Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Bakari Sellers Full Interview

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Bakari Sellers Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: eight years older to purchase blay Fine. Welcome to money
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Speaker 1: making Conversation. I am your host, Rashon McDonald. Each Money
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Speaker 1: Making Conversation talk shows about entrepreneurship and entertainment, I provide
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Speaker 1: Making Conversation interviews provide relatable information to the listener about
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Speaker 1: career and financial planning, entrepreneurship, motivation, leadership, overcoming the arts,
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Speaker 1: and how to live a balance life. My next guest
1:52
Speaker 1: is a More Halls graduate and he made history of
1:55
Speaker 1: two thousand and six when they're twenty two years of age.
1:57
Speaker 1: He defeated the twenty six year income with state presented
2:00
Speaker 1: to become the youngest member of the South Carolina State
2:03
Speaker 1: Legislature and the youngest African American elective official in the nation.
2:07
Speaker 1: In ten, he was named Time Magazines forty Under forty,
2:12
Speaker 1: and fifteen he was named to the group one hundred
2:15
Speaker 1: Most Influential African Americans. He practices law with a strong
2:18
Speaker 1: law firm in Columbia, South Carolina, one of my favorite cities,
2:21
Speaker 1: by the way, and it's a political commentator at CNN.
2:25
Speaker 1: He is the author of a great book that I
2:26
Speaker 1: read this week, and he will be talking about that
2:29
Speaker 1: during our interview, My Vanishing Country, a memoir. Please welcome
2:33
Speaker 1: to Money Making Conversations, my man, but Cary Sellers Man,
2:38
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having me on this platform. Brother,
2:41
Speaker 1: it means a lot to be here with you today, man,
2:43
Speaker 1: So thank you so much. First of all, Um, thank
2:45
Speaker 1: you for coming on the show, and thank you for
2:48
Speaker 1: you know, let's talk about We've got two breaks, but
2:53
Speaker 1: eight minutes to talk because it's a lot, man, because
2:56
Speaker 1: you're you're presenting information to our lives down that I
3:00
Speaker 1: didn't have when I was growing up. Books like this,
3:04
Speaker 1: you know, these are these are these are important books.
3:06
Speaker 1: And uh like we talked about big country, the difference
3:09
Speaker 1: between country country folks, and I was I was sitting
3:13
Speaker 1: on my front porch and I had my love, I
3:16
Speaker 1: had my I had my tomorrow bottle of water. I
3:19
Speaker 1: read this book on my front porch, and one evening
3:21
Speaker 1: this week. This in fact, that there's no Memorial Day.
3:24
Speaker 1: That's why I spent my moral day with your book
3:25
Speaker 1: for card, because that's that's that's all you needed. With
3:29
Speaker 1: some ball peanut, and we had a full thing, hey,
3:32
Speaker 1: my man. And I was feeling good because you know,
3:35
Speaker 1: when I read this book, there was there was a
3:37
Speaker 1: couple of things that were missing in the book for me. Okay,
3:39
Speaker 1: the book is great, by the way, this is not
3:41
Speaker 1: a negative, but I was I needed some pictures in here, man,
3:44
Speaker 1: I needed some pictures. I gonna lie to you, man,
3:48
Speaker 1: I'll go. I needed to see the picture of your
3:49
Speaker 1: six ft two sister. I needed to see the picture
3:52
Speaker 1: of two sut next to your five ft three inch
3:55
Speaker 1: tall wife. I needed to see a picture of pop.
3:59
Speaker 1: I needed to see a picture you Mr q Tip
4:02
Speaker 1: skinny dude with the a frow. I needed to see
4:05
Speaker 1: a picture of your dad with the a frow when
4:07
Speaker 1: he was younger. Yes, yes, yes, I we we tried.
4:13
Speaker 1: We I tried to paint a picture with my words.
4:15
Speaker 1: But as you as you laid it out. Man, you
4:18
Speaker 1: know the imagery that we laid out of my vantaging country.
4:20
Speaker 1: I think this special. And you know these stories we
4:22
Speaker 1: have down here in the South, Man, it's important that
4:24
Speaker 1: we tell them with our imagery and tell them without words.
