker 1: I know the problem though, I know the problem. See
6:49
Speaker 1: the reason these fourteen Republicans don't want the day off,
6:52
Speaker 1: because what do we do on these days off? On
6:55
Speaker 1: these holidays? We eat? If these fourteen Republicans who voted
7:00
Speaker 1: against June. Team family knew how to properly season their food,
7:04
Speaker 1: they would want this day off. If your family put
7:07
Speaker 1: raisins in their potato salad, you two would try to
7:10
Speaker 1: limit the number of cookouts you have to attend in
7:13
Speaker 1: a year. Please let Kathy Griffin give the fourteen Republican
7:16
Speaker 1: lawmakers who voted against Juneteenth the biggest Hea Hall. Please
7:20
Speaker 1: give this giant jaral male little biggest Hea Hall. All right,
7:27
Speaker 1: if my family didn't wash my washout chicken, I wouldn't
7:29
Speaker 1: want the day off either to go to a cookout.
7:32
Speaker 1: The Breakfast Club our one O five one, the Breakfast Club.
7:40
Speaker 1: Your morning's will never be the same morning. Everybody is
7:44
Speaker 1: DJ Envy Angela Yee, Charlomagne the guy. We are the
7:48
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club. We got some special guest joining us today. Yes,
7:50
Speaker 1: indeed we have Cheryl mckizac Daniel and Don Peebles. Welcome, Hello,
7:55
Speaker 1: nice to be welcome back. Yes, you know Cheryl the
7:58
Speaker 1: president CEO m seeking Yes, and Don is the founder,
8:02
Speaker 1: chairman and CEO of the Peoples Corporation. Let me tell
8:05
Speaker 1: y'all something. It's been a lot of rappers in this room,
8:09
Speaker 1: a lot of athletes, in this room. Okay, smipe, be
8:11
Speaker 1: the most money been in this room at one time.
8:13
Speaker 1: That's all I'm gonna say. It's a fact, just a fact.
8:17
Speaker 1: Might be the most money that's been in this room
8:18
Speaker 1: at one time. I just want to say that, how
8:20
Speaker 1: are you all today? Well, we are great, okay, glad
8:23
Speaker 1: to be here, Glad that you are having us in
8:26
Speaker 1: to talk about Affirmation Tower. That's right. And he said,
8:29
Speaker 1: y'all wanted to be the most inclusive skyscraper in New
8:32
Speaker 1: York City? What does that mean? You a break that down,
8:33
Speaker 1: because they came ahead bullying me, first of all, just
8:35
Speaker 1: because I went to Hampton University. They came here bullet
8:39
Speaker 1: talking all this Howard stuff. But explain what that that
8:41
Speaker 1: project is about, that inclusive skyscraper. Listen. It was last
8:45
Speaker 1: year when cbr El, a large brokerage firm, came to
8:49
Speaker 1: me and they said, listen, this is up for grabs
8:53
Speaker 1: and the only person that we think can develop this
8:56
Speaker 1: is Don People's And I'm like, Don's a friend. He
8:59
Speaker 1: was already are you looking at this project? And so
9:02
Speaker 1: you know, if the best and the brightest of this
9:04
Speaker 1: country feel that way, then we certainly know we can
9:07
Speaker 1: do this. And I'm gonna let Don explain the project.
9:10
Speaker 1: Well great. I mean, look, Cheryl and I have been
9:12
Speaker 1: friends since she and her sister were freshmen at Howard.
9:17
Speaker 1: Y'all got some story. And I was in the real
9:24
Speaker 1: beginning and going to the real estate business, and Cheryl's
9:27
Speaker 1: family had a long history in it. And Cheryl's done
9:29
Speaker 1: an amazing job in building her business here in New
9:32
Speaker 1: York and other parts of the country. And so when
9:35
Speaker 1: the opportunity to come build a building across the street
9:38
Speaker 1: from the Jabbat Center, one of the major attractions in
9:41
Speaker 1: New York City, I thought, what better place than to
9:45
Speaker 1: build what will be, unfortunately, the first skyscraper in New
9:49
Speaker 1: York City built by black people. And it's mind body,
9:55
Speaker 1: I'm sure black people will build something, but it wasn't.
9:56
Speaker 1: No black people actually behind it on the financial level.
10:00
Speaker 1: That's exactly right, that black people worked on it, but
10:03
Speaker 1: they and not enough, by the way, because the construction
10:06
Speaker 1: industry has been discriminating over the years as well in
10:10
Speaker 1: terms of the high paying jobs that are generated by them.
