 Before we get started, we are at the limited time, but we have a lot to talk about. So take your way. Thanks, Margaret. Before we start, I'm going to need each and every one of you to connect to somebody else. Everybody on TV talking about how we're going to do better, but they don't even understand their history. And YouTube is not going to save you. So what I need for you to do is understand this word. And it's called my offer. Can you say my offer? My offer. Let me hear it again. My offer. Everyone talks about a Holocaust, but we really just understand sometimes what Wikipedia is talking about. We really want to go back to those who actually have the truth and it's our ancestors. So the shackles that I wear, I was blessed that they were actually taken off of the slave ship. I only bring them out when we do the my offer. And the my offer is the remembering of that we are all connected. There is no monopoly on anything or hardship we all had. The ancestors found a way to move on. So I'm going to ask you to do the scariest thing on the planet right now. And that is in front of this complete, big old stranger. I need you to close your eyes. Sometimes it would have to walk miles and miles and miles to get to a ship. Sometimes it would be into a slave castle and if you were overweight, it would keep you in that castle till you fit down to get through the next door. Sometimes you would sit on that shore and you knew that you had gone through the last mile. Then that would sit and connect you with those that didn't speak like you. Even back then, they knew that you didn't speak the same language, then that's how we separate you. I don't even have to worry about your class because there's no communication with none of you. And as I put you head to foot and foot to head, women is not excluded because they had a whole side of the ship for her. Whether you were pregnant or gave birth, they would take your children and toss them over the side. Men would also play games with pregnant women. They would take these knives, come up in her stomach and take out the child. And they would stomp her till there was nothing left. And they would kick it all over the side. History shows you that the sharks that moved in these oceans started changing their migration because there was so much food that was coming out these ships that they started following the ships. Men who decided they would be strong enough that you can't take me. I won't eat. I'd rather die with my belly starving. And men had to wait to take care of that. They would just take hammers and they would break out your front teeth. They would make ship funnels and force food you to eat. You would be swollen, kind of sick and with holes in your body. And they would give you salt water for showers. They would tell you, dance, Negroes, dance. Because this is where you've got your power. History sounds a little familiar. We don't talk about the Africans that got on these ships and actually moved away. So mad I'm here in San Antonio and understood that the Hispanics and the Latinos and whatever you want to call yourself was better respected back in the day. Because all they did was when these Africans took over ships, they got drums. They built drums and they just played. And for some reason, when they got to the areas of Mexico, those drums were answered. So it'd be your dudewa or your jumbe next to the conga drum. And we started to make families. Do you understand that our food still tastes the same? We still had some of the same spices. Our women the same. But if I keep putting a little hate and a little disrespect and I keep saying that your language is the best, we won't even talk about that. We have a continent with over 1,500 languages and its breasts keep you abreast of this situation. That I'm going to keep you on ships for months and months and God, I don't know who to talk to, because everybody keeps talking about police brutality to the end. They keep talking to one another with man. No one on Earth had an answer. So maybe I need to go back to the one who knew me first. Maybe I need to give back to the spiritual circle and understand that this is going to fill up my thirst. I'm having you all here right now because I don't know what else to do. Not all people knew what they do until we start unlearning the education that was learned to them in the beginning. But I need you all to stop trying to be the only one winning. We speak with one voice in one sound. We have to be unified now. I'm tired of having sisters over here being disrespected. I'm tired of the videos and MTV talking about how they need to be rejected. Every song down here talking about other people's clothes, so much disrespect. I just want to go back to that old music. I didn't even need words for it. It just had that vibe. I think that's why I like jazz the best. That means it is a family. You want to know the answer? It's family. You want to understand how we get to the next level? It's family. And family just don't mean mom and dad. It means uncle, nephew. Me, it's understand how I still love seven-toned young girls. I like seeing eight people get out of one car. And now what I'm going to ask you is I'm going to give you something for those who came on these ships where they've been trying these to ask of you. Being at the bottom and the belly of the beast, they all craved one thing and that was life. And I give it back to you. Open your eyes. Behind what's going on, the colonialism is a practice of, basically, more and more in power talking about or controlling another country. So when African people were, did that? We don't control them. They were colonized at that point. They never really even captured them. It's my opinion. And now they're in a, you know, here, as colonized people. And they really need our support. Because they only make up so much of the percentage of the entire population. White people make up 67% of the population. And they, in comparison to Black families, they make 22 times more than Black families. I've watched so many women in the hotels that I see on my side of the city. And their boyfriends are beating them down and grown, big old men sitting there just watching. Out of order, none of my women should ever have to fear anything at all. But we're not with us. So we talk about white privilege, and we talk about all that other stuff. If we don't get this family together, you know, one of my favorite TV shows was Good Times because the father didn't play. Whatever I got to do for mine, I'm going to do for mine. And I need you to know that if I'm walking down the street, I got you. I don't even have to know you, but I got you. Because the respect of a green you, and if it wasn't for you, there would be no me. And we don't talk about that no more. When I got here, nobody even wanted to understand that we come from something so