4:26
Speaker 1: And you're doing it. You're doing it. That's why I
4:29
Speaker 1: want to see them because of the fact that you
4:31
Speaker 1: know that when you talk about that picture that was
4:33
Speaker 1: taken on stage with you and president of Brocker Ball
4:37
Speaker 1: and Kara Washington and Chris Tucker and Ussha, I want
4:40
Speaker 1: to see that picture. I want to see it because
4:42
Speaker 1: you're like, man, I should wish I could see that
4:45
Speaker 1: picture because you're such a good In the paper book,
4:48
Speaker 1: in the paper books, in the paper book section, I
4:50
Speaker 1: will talk to my my people over Harper College that
4:52
Speaker 1: you know very well, and I will tell them that
4:54
Speaker 1: I was having a money making conversation and one of
4:56
Speaker 1: the suggestion was we asked the picture. I s to you.
5:00
Speaker 1: I swear to you because you are This is such
5:03
Speaker 1: a great book because of the fact it's historical. You
5:06
Speaker 1: lived that you live as a young man. You live
5:09
Speaker 1: you know like you said you was, you was like
5:10
Speaker 1: said you was a little political baby. You know, all
5:12
Speaker 1: the black people, all the pologists comes there. They had
5:15
Speaker 1: the hug liber Carly, come here, look cute, little come here,
5:18
Speaker 1: take a picture with you know, use the little picture
5:19
Speaker 1: take a baby and so and but let's let's let's
5:22
Speaker 1: go back a little bit. But the first thing I
5:24
Speaker 1: want to talk about is you've been a more Halls graduate.
5:27
Speaker 1: Talk about that HPCU experience and the importance of it. Man. Look,
5:32
Speaker 1: so we're going to the Morehouse College. And I was
5:34
Speaker 1: really young when I went. I was only sixteen years
5:36
Speaker 1: old as but the experience at Morehouse, the experience at
5:39
Speaker 1: Morehouse told me a few things. One one, I could
5:42
Speaker 1: be unapologically black, be comfortable in my own skin. But
5:46
Speaker 1: it also taught me I could compete anywhere in the world.
5:48
Speaker 1: You know, Morehouse, as they say, your places crown above
5:51
Speaker 1: your head, so you can grow into it. And it
5:53
Speaker 1: just sets that level of expectation. And so being a
5:55
Speaker 1: black man and you know, uh Rashaun right now, as
5:58
Speaker 1: we're going through just the tragic in our country, the
6:02
Speaker 1: grief that it means and you carry as a black man.
6:06
Speaker 1: Um you know, going to more House that helped me
6:08
Speaker 1: have a sense of pride and make sure that, um,
6:11
Speaker 1: you know, I speak for those whose voices sometimes go
6:14
Speaker 1: and heard and I rise. I rise to that level
6:17
Speaker 1: of expectation. And so more House was was was amazing
6:21
Speaker 1: and helping me feel comfortable in my blackness and going
6:24
Speaker 1: out and being able to have pride in that and
6:25
Speaker 1: in my everyday life. It's really important because of the
6:28
Speaker 1: fact that it was in the book when you're talking
6:30
Speaker 1: about which I which I always found so relatable. When
6:33
Speaker 1: you're talking about that, you know, the guys from different
6:35
Speaker 1: parts of the country. You know, the Houston boy. I'm
6:37
Speaker 1: from Houston, So so I took the Houston board to
6:40
Speaker 1: water Polo books. You know what I'm saying. And that's
6:43
Speaker 1: if you get into college right man, and you get
6:45
Speaker 1: on campused you do. I had my boars from New Orleans.
6:48
Speaker 1: That was the same all boys. I had my boys
6:51
Speaker 1: from from New York. You know, they dressed a certain way,
6:54
Speaker 1: and I had my boars from Chicago, they dressed a
6:57
Speaker 1: certain way. When you get that college experience. I always
7:00
Speaker 1: tell people go to college. I always tell young people
7:03
Speaker 1: go to college. It defines who you could be, who
7:06
Speaker 1: you could be, and that's the diversity that the diversity
7:10
Speaker 1: that people don't even imagine exists. You've got You've got
7:12
Speaker 1: people who are coming the brightest from all around the world. Um,
7:15
Speaker 1: you know what they're saying. All boys, they still are.
7:18
Speaker 1: You know, they wear them letterman jackets their entire life.
7:20
Speaker 1: They forty years old still wear the hon let him
7:22
Speaker 1: in jacket. But um, you know you still have You
7:25
Speaker 1: get a chance to learn and cultivate. An iron sharpens iron,
7:28
Speaker 1: and you're able to grow with each other and those
7:31
Speaker 1: friendships last for a lifetime. And so I was very,
7:33
Speaker 1: very lucky to be able to go to more House.