10:12
Speaker 1: But that's changing. So I thought that, you know, we
10:15
Speaker 1: ought to build this building should be built by black developers,
10:20
Speaker 1: And so I thought about this as also we want
10:23
Speaker 1: to send a message that we all work together. And
10:26
Speaker 1: so I called Cheryl first and look, you one, I
10:30
Speaker 1: want you in your company as a construction company to
10:33
Speaker 1: build this building, but also I want you to be
10:35
Speaker 1: a developer and a partner with us and that so
10:38
Speaker 1: she came in Craig Livingston, who's been a trailblazer in
10:41
Speaker 1: terms of economic empowerment for black real estate professionals and entrepreneurs.
10:46
Speaker 1: We brought him on as a developer as well and
10:49
Speaker 1: put together a team that's eighty percent black owned. And
10:52
Speaker 1: then we were designing it, I thought, we want an
10:55
Speaker 1: architecture that's going to make a powerful statement. So we
10:58
Speaker 1: picked David Ajay, who I've worked with before and who
11:01
Speaker 1: was the architect for the Museum for African American History
11:04
Speaker 1: and Culture in Washington, DC, which is the most visited
11:07
Speaker 1: museum in the whole Smithsonian system since the day it opened.
11:10
Speaker 1: And then we committed to thirty five percent minority contracting
11:14
Speaker 1: and a minimum threshold to build that building. And then
11:18
Speaker 1: you know, when we're designing the building, it was going
11:21
Speaker 1: to be super tall. But then I said, why not
11:23
Speaker 1: build the tallest building. Let's build the tallest building in
11:26
Speaker 1: the Western Hemisphere, built first building to be built by
11:30
Speaker 1: black people in New York City in terms of financially,
11:32
Speaker 1: and let's make it the tallest one in the Western Hemisphere.
11:35
Speaker 1: And so that's what we started doing. How much will
11:37
Speaker 1: this building costs to make and how long would it take?
11:40
Speaker 1: Three point six billion dollars. It's some work, but we're
11:49
Speaker 1: going to get it done and it will be one
11:51
Speaker 1: of the biggest projects built in New York City. And
11:54
Speaker 1: it meets two moments. So right now we're coming out
11:57
Speaker 1: of COVID, so America and New York has got to
11:59
Speaker 1: build back. But we got to do it differently. We
12:02
Speaker 1: got to be inclusive, because that's the other moment. I mean,
12:04
Speaker 1: these protests that we've had around the country over the
12:07
Speaker 1: last two years, especially last year, was about fighting for
12:12
Speaker 1: equal treatment under the law for black people, but also
12:15
Speaker 1: for us to have our seat at the table. Economically,
12:18
Speaker 1: is it residential or is it going to be commercial? Office?
12:20
Speaker 1: Two hotels, So starting on the podium, it'll have a
12:24
Speaker 1: cultural center that the NAACP's putting together, and then offices
12:28
Speaker 1: for the NAACP. And then last week, Reverend Sharpton and
12:31
Speaker 1: I made an agreement that we're going to bring the
12:34
Speaker 1: Civil Rights Museum there as well, so that'll be on
12:38
Speaker 1: the lower levels of the building, and then we'll have
12:42
Speaker 1: some restaurant and other space on the top of the
12:45
Speaker 1: what's the podium the bigger part. And then as we
12:48
Speaker 1: go up to tower two, hotels and then offices, and
12:51
Speaker 1: then up top three levels of event venue space, a
12:55
Speaker 1: observation deck. And to put the icing on the cake,
12:59
Speaker 1: we are putting an ice skating ring on top on
13:01
Speaker 1: top of the building, on top of the building, sixteen
13:03
Speaker 1: hundred feet up in the air. Everything is intentional. So
13:06
Speaker 1: the name the affirmation towel what at the meeting behind
13:09
Speaker 1: the end, we're affirming that we're meeting those two points
13:12
Speaker 1: in time. When you look at the tower, it looks
13:16
Speaker 1: like it's upside down, and that's another message. We are
13:20
Speaker 1: turning things upside down. We want to open up this
13:22
Speaker 1: system to people like ours because, as you know, when
13:26
Speaker 1: black people are owners, it creates an echosystem where we
13:29
Speaker 1: help people all along the line. So how long do
13:32
Speaker 1: you think it's going to take to actually complete this project.
13:34
Speaker 1: They'll take us when we start construction about three years,
13:38
Speaker 1: and before that it'll take about a year and a
13:40
Speaker 1: half are designed. So we're about five years out for this.