7:35
Speaker 1: I tell my kids right now, you can go to
7:37
Speaker 1: any college you want to go through in the entire country,
7:39
Speaker 1: as long as it's an HBCU. Absolutely I didn't go
7:43
Speaker 1: to an hp U HBCU. But I'm doing I've doing
7:46
Speaker 1: a lot of work and promoting the brand. And I
7:48
Speaker 1: just did that big special with ESPN with Stephen A. Smith,
7:51
Speaker 1: who I represent, did a big broadcast for ESPN and
7:54
Speaker 1: raised over four million dollars in scholarships and registered twelve
7:58
Speaker 1: hundred students for HBCUs. Who was last September, And we're
8:01
Speaker 1: gonna do it again this year. Hopefully this pandemic calms
8:04
Speaker 1: down so we can do it again because of the
8:06
Speaker 1: fact that I understand the value of that form of
8:09
Speaker 1: education that sometimes gets warmed down. Yes, yes, And we
8:14
Speaker 1: just have to make sure that especially as black folka
8:16
Speaker 1: are not just suffering the most in terms of public
8:19
Speaker 1: health from this COVID nineteen UM, but our businesses are suffering,
8:23
Speaker 1: and our institutions of higher education and suffering. So I'm
8:26
Speaker 1: grateful for somebody like you reaching out and reaching up
8:28
Speaker 1: and giving people a hand up. I have to I
8:31
Speaker 1: have to that. That's the rules were playing, like, let's
8:33
Speaker 1: talk about my vanishing country, you know, uh memoir. Talk
8:36
Speaker 1: to tell us about why you wrote this book first.
8:39
Speaker 1: So I will tell you this. Man. Look, I didn't
8:42
Speaker 1: want to write a I didn't want to write a memoir,
8:44
Speaker 1: per say. I wanted to write a political book. Um,
8:47
Speaker 1: but no one wanted to buy it. I mean I
8:48
Speaker 1: I got kept getting turned down. And so I sat
8:50
Speaker 1: down with Tracy Sharado or at Carpercollins, and she said, look,
8:54
Speaker 1: tell me your story. And I told her about my
8:56
Speaker 1: father being shot in the orange Y massacre. I talked
8:59
Speaker 1: about the trauma of living with with that entails. I
9:01
Speaker 1: talked talked about being the youngest black elected official in
9:04
Speaker 1: the country, and you know, living in South Carolina and
9:07
Speaker 1: working in South Carolina to the hospices of the Confederate Flag.
9:10
Speaker 1: And I talked to her about losing my good f
9:12
Speaker 1: Inclemente Pinkney, UM in the Charleston shooting. And you know,
9:16
Speaker 1: throughout all of those experiences that trauma. Realized that my
9:19
Speaker 1: trauma may not be your trauma. But if we get
9:21
Speaker 1: a level of understanding, then we can persevere together. Um.
9:24
Speaker 1: And she said, you gotta put this time, you gotta
9:26
Speaker 1: put this down on paper. And you know, the you
9:31
Speaker 1: never know when your book is gonna come out when
9:33
Speaker 1: you write it. And I had no idea that my
9:36
Speaker 1: book was gonna come out during a time where black
9:39
Speaker 1: folks were dying at extremely high rates, um due to
9:42
Speaker 1: the coronavirus or pandemic. UM. I never really abou to
9:45
Speaker 1: have imagine. I mean that we would have had the
9:48
Speaker 1: depths of of Brianna Taylor, the death of amd Aubrey
9:53
Speaker 1: UM and now another death in Minnesota. UM. But UM.
9:57
Speaker 1: You know, so the book comes out in the words
9:59
Speaker 1: and I'm that I'm on that page UM or those
10:02
Speaker 1: pages that speaks to the issues of race we have
10:04
Speaker 1: in this country issues we've never truly dealt with, and
10:07
Speaker 1: we have someone in the office that's often seems like
10:10
Speaker 1: he's fueling the problem instead of trying to remedy the product.
10:16
Speaker 1: And so what that is With that being said, you
10:19
Speaker 1: know you are a political commentator and this book, Uh,
10:24
Speaker 1: I just wanted letter everybody know how special you are
10:27
Speaker 1: as a young man. I want to everybody have special,
10:29
Speaker 1: but how your parents are. Let's go to your parents
10:32
Speaker 1: because that's the that's the unknown story that really really
10:36
Speaker 1: just had me going from page to page to page
10:39
Speaker 1: to page. Tell us about your dad? Who you're who?
10:42
Speaker 1: Your friend from college? Your roommates said, he's out Martin
10:46
Speaker 1: Luther King Jr. Your dad, Yeah, my dad was a
10:50
Speaker 1: member of Snake. My dad dedicated as life the justice.
10:52
Speaker 1: My dad was dedicated as life the freedom in the
10:55
Speaker 1: pursuit thereof And so you know, February Ate, my dad
10:58
Speaker 1: was shot UM and what's called Arngerek massacre. UM. Three
11:02
Speaker 1: others were killed Henry Smith, Samuel Hammond, and Delano Middleton
11:05
Speaker 1: and UM there was a total of twenty nine that
11:07
Speaker 1: were injured. UM. All the officers who fired shots into
11:10
Speaker 1: the group of students were tried, they were all found
11:13
Speaker 1: not guilty. My father ended up being the only person
11:16
Speaker 1: that UM they charged, tried and convicted of that night's
11:19
Speaker 1: violence they charged them and being the first and only
11:21
Speaker 1: one man right in the history of this country. UM.
11:24
Speaker 1: And you know my mother, My mother helped integrate the
11:27
Speaker 1: schools in Memphis, Tennessee. And UM, my parents, they all
11:31
Speaker 1: came from this um worldview that you had to become
11:34
Speaker 1: a part of something larger than yourself, that you had
11:37
Speaker 1: to um push this country to be a more perfect union.
11:41
Speaker 1: And that came along with a great deal of trauma.
11:44
Speaker 1: But they instilled that in all of us. So um
11:46
Speaker 1: as I as I go through life, I just go
11:48
Speaker 1: through life trying to be a change agent and make
11:50
Speaker 1: my parents proud because they poured so much into me.
11:53
Speaker 1: They poured a lot. Before we go to break, I'm
11:55
Speaker 1: gonna give out some a little nice little nuggets about HBCUs.
11:58
Speaker 1: There over one HBCUs as the country. They rolled tim
12:01
Speaker 1: percent of African American students, and despite constituting only three
12:04
Speaker 1: percent of four year colleges in this country, HBCUs have
12:08
Speaker 1: produced eight percent of the black judges, of the black lawyers,
12:13
Speaker 1: of the black doctors, forty percent of the black engineers,
12:16
Speaker 1: forty percent of the Black members of Congress, and intent
12:20
Speaker 1: of the black CEOs in America. That's what HBCUs do
12:24
Speaker 1: for this country. Continue to do for this country. I
12:27
Speaker 1: am talking to my man, but Cary Sellers will be
12:30
Speaker 1: right back after this break to hear more about his
12:32
Speaker 1: amazing book. It's a page turn of y'all, My Vanishing Country,
12:36
Speaker 1: a memoir, and has a cute little picture of him
12:38
Speaker 1: on the cover. So that's what got me mad. I
12:40
Speaker 1: got a cute little picture of him on the cover,
12:42
Speaker 1: but I don't have no cute little pictures on him
12:43
Speaker 1: inside the book. We're gonna talk about that later off
12:46
Speaker 1: because he's my man if we're gonna preach this relationship.
12:48
Speaker 1: But otherwise that's just my little side comment. This is
12:51
Speaker 1: a great book because it's inspiring. It's inspiring because of
12:55
Speaker 1: the fact that he lived a life in the relationships
12:58
Speaker 1: that he's been allways. Tell people is important to have
13:01
Speaker 1: mentors around you. And I'm gonna tell you a story
13:04
Speaker 1: about who my mentor wars and how mentors can be
13:06
Speaker 1: important to you and how they can also lead you
13:08
Speaker 1: in the wrong direction, because that's all you know that's
13:11
Speaker 1: all you do. Be right back with more money making conversations.
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Speaker 1: O T T E R dot Ai. Hi. This ra
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Speaker 1: Sean McDonald and you're listening to money making conversation My
15:22
Speaker 1: Vanishing Country a memoir, But cary Sellers is on the
15:25
Speaker 1: phone the cary Um. When I was going through this book,
15:29
Speaker 1: and it was almost like a history lesson. It was
15:31
Speaker 1: kind of like two books and telling me stuff I
15:33
Speaker 1: didn't know, things I did know. Now, your major in
15:37
Speaker 1: college was in African American Studies, it was it was yes,
15:41
Speaker 1: And I bring that up because my degrees in mathematics,
15:44
Speaker 1: and I did and my minor was in sociology, and
15:47
Speaker 1: I took African American Studies, which changed my life, by
15:51
Speaker 1: the way, because I can remember because I realized that
15:55
Speaker 1: that I went to public school, they just teach you
15:57
Speaker 1: nothing about what African Americans have accomplished. A free you.