13:43
Speaker 1: How difficult was it to get this project? I mean,
13:46
Speaker 1: and we're still fighting for it. I mean, we are
13:48
Speaker 1: fighting for it now. It's very difficult, but I mean
13:51
Speaker 1: I expect it to be difficult. I mean, but we're
13:54
Speaker 1: knocking down barriers each day. And in reality, doctor King A,
14:00
Speaker 1: Mecca Everts, John Lewis it was hard for them too.
14:03
Speaker 1: And we're doing it in other cities. We just want
14:06
Speaker 1: a huge project in Boston. Yep. Last week we got
14:11
Speaker 1: with the Republican governor. Well, actually it was easier because
14:16
Speaker 1: so give you a sense. So, I mean, I'm a
14:18
Speaker 1: I'm a big boot. I'm a Democrat, lifelong Democrat, but
14:21
Speaker 1: I'm like what Henry Kissinger said about America. He said,
14:25
Speaker 1: America has no permanent friends, no permanent enemies. In black people,
14:29
Speaker 1: we gotta have no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, permanent interest.
14:33
Speaker 1: So the governor, Charlie Baker in Boston decided that he
14:37
Speaker 1: saw the unfairness in the system. So what he did
14:40
Speaker 1: is every project that he's doing in that state, twenty
14:43
Speaker 1: five points out of a hundred is for equity for
14:46
Speaker 1: people of color. Always asked this question, and I don't
14:50
Speaker 1: even know. You can have one without the other. But
14:51
Speaker 1: what's more important? Economic equity are equality? Oh wow, that's
14:56
Speaker 1: a really good question. But I would say the economics
14:59
Speaker 1: are very important, because then that's going to help create
15:03
Speaker 1: the equality. In my opinion, Don always says this about
15:08
Speaker 1: venture capitalists, and there's sixty nine trillion dollars of money
15:13
Speaker 1: out there that's been invested, but only one point three
15:17
Speaker 1: percent of it has been invested by black firms. So
15:21
Speaker 1: we are so upside down on the economic ladder that
15:25
Speaker 1: we just have to do something about that. If we
15:28
Speaker 1: can have access to economic opportunity, we can solve our
15:32
Speaker 1: own problems. We can deal with our own community. But
15:34
Speaker 1: you keep blocking us from economic opportunity, then we're going
15:37
Speaker 1: to continue to struggle. So we can do it for ourselves.
15:42
Speaker 1: Then we can expand our community and take care of
15:45
Speaker 1: our own issues, and we can support our own organizations.
15:48
Speaker 1: And they need to stop looking at us. I said
15:49
Speaker 1: this yesterday to group of white business people. You don't
15:52
Speaker 1: need to stop looking at doing business with black people
15:54
Speaker 1: of philanthropic good business for you. That's all right. When
15:57
Speaker 1: we come back, we have more we sharel mckissi, Daniel
16:00
Speaker 1: and Don Peebles, So don't move. It's to Breakfast Club.
16:02
Speaker 1: Go Morning Morning. Everybody's DJ Envy Angela Yee. Charlomagne, the
16:12
Speaker 1: guy we are the Breakfast Club was still kicking it
16:14
Speaker 1: with Cheryl McKissick, Daniel and Don Peebles. We got to
16:17
Speaker 1: go back to the origin story because when I hear
16:19
Speaker 1: you know, y'all knew each other as freshman at Howard University,
16:22
Speaker 1: that's like some outliers divine alignment type stuff, like did
16:26
Speaker 1: y'all both know that's what y'all wanted to do in
16:29
Speaker 1: the future. When I met Don, Don had bought his
16:34
Speaker 1: first apartment in DC, and I said, Howard, Well, I
16:38
Speaker 1: was a freshman, a freshman, and I was two years
16:41
Speaker 1: I think I'm two years older than right. So he
16:43
Speaker 1: was in college and he had bought an apartment. And
16:46
Speaker 1: I remember my twin sister and are saying to each other,
16:48
Speaker 1: well who does that apartments when you're in college? And
16:52
Speaker 1: Don said, then he said, I'm going to do transformational development.
16:56
Speaker 1: My sister and I we always knew we were going
16:58
Speaker 1: to be in the family business. I mean, we're fifth generation.
17:01
Speaker 1: We always knew that. But then over the years, Don
17:05
Speaker 1: was in DC Philadelphia, and we kept saying we're gonna
17:09
Speaker 1: work together at some point. We are definitely going to
17:11
Speaker 1: work together, but it just has to be the right project.
17:15
Speaker 1: So we know, mckinnig gets fifth generation is people's first generation.
17:18
Speaker 1: First generation. Yeah, well you get the money to buy
17:21
Speaker 1: the elpartment done if you don't want to tell you yourself.
17:25
Speaker 1: I started working. I quit college after my freshman year
17:29
Speaker 1: and started working in real estate. And frankly, I mean,
17:32
Speaker 1: it was a black government, it was a black mayor,
17:34
Speaker 1: and they were focused on economic empowerment for black people.
17:36
Speaker 1: So I felt it was a good place to start
17:38
Speaker 1: doing business. And so I got exposed to real estate
17:41
Speaker 1: because my mother was a real estate sales agent and
17:43
Speaker 1: a broker, and so I learned from her. I started
17:47
Speaker 1: my own company when I was twenty three, wow, and
17:49
Speaker 1: built my first building when I was twenty six. But
17:52
Speaker 1: I couldn't have done it anywhere else. DC at that
17:54
Speaker 1: time was a mecca for black economic empowerment. It was
17:57
Speaker 1: Atlanta and DC. Mary and Barry and marrying Bear. For
18:01
Speaker 1: all his faults, you know, he was you know. Yeah.
18:07
Speaker 1: At his memorial service, Minister Farcom mentioned that about his
18:12
Speaker 1: history of everything that you know, he's been criticized for
18:15
Speaker 1: having a drug abuse problem, and he said, who are
18:17
Speaker 1: you talking about, John Kennedy because it wasn't just so yeah. So,
18:25
Speaker 1: I mean, Barry was transformative and the government at that
18:27
Speaker 1: time was and they knocked down opportunities, barriers to opportunities
18:31
Speaker 1: for black business people. Um, Bob Johnson got a start
18:34
Speaker 1: in DC. I got mine. Many other black business people did.
18:38
Speaker 1: But I met Cheryl and her sister. They were freshman
18:41
Speaker 1: in college and her cousin was a good friend of mine,
18:45
Speaker 1: and so we became friends and we both had kind
18:48
Speaker 1: of common interests. They were going into the family business.
18:51
Speaker 1: I was building mine, and uh, and some of my
18:53
Speaker 1: son's in our business. Now he's twenty seven and my
18:56
Speaker 1: daughter's nineteen and at TCU, and I'm hopeful that she
18:59
Speaker 1: will go into the business as well. And we can
19:01
Speaker 1: build some legacy. But part of the legacy I want
19:03
Speaker 1: to build is demonstrating how we can work together, because
19:08
Speaker 1: I may not be able to do a three point
19:10
Speaker 1: six billion dollar building by myself, Cheryl may not be
19:14
Speaker 1: able to crag, but collectively we can. But John, you
19:17
Speaker 1: didn't need us. I mean financially, but I needed you
19:20
Speaker 1: all in every other way. Um, and you all bring
19:23
Speaker 1: tremendous resources to the table. I know people are watching
19:27
Speaker 1: this and they were all so good man. I'm just
19:30
Speaker 1: saying this just feel so good man. I know people
19:32
Speaker 1: are watching this and then they want to know how
19:34
Speaker 1: though like it. You know, it's easy to say I
19:36
Speaker 1: bought my first building, but but how where did the
19:38
Speaker 1: capital come from? Like? Where does one start? Well? I
19:41
Speaker 1: think the first thing is with a dream. I mean
19:43
Speaker 1: developers are dreamers, were visionaries, and so with the dream
19:47
Speaker 1: and with a plan and becoming a student of the business.
19:51
Speaker 1: And I mean you can be self taught, read some books,
19:54
Speaker 1: learn about the business. It's not a complicated business by
19:57
Speaker 1: the way supply and demand, so understanding business, having a
20:01
Speaker 1: dream and having a dream to be achievable, but you know,
20:04
Speaker 1: pushing and then I'm finding an idea. Once you find
20:07
Speaker 1: an idea, then you can raise money for Now what
20:12
Speaker 1: Cheryl touched on if you're black, don't expect it to
20:14
Speaker 1: be easy. The Federal Reserved did a study last year
20:18
Speaker 1: the sixty nine trillion dollars invested in private equity and
20:21
Speaker 1: venture capital and that's normally goes that's where real estate
20:24
Speaker 1: developers get equity for their project from private equity. But
20:27
Speaker 1: just sixty nine trillion dollars invested in private equity in
20:31
Speaker 1: the United States, and out of that, one point three
20:33
Speaker 1: percent of it goes to businesses own or founded or
20:37
Speaker 1: projects are worked on by blacks or women combined. So
20:42
Speaker 1: white men get ninety eight point seven percent of all
20:44
Speaker 1: venture capital and private equity money. So the challenge is equity.