16:02
Speaker 1: Then you make it to the brow to the border education.
16:05
Speaker 1: Then all of a suden you make it to the
16:07
Speaker 1: Martin Luther King speech and that. But that's what it
16:09
Speaker 1: all did, the Mark Luke King assassination. That's why it
16:11
Speaker 1: pretty much ends in public school with education. Then we
16:13
Speaker 1: go then we do the Black History mark, and it's
16:16
Speaker 1: the same individuals and Black History mark that we talked about,
16:19
Speaker 1: which they are important, but we've accomplished more than like
16:22
Speaker 1: six people. And so when I took African American Studies,
16:26
Speaker 1: it evolved so much information to me that it brought
16:29
Speaker 1: me to tears many times because I went I didn't know,
16:32
Speaker 1: and and and and it's said talk about that that
16:36
Speaker 1: education and lack of information, how it just keeps the
16:39
Speaker 1: nine African Americans or people of color over and over again.
16:44
Speaker 1: You know, one of the things that I when I
16:46
Speaker 1: was writing the book, UM, you go back in your
16:48
Speaker 1: read sentences that that stick out to you in one
16:50
Speaker 1: of those sentences that sticks out to me is when
16:52
Speaker 1: I was writing UM and and My one of the
16:56
Speaker 1: lessons my father taught me, which is that heroes walk
16:58
Speaker 1: amongst us. My father and my mother they never wanted
17:01
Speaker 1: us to believe that the only heroes we had were Martin,
17:05
Speaker 1: Malcolm and Rosa. Um. You know, I grew up around
17:08
Speaker 1: the Stokely car Michaels and the merryon berries. UM. I
17:10
Speaker 1: studied the Majesica Simpkins and septem of Clarks, as well
17:13
Speaker 1: as the Elevators and Fanny Little Hammers, and so all
17:16
Speaker 1: of these I call them my aunts and uncles, all
17:18
Speaker 1: of these people who are part of my my my village.
17:21
Speaker 1: You know that I'm a product of the proverbial it
17:23
Speaker 1: takes a village to raise a child. All of these
17:25
Speaker 1: people were part of my village. And you know, we
17:29
Speaker 1: had an opportunity. I had an opportunity of growing up
17:31
Speaker 1: to live and breathe that history. The unique part about
17:34
Speaker 1: growing up in the South, though, is that you don't
17:36
Speaker 1: have to just read your history in books, and you
17:40
Speaker 1: can actually go out and touch and talk to people
17:43
Speaker 1: who uh, you know, they smelled, guns smoked, they laid
17:46
Speaker 1: on those courthouse and jail house floors. You know, those
17:49
Speaker 1: old ladies that sit on the first and second row
17:51
Speaker 1: of the churches, to where the big hats, the two
17:53
Speaker 1: or three sticks of butter, and the and um, coconut
17:56
Speaker 1: pies and as we potato pies. Those ladies have seen
17:59
Speaker 1: so much and and they hug you, they sustain you.
18:01
Speaker 1: They give you so much life, but they also give
18:03
Speaker 1: you that wisdom. It's just like the old man in
18:05
Speaker 1: the barbershop who ain't thinkinging the haircut, but he's telling
18:07
Speaker 1: you the stories about when he saw Sunny listen fight,
18:10
Speaker 1: and when King came through town and all of these
18:12
Speaker 1: individuals and stuff. I tried to give all of those
18:14
Speaker 1: people voices and and and have some historical context because
18:18
Speaker 1: this is this is the key. When we talked about
18:22
Speaker 1: race in this country, Um, it's a it's the most
18:24
Speaker 1: difficult conversation we have to have. But white folk only
18:28
Speaker 1: look at race through the context of their lifetime. And
18:32
Speaker 1: so in this book, what I tried to do was
18:34
Speaker 1: show how race has impacted us through a continuum. And
18:37
Speaker 1: so you can see the progression from my my grandparents
18:41
Speaker 1: to my father and mother to where I am now.