20:47
Speaker 1: But if you can raise the money friends and family
20:51
Speaker 1: and so on, and then build your building or buy
20:54
Speaker 1: a property and renovate it, and then do what I
20:57
Speaker 1: did is I rolled all my money back in. So
20:59
Speaker 1: the first project we did was ten million dollars that
21:02
Speaker 1: you didn't start, didn't you started with an apartment? I
21:07
Speaker 1: think that's the question, Like you started from us? Yeah, right,
21:10
Speaker 1: But then after that I started a consulting an appraisal business,
21:14
Speaker 1: and that's how I earned a living and begin to
21:16
Speaker 1: accumulate some money to save. And then with that money
21:19
Speaker 1: I found an opportunity to build an office building. But
21:23
Speaker 1: if you have a dream and you're willing to do
21:26
Speaker 1: some work, you can make money in the real estate business.
21:30
Speaker 1: You know, we talk about the the racial no world
21:32
Speaker 1: gap in America a lot you think that actually can
21:36
Speaker 1: be closed in this generation. I don't think it can
21:39
Speaker 1: be closed. I think we can make some progress, but
21:41
Speaker 1: we won't do it the way it is right now.
21:45
Speaker 1: And one of your former guests is a man I've
21:47
Speaker 1: known a long time and currently president, and I remember
21:50
Speaker 1: it's comment about it could make up your mind between
21:53
Speaker 1: him and Trump. You're not black, well, I mean again,
21:56
Speaker 1: no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, permanent interest. But he
21:59
Speaker 1: would be a right now in the Delaware waterfront on
22:03
Speaker 1: the porch of his house if it wasn't for black people.
22:08
Speaker 1: It's time to pay up, and I mean pay up
22:11
Speaker 1: in other ways by giving us access to economic opportunity.
22:16
Speaker 1: And that's when we close the wealth gap a place
22:18
Speaker 1: like Boston. According to Federal Reserve, the average household net
22:22
Speaker 1: worth of a white family in Boston is two hundred
22:25
Speaker 1: and forty seven thousand dollars. The average household net worth
22:28
Speaker 1: of a black family is eight dollars eight dollars. That
22:32
Speaker 1: isn't insurmountable wealth disparity without affirmative aggressive eight dollars to
22:41
Speaker 1: two hundred and forty seven thousand, and so you can't
22:45
Speaker 1: solve that by taking baby steps. Frankly, we can't let
22:49
Speaker 1: these liberal democrats continue to try to make us comfortable
22:53
Speaker 1: being poor. So we're gonna have to demand aggressive steps economically,
23:00
Speaker 1: not window dressing, not hiring a few black people here
23:03
Speaker 1: and there. And by the way, the other thing, when
23:04
Speaker 1: black people get in a position of power, they got
23:06
Speaker 1: to help each other. We cannot get into these positions
23:10
Speaker 1: and sit in them and then just kind of keep
23:13
Speaker 1: the status quo so then they can say, see there,
23:15
Speaker 1: we got a black person in here, so we're not racist.
23:17
Speaker 1: We're not doing anything because we can't find any qualified
23:20
Speaker 1: black people because if we could, the brother over here
23:23
Speaker 1: or the sister over here would be doing it, and
23:25
Speaker 1: they're not. And that's one of the reasons why my
23:27
Speaker 1: company has focused on this issue. And I would dare
23:30
Speaker 1: to say that I am the most outspoken advocate for
23:35
Speaker 1: equal opportunity and fair treatment for black people in business
23:40
Speaker 1: and finance, and also that we got to do it aggressively.
23:43
Speaker 1: We cannot just sit back here anymore. What do you
23:46
Speaker 1: what does reparations look like? Yeah, I think that what's
23:49
Speaker 1: realistic for us is that the entire system of how
23:54
Speaker 1: our government does business changes and it is reflective of
23:59
Speaker 1: population demographics. So if you're in a city that it's
24:02
Speaker 1: fifty percent black, fifty percent of the government contracts go
24:05
Speaker 1: to black businesses. Give you're a business like you know,
24:08
Speaker 1: Goldman Sacks or whatever, and you are taking institutional capital
24:14
Speaker 1: as an investment advisor, then you've got to deploy that
24:17
Speaker 1: reflective of the population demographics. So if you're running a
24:21
Speaker 1: national business, black people a thirteen percent of the population,
24:24
Speaker 1: thirteen percent of the loans have to be made to
24:26
Speaker 1: black businesses and black people on the same terms that
24:28
Speaker 1: you make them to the white firms. So we could
24:30
Speaker 1: do that just a fairness, I mean, we would make
24:34
Speaker 1: great progress. But what has happened here is that the
24:36
Speaker 1: impediments to us having fair opportunity are compounded by these
24:42
Speaker 1: obstacles and these injustices. Economically, Oh brother, don I can't
24:45
Speaker 1: buy no building with fairness. I needit right, you know
24:48
Speaker 1: what I mean? So as you feel like America owes
24:50
Speaker 1: us something tangible, Yes, yeah, I think America owes us
24:54
Speaker 1: something tangible by giving us capital. Look, I think there
24:59
Speaker 1: should be someplace where there's like a pool of capital
25:02
Speaker 1: that goes to black people. And yeah, but not loans
25:09
Speaker 1: and if you if you execute, yeah, you know, and
25:12
Speaker 1: if you execute, then you don't pay it back exactly right.
25:15
Speaker 1: But I think we also have to say, okay, what
25:17
Speaker 1: about property that has to be adjusting the cash cash
25:21
Speaker 1: reparations were returning a property needs to take place, all right?
25:24
Speaker 1: When we come back, we have more with Charyl McKissick,
25:27
Speaker 1: Daniel and Don Peebles, So don't move. It's the breakfast Club.
25:29
Speaker 1: God morning, the breakfast Club, the breakfast Club. Your mornings
25:37
Speaker 1: will never be the same morning. Everybody is cdj Envy
25:42
Speaker 1: angela ye. Charlemagne, the guy we are the Breakfast Club
25:45
Speaker 1: was still kicking it with Charyl McKissick, Daniel and Don Peebles. Charlemagne,
25:48
Speaker 1: how difficult is it navigating the construction industry and the
25:52
Speaker 1: real estate industry has a black prison. It's hard, knucks well,
25:58
Speaker 1: black woman, I mean that's even hard. Yeah, I mean,
26:01
Speaker 1: Don talked about black females starting to the most businesses. However,
26:06
Speaker 1: we're still only two percent of the businesses in New
26:10
Speaker 1: York City. And so how was I able to build
26:13
Speaker 1: a business in New York It was really pushing prime opportunities,
26:18
Speaker 1: not where I was a sub consultant. You know, working
26:22
Speaker 1: under the umbrella of a large firm. No, I had
26:26
Speaker 1: to be the lead person, whether that was a two
26:29
Speaker 1: million dollar project that turned into a five million dollar
26:33
Speaker 1: project or ten million dollar project. But that was all
26:36
Speaker 1: a fight because there are no laws out there for that.
26:40
Speaker 1: You know, you have to create relationships and you know,
26:44
Speaker 1: convince people to give you this shot. And that's coming
26:47
Speaker 1: from a fifth generation government. So I can imagine, oh, yeah,
26:50
Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty years wow, and we're still having
26:54
Speaker 1: to prove who we are and still not getting the
26:57
Speaker 1: access that we should get. Politically, do these politicians come
27:01
Speaker 1: to y'all, of course to make donations and stuff? And
27:03
Speaker 1: if so, does that give y'all some type of power
27:06
Speaker 1: when it comes to them. Yeah, y'all able to demand
27:09
Speaker 1: things for them. So I've been involved in politics my
27:12
Speaker 1: entire careers. Obama's National Finance Committee for both of his elections,
27:17
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton's as well. What I learned over the years
27:21
Speaker 1: is that you can have some access to some people,
27:24
Speaker 1: but even there we get discriminated against. We're big supporters
27:29
Speaker 1: of many different politicians, but they will be willing to
27:35
Speaker 1: jump over backwards to help a white business person who
27:39
Speaker 1: is you know, at a high level, but when it
27:41
Speaker 1: comes to us, they'll decide when they're going to treat
27:45
Speaker 1: us fairly and when they're not. And that the money's
27:48
Speaker 1: not as impactful. And it's kind of a subtlety. And
27:51
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm explaining it right, but what
27:53
Speaker 1: I'm saying is that our money isn't as good as
27:57
Speaker 1: the other people's money when it comes to many politicians,
28:02
Speaker 1: even if you have the same amount of money, even
28:04
Speaker 1: if financially y'all on equal footing, you'll tell us there's
28:07
Speaker 1: a wall between policy and making decisions as a government
28:12
Speaker 1: leader and your money. And so what I've done and
28:18
Speaker 1: that so fundraising and contributing money is kind of the carrot.