18:43
Speaker 1: So you understand that trauma. And if black folk read
18:46
Speaker 1: this and get a sense of pride and white folk
18:48
Speaker 1: read this and get a sense of understanding, I think
18:51
Speaker 1: we can have some difficult conversations with compassion, those conversations
18:55
Speaker 1: that are necessary. Really, like you said, years and counting,
18:59
Speaker 1: I believe that's where you say in the book. You know,
19:01
Speaker 1: I want to read this portion said I always tell
19:04
Speaker 1: people that we chipped away at the glass ceiling. Glass
19:06
Speaker 1: ceiling mean uh. Voters in South Carolina and I won
19:11
Speaker 1: forty one percent of the vote, and Georgia Stacy abros
19:15
Speaker 1: one forty nine percent, and in Florida and Drew Gill
19:18
Speaker 1: him he won forty um. We're talking about states that
19:23
Speaker 1: are read states. We're talking about states that blacks do
19:26
Speaker 1: have a majority in certain situations, but they are fearful
19:30
Speaker 1: of outcomes. Are they are They're so beaten down that
19:33
Speaker 1: they don't feel that their vote matters. As we go
19:35
Speaker 1: into twenty sixteen and you're being a political commentator and
19:39
Speaker 1: you're writing a book called My Vanishing Country, our Memoir,
19:42
Speaker 1: talk to us about that. What what what? What? What
19:44
Speaker 1: do we have to overcome? What do we have to do?
19:45
Speaker 1: Those numbers you laid out across but they're not victorious. Yeah. No.
19:50
Speaker 1: The first thing we gotta do is overcome Voter suppression
19:52
Speaker 1: is something that people don't talk about it nothing in
19:54
Speaker 1: this country. You know. I tell people you gotta show
19:56
Speaker 1: up and vote. You gotta show up and show out
19:58
Speaker 1: at the polls. And you know, if voting wasn't so important,
20:02
Speaker 1: people wouldn't work so hard to take it away from
20:04
Speaker 1: it as first. Um, So we gotta overcome that. We
20:07
Speaker 1: gotta we gotta push our candidates to be better. You know,
20:09
Speaker 1: I don't mind people pushing Joe Biden to be better,
20:12
Speaker 1: to be a better candidate, to have an agenda that
20:14
Speaker 1: positively affects people of color. But I also can state
20:17
Speaker 1: unequivocally that I'm gonna do everything I can to vote
20:19
Speaker 1: for Joe Biden and get Joe Biden over the hump
20:21
Speaker 1: because my children don't deserve to grow up in a
20:23
Speaker 1: country where Donald Trump is president of the United States,
20:26
Speaker 1: and so we have to be willing to do that.
20:29
Speaker 1: And like, one of the things that I want to
20:30
Speaker 1: see us do is activate I want to see us
20:33
Speaker 1: activate our base. I want to you know, it's one
20:35
Speaker 1: thing to go vote, but it's another thing to go
20:37
Speaker 1: pick up your cousin who sits in front of the
20:40
Speaker 1: gas station every day, just hillering at people who hadn't voted,
20:43
Speaker 1: probably since Barack Obama. He voted, and he voted in
20:46
Speaker 1: O eight and twelve and that was it. I need
20:48
Speaker 1: you to go get him. I need you to register
20:50
Speaker 1: your high school uh um, students in your community to vote.
20:53
Speaker 1: I need this to be a participatory effort. I need
20:55
Speaker 1: everybody to get involved because I'm gonna tell you this,
20:58
Speaker 1: those Trump supporters they're gonna show up, They're gonna vote,
21:00
Speaker 1: and we have to be there and we have to
21:02
Speaker 1: make our voices heard. If not xenophobia, racism, and biggotry
21:06
Speaker 1: are going to continue to reign supreme absolutely. Uh You
21:10
Speaker 1: were from North Carolina, born in North Carolina, grew up
21:12
Speaker 1: in Denmark, South Carolina, home of a piggy wigly store Okay,
21:19
Speaker 1: now you stay in your book. A legal desegregation ended
21:22
Speaker 1: in Denmark in eighteen seventy two. I'm from Houston. That
21:25
Speaker 1: was my freshman year in high school. The fact that
21:29
Speaker 1: I'm living, I'm where worlds away from you, and you
21:32
Speaker 1: send legal desegregation in it in Denmark in eighteen seventy two,
21:36
Speaker 1: So that imbalance of what we call freedom of the
21:39
Speaker 1: opportunity to succesed was not available to all blacks on
21:43
Speaker 1: all parts of the country at the same time. How
21:46
Speaker 1: was it growing up in a community like Denmark, South Carolina.
21:50
Speaker 1: I mean, so Denmark was an interesting community because we
21:52
Speaker 1: had you know, we had train tracks that went north, south,
21:55
Speaker 1: east and west, which was rear in the south. We
21:58
Speaker 1: had a bubbling we have bubbling small businesses. We had
22:01
Speaker 1: two historically black colleges and Universe one is a two
22:04
Speaker 1: year technical college. UM you know where where I get
22:07
Speaker 1: friend may Rest of Peace J Anthony Brown used to
22:09
Speaker 1: go to Denmark Technical College m and Vorheeses and Vorhees
22:14
Speaker 1: College and so you you we had those two colleges.
22:18
Speaker 1: We and it was the epitome of UM, these black
22:21
Speaker 1: small towns which had this upward economic mobility. UM but
22:26
Speaker 1: when trade came through, Um, you know, the manufacturing plants left. UM,
22:31
Speaker 1: the small businesses shutter. Um. We we when you know,
22:35
Speaker 1: government played its role in petty politics and we didn't
22:37
Speaker 1: expand medicaid. Um, you know, the the hospitals left. UM.
22:42
Speaker 1: And so people ask me what is it like now,
22:44
Speaker 1: and I say, I write about it clearly in my
22:46
Speaker 1: vanishing country. That's why one of the reasons that the
22:48
Speaker 1: title is my vanishing country. You know, when you look
22:52
Speaker 1: at when you look at places like this where a
22:54
Speaker 1: lot of black folk in the United States of America lived,
22:57
Speaker 1: you have food deserts where you can't go to with
23:00
Speaker 1: three miles and get healthy fruits and vegetables. Um, you
23:03
Speaker 1: have you have a lack of access to care. So
23:05
Speaker 1: my closest hospital is thirty minutes away. Um, you're drinking
23:09
Speaker 1: dirty water. There are a hundred cities in the United
23:11
Speaker 1: States that have a um that have a water that's
23:14
Speaker 1: worse than Flint, Michigan. And many of those are black
23:16
Speaker 1: and brown cities. Um, You're you're breathing in dirty air.
23:20
Speaker 1: And so you you take all of these things, you
23:22
Speaker 1: take all of these systemic levels of injustice and oppression,
23:25
Speaker 1: and you layer them, um with now we're in a pandemic. Um.
23:29
Speaker 1: It's just it's it's a really, really tough time to
23:33
Speaker 1: be black in America. That's a fact. Well that that's
23:35
Speaker 1: that's that's very true, and I I deal with it,
23:39
Speaker 1: and I um and I'm often time confused because I
23:42
Speaker 1: don't have options to how do I make it better?
23:45
Speaker 1: But the one way you can make it better, like
23:47
Speaker 1: you said, vote, exercise your right to vote, participate, don't
23:51
Speaker 1: be a don't be a silent participant. But also don't
23:56
Speaker 1: let people take away you're hoping. Don't let people take
23:58
Speaker 1: away your faith. I'm very hopeful, and I maintaining faith
24:02
Speaker 1: because I have to fight so that my children can
24:04
Speaker 1: be free. So you know, I don't I don't play
24:06
Speaker 1: it pamp. I don't paint a dystopian view. I paint
24:10
Speaker 1: a view that's very real and honest, saying that we've
24:12
Speaker 1: made a lot of progress in this country, but we
24:14
Speaker 1: still have it other ways to go. And so now
24:16
Speaker 1: it's our duty. It's my duty to continue the legacy
24:19
Speaker 1: set forth by people like yourself, my parents, et cetera,
24:23
Speaker 1: and carry that time forward so that my children live
24:25
Speaker 1: in a better country. And I still believe in what
24:27
Speaker 1: Lincoln call the better angels of our nature. You know, Uh,
24:31
Speaker 1: Paccari when I when I was going through the book,
24:33
Speaker 1: and like I said, so Many Lawyers is a great book.
24:35
Speaker 1: And I'm talking about the book My Advantaging Country, a
24:37
Speaker 1: memoir written by Baccari, sellers out of HarperCollins UH Publishing House. Um,
24:43
Speaker 1: your friend Pop, he was older than you. Um, he
24:46
Speaker 1: had aspirations until the death of his dad. Uh, and
24:51
Speaker 1: he chose sports. And there's so many Pops in our
24:56
Speaker 1: neighborhoods I can remember. I have a version of Pop.
25:00
Speaker 1: They grew up with me and didn't He made it out,
25:03
Speaker 1: but he didn't accomplish what he should have been able
25:05
Speaker 1: to accomplish because of mistakes. And we should all be
25:07
Speaker 1: able to overcome our mistakes. Talk to us about Pop
25:10
Speaker 1: from your neighborhood in Denmark, South Carolina. So, you know,
25:13
Speaker 1: I don't know if Pop will hear this episode of
25:17
Speaker 1: me on money Making Conversations. Where's he based there? Now?
25:21
Speaker 1: Where was he? What was he living there? Right? Now?