28:21
Speaker 1: So I say, Okay, the carrot doesn't work, I'll use
28:23
Speaker 1: a stick. So a couple of times that these people
28:25
Speaker 1: have crossed me and treated me unfairly, I form a
28:29
Speaker 1: political action committee and I run an independent campaign against them.
28:33
Speaker 1: And because I figure, if I got some money, I
28:36
Speaker 1: need to use it at least to level of playing
28:37
Speaker 1: field for what I'm trying to do. And so I'm
28:40
Speaker 1: not going to take it on the chin. And that's
28:42
Speaker 1: the other thing is that they think that they can
28:45
Speaker 1: screw us over and get away with it. So I
28:47
Speaker 1: try to send a message. You know, there's some repercussions
28:50
Speaker 1: if you treat us unfairly. You think we do ourselves
28:52
Speaker 1: a disservice by always voting Democrat, always being with one party,
28:56
Speaker 1: being so low to one party, Yes, I think. So,
28:59
Speaker 1: I think we need to vote what policies are important
29:02
Speaker 1: to us and gets them to agree to some concrete things.
29:07
Speaker 1: So I chaired the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Board, which
29:11
Speaker 1: is the think tank for the fifty semi black members
29:14
Speaker 1: of Congress and does that legislative weekend in Washington, DC.
29:17
Speaker 1: So I chaired that last three years of Obama's administration
29:22
Speaker 1: and then going into Trump's first year. And I told
29:24
Speaker 1: the Caucus members when Trump came in, I know him
29:27
Speaker 1: and he's transactional. Go meet with him with a list
29:30
Speaker 1: of things for black people. Because you all weren't elected
29:33
Speaker 1: to be Democrats. You were elected to advocate for black people,
29:36
Speaker 1: your constituents. So go with a list of what your
29:40
Speaker 1: constituents want and tell him you want this, and ask
29:43
Speaker 1: him what does he want, and see if there's a
29:45
Speaker 1: deal to be made. But you can't put the black
29:48
Speaker 1: agenda on whole for a four to eight years because
29:52
Speaker 1: you don't like the guy in the office. You got
29:54
Speaker 1: to play a game of power. You gotta constantly fight
29:57
Speaker 1: because our agenda can't wait. So we should do business
30:00
Speaker 1: with whoever we have to to get our program going
30:04
Speaker 1: forward and then we can vote again later. The Democratic
30:07
Speaker 1: Party takes us for granted, and they have for a
30:10
Speaker 1: very long time. And frankly, we should be in the
30:14
Speaker 1: front steps of the White House telling Joe Biden this
30:17
Speaker 1: isn't enough. It's great that you appointed a qualified woman
30:20
Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court, a black woman, all right, but
30:24
Speaker 1: here's what we need. And over three in the Supreme Court,
30:29
Speaker 1: expanded the Supreme Court, and at four Jack, if you
30:32
Speaker 1: want to really make an impact. But also, he's responsible
30:35
Speaker 1: for the nineteen ninety four crimes. And I tell him
30:38
Speaker 1: to his face, he's responsible for it. He's cleaned it up,
30:41
Speaker 1: and he has not addressed that yet. And he spoke passionately,
30:47
Speaker 1: and he was the floor leader in the Senate for
30:49
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton from the nineteen ninety four crime bill that
30:51
Speaker 1: led to the mass incarceration of black men and women
30:55
Speaker 1: and these mandatory sentences that destroyed lives. So he's got
30:58
Speaker 1: to clean that up. And he's got to clean out up,
31:00
Speaker 1: not just what's criminal justice reform, because that's only going
31:03
Speaker 1: to deal with what's going forward. But secondly, he's got
31:06
Speaker 1: to make right what he's done our community and our
31:09
Speaker 1: people since nineteen ninety four, before nineties. Yeah, because you
31:13
Speaker 1: know the mandatory minimum centis in the crack laws. That
31:15
Speaker 1: was the eighties. You're right. Yeah. When I when I
31:18
Speaker 1: said that to him, I said, um, you know it
31:19
Speaker 1: led the massive cause race and he said, no, it didn't.