25:25
Speaker 1: There's a war his college campus radio station. Good well,
25:29
Speaker 1: good well, I'm gonna make sure he listens to it.
25:31
Speaker 1: And the reason being is because I want Pop to
25:33
Speaker 1: know that he was the success. You know, we always
25:35
Speaker 1: have this attension, We always have this these these very
25:38
Speaker 1: difficult conversations, and you know, Pop is very emblematic of
25:42
Speaker 1: what it means to be a black man in this
25:44
Speaker 1: country and trying to overcome. UM, even though you have
25:48
Speaker 1: those obstacles that are placed in front of you and
25:50
Speaker 1: my family, we opened our doors to Pop. Pop as
25:52
Speaker 1: my brother, he has a piece of my heart, always
25:54
Speaker 1: will and so you know, I feel challenged sometimes and
25:57
Speaker 1: difficulty trying to figure out, UM, you know, how we
26:01
Speaker 1: can improve the relationship and which which direction we should
26:04
Speaker 1: go in. UM. But even more but even more importantly, UM,
26:08
Speaker 1: as he grows into being a father, as he continues
26:11
Speaker 1: to work hard, and you know, he graduated from college
26:14
Speaker 1: and he's doing everything he should do. You know, he's
26:16
Speaker 1: a success. And what all he's going to do is
26:18
Speaker 1: make it make it easier for the next generation, UM
26:22
Speaker 1: to to be better. And so UM, you know we
26:24
Speaker 1: have to lift up our brothers especially and during this
26:26
Speaker 1: climate and during this time, well, you know it's really
26:28
Speaker 1: important that you say that, and because it was it
26:30
Speaker 1: was a very UM I always say, you know, it's
26:33
Speaker 1: about opportunities a very um poignant moment in your book
26:36
Speaker 1: when he says, why did y'all come get me? You know,
26:40
Speaker 1: and because he felt that if you guys would have
26:43
Speaker 1: gotten him, pulled him into y'all because he basically lived
26:45
Speaker 1: y'all life. He was with you guys, but he lived
26:48
Speaker 1: on the other side of the track, and so and
26:51
Speaker 1: just just explained that that whole different world dynamic and
26:55
Speaker 1: how how it affected him and how it affected you
26:59
Speaker 1: and you're stern brothers. So I mean it was humbling
27:03
Speaker 1: for us because, um, you know, we we were always
27:08
Speaker 1: aware of um the blessings we had and even more
27:13
Speaker 1: aware and in tune to those who didn't. And so
27:16
Speaker 1: we were raised to make sure that anything we had,
27:19
Speaker 1: we we gave as much as possible. And my parents
27:22
Speaker 1: poured so much into Pop, just like they poured into us.
27:24
Speaker 1: And so, um the challenges, you know, what do you
27:28
Speaker 1: do with that? And as me and challenge continue, as
27:30
Speaker 1: me and Pop continue to grow older, we challenge each
27:32
Speaker 1: other right now to be better husbands and better fathers.
27:36
Speaker 1: And that's that's that is for us, the definition of success.
27:39
Speaker 1: And UM, I hope people read about Pop and realize
27:42
Speaker 1: how many pots they have in their life and just
27:44
Speaker 1: worry about not giving them a hand out, but giving
27:46
Speaker 1: them a hand up. Wow, that's great. I hope this
27:50
Speaker 1: book becomes a documentary because um, it's it's so many
27:54
Speaker 1: stories additional stories that I that uh motivated me out
27:58
Speaker 1: of this book, Bacari. I want to thank you for
28:00
Speaker 1: coming on the show to talk about your book, My
28:02
Speaker 1: Vans Country of Mental As you can see man on
28:06
Speaker 1: moral day, I was reading your book and enjoying it.
28:08
Speaker 1: By man, I just didn't have the peanuts, that's all.
28:13
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for allowing me somebody if your
28:15
Speaker 1: statue to utilized this platform means a lot of humble
28:18
Speaker 1: so I'm grateful. Thank you so much. Definitely we'll put
28:20
Speaker 1: it in my if I got a fan club send
28:22
Speaker 1: out newsletter thinety thousand fan club members. My social media's
28:25
Speaker 1: always a million, so I will be promoting your book,
28:27
Speaker 1: my friend. Be safe and keep listening. Okay, thank you
28:31
Speaker 1: so much. If you want to hear more episodes of
28:34
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations, please go to Money Making Conversations dot com.
28:38
Speaker 1: I'm Rashan McDonald. I'm your host. In this season of
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