31:21
Speaker 1: It was a mandatory minimum in the aities. I said,
31:23
Speaker 1: when you wrote that too, it was easy to do
31:27
Speaker 1: business with? Is it Biden or was it Trump to
31:30
Speaker 1: do business with? I think Trump would would be easier
31:32
Speaker 1: to do business with because there's no competing interest and
31:34
Speaker 1: he's a decisive person. I think that the Democratics presidents
31:38
Speaker 1: have tried to make this rainbow constituency happy. So same
31:42
Speaker 1: thing about reparations and minority contracting. This country owes two
31:48
Speaker 1: classes of people a great debt. It owes Native Americans
31:53
Speaker 1: a great debt, and then it owes black people a debt,
31:57
Speaker 1: and it's time to pay that. And Biden could do that. Um. Frankly,
32:01
Speaker 1: I was disappointed because I thought that President Obama should
32:04
Speaker 1: have done it. But Trump is transactional, so you can
32:09
Speaker 1: do business with him today and be against him tomorrow.
32:12
Speaker 1: He's going to understand that because he's wired that way.
32:15
Speaker 1: So we have to be focused on getting business done.
32:19
Speaker 1: And to this point in time, I can't think about
32:22
Speaker 1: what the President of the United States has done for
32:24
Speaker 1: black people. And he's been in office for a year.
32:28
Speaker 1: So how long do we have to wait for the
32:30
Speaker 1: man that we single handedly put into office right age?
32:34
Speaker 1: And our agenda has always lastedn't it? Yes? If at all? Yeah, Yeah,
32:39
Speaker 1: great conversation, Sinster Sheryl Brother because that game people's I
32:46
Speaker 1: mean that was that was of course, So what's the
32:48
Speaker 1: call to action? Charges five thousands for that one. But
32:52
Speaker 1: we need everyone to talk about Affirmation Tower. We need
32:55
Speaker 1: this to be a movement because this is going to
32:58
Speaker 1: change how we position ourselves. It's changing a paradigm for
33:02
Speaker 1: black people, not only in New York but in our nation.
33:05
Speaker 1: And that's the call to action. They need to call
33:08
Speaker 1: the Governor's Office of New York and say that they
33:12
Speaker 1: support it. They need to call their New York City
33:16
Speaker 1: resident or a New York State resident They need to
33:18
Speaker 1: call their elected officials and say that they support this
33:22
Speaker 1: project and they support what it stands for, which is
33:24
Speaker 1: economic opportunity for black businesses. And going forward, we got
33:29
Speaker 1: to hold anybody running for office it wants our support.
33:33
Speaker 1: What are you going to do for us economically? What
33:36
Speaker 1: are you going? How are you going to write this
33:38
Speaker 1: scales of injustice that we're dealing with, And that's the
33:42
Speaker 1: call to action. Economic empowerment for our people will lead
33:46
Speaker 1: us to a much better place because we can What
33:49
Speaker 1: did James Brown say? I don't want nobody to give
33:50
Speaker 1: me nothing to open the door. I'll get it myself, right. Well,
33:53
Speaker 1: that's what we want to open the doors of opportunity.
33:55
Speaker 1: Let us do our thing we have shown. I want
33:57
Speaker 1: both done. I want to open the door I want
33:59
Speaker 1: something to be sitting on the tap when I walk in.
34:00
Speaker 1: I agree with you, and it should be by the way.
34:02
Speaker 1: Our our ancestors paid for it, and we got nothing
34:06
Speaker 1: for it. They got nothing for it but extreme oppression.
34:10
Speaker 1: And so this country owes us a death. The White
34:12
Speaker 1: House that Biden is sleeping and was built by slaves.
34:14
Speaker 1: That shure. That's it. Well, we appreciate you guys so much. Man,
34:19
Speaker 1: and please anytime y'all want to pull up up All right, okay,
34:23
Speaker 1: we will absolutely, very well absolutely club. Good morning, So
34:27
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club, your mornings will never be the same. Leaving
34:31
Speaker 1: a child in a hot vehicle can lead to their death,
34:33
Speaker 1: very quickly said. Cell phone reminders or play something you'll
34:36
Speaker 1: need in the back seat so you don't forget your
34:38
Speaker 1: child is in the car. Look for your baby before
34:41
Speaker 1: you lock paid for it by Nitz. Everybody is DJ
34:44
Speaker 1: Envy Angela Yee. Charlomagne, the guy we all to Breakfast Club. Charlomagne,
34:49
Speaker 1: you got a positive note. Listen to positive NOTEE simply this, man,
34:52
Speaker 1: I want you to remember this this weekend. The only
34:54
Speaker 1: limits you have are the limits you believe you have.
34:57
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club. I'm finish for y'all. Done,