incredible, you know? And you, bro. And I'm only, because we family. With the compass, the square, and the working tools that we moved around here on boats and ships, and our children don't know any of that. So yeah, I'm going to shoot you. Why am I going to shoot you? I don't like me. So what I'll do is I'll kill anything that looked like me, so I ain't got to physically hurt me, but I can get my pain out. Because I don't, nobody loved me. And you're not allowed to show that. Right. And how many black people are in the video that they're showing, like 70 years of white people, but the white people are killing the cops. But I don't want to show it to you. I feel like, I grew up in that college one here, and that's become a web page that no one knows the crisis, the situation we're in now, the fact that we're even recognizing that there's a disparity of resistance. Now, today, we're recognizing the racial issue that's not colorblind. And so, it's another weapon, like, just like almost, I mean, it's like the whole life map. So, so I have a question from one to 10. How well does the community understand the hospitality from one to 10? Outside of this room. Give yourself a break. Yeah, that's what I said. Zero. Zero. We're at zero. Okay. We gave ourselves an answer. Okay. As a whole. I mean, I'll give it a one. As a whole. Okay, there you go. So, it just tells you the work that you need to do. And why does this new, newly born group matter in San Antonio and everywhere else? Because this is the work we have. It's cut out for us already. But I think white community do understand the question is that I think can we imagine, can we imagine what kind of community would we have to live in without the police? I mean, we would have to deal with all sorts of issues in that process. And I feel like we do understand any menway we justify it without actually looking at the root causes. And so, I think to say that we don't understand, I think it's, I don't think it's really true. And the question is, yeah, we don't understand what we do. I think the question is, we do understand, but what do we do without understanding? We don't understand it and we justify it. So, if that had been reversed, that black man would have been part of it on every two states and all of us, all over the world, actually, well, I think he did it or not. But nobody knew about his white diet, his criminal officers, and who they were. It's the media, the media is what changes. Everybody's perception about us is the media. So, basically, we took a 60-minute report, we took a great news to the team-makers, they have got to understand what they have to say. They demonize great news until they want a super bowl. Then they took it from a deal, and they put it right back on top. So, the media really has to be in a controlled state to where they're going to put things on a level playing field. So, they can demonize you today and that you're looking like a superstar tomorrow. Unless it's 24 hours. So, really, that's part of the situation. The media, the media, the media, social media, really all types of media. If you really don't control them, their channel's not ours, BET is not ours, and they dictate the name, they dictate what goes on and what doesn't go on. So, if you go on now, you'll see for the gender, unless it's live, if not the broadcast. I commend LeBron James, and I don't have to go anywhere, it's possible, I commend him for that. And it's really, you need really public figures like that that have a voice to really start stepping out and saying some things about the situation and what's going on. It's not, you know, a class of people look like you see, you got history, you got poor people, you know what I'm saying? Say, people, when we're amongst white people, I think the good thing is to inform the situation and that it's also important for us to be like, well, that's obviously a racist comment. I hate to put it out, but I think that's the first step at this, to say, if I'm not okay with the racism, you can't have that conversation around stuff. Like, if you make a joke, it's inappropriate, you can't tell them what's right. I'm not trying to put you on the spot, but I want to ask you a very specific question, just kind of for my own understanding here. In 2015, how many unarmed black, well, yeah, unarmed black people died as a result of police violence? What do you think that number is? I don't know. At least 102. Okay, you know, we pull a few names off, kind of off the top of our heads, white, brown, you know, it's way more than that. And most people have no idea. If we talk, people say, well, all these police officers are dying. That's not true. The number of police officers dying on the line of duty is 60% what it was 20 years ago, and it's dropping every year. So when five police men die in doubt, that is a tragedy, but it's not the whole story. And if we let that become the whole story, we're losing the battle. And I'd like to go back to a moment, I just told you on the radio, like Joe Pax, you know, racism is life because of Obama. And, you know, and that goes back to the point that like, if you're not educating people for history and really, really bad, bad, bad now, you're like, yeah, racism aside, this isn't the opposite. So I might go to the police and change that. And there's a third threat in this ideology that says that part of the race they're gonna be shooting is the cops when they get scared of going to fight and fight mode. And because when they say, they're not afraid of going to see a black man who initially, in her core says, this is dangerous, so it's like a, like re-education, like it's a very important issue that like a lot of we're going back to educating people about the history of like, man, all this, everything is gone. I don't think there's vehicle for them to speak up. There was this threat, it comes from backgrounds where if you teach us, you were told sure, you were, you know, skilled, and so they think that you're still now. You know, obviously, you know, you're not the best school of the students, it hasn't been confirmed at all this time. It's true. And now, as you see, all of Latin America, it's becoming very right-wing government. So it's getting very worse. And people are being like really suppressed as far as like speaking up with this issue. So I think we need to know who is our community. And so we're talking about all this, it has to earn demands now, you know, and look at it, it's still in the same place that we've been with our parents, our grandparents, from our ancestors, and from the government, and from whoever else we have to demand, we'll get that place. With power, we have that demand, and we have to go in there when our chest is out. This is what we want, we're tied as to what we need to. We're going to actually work with the civil rights and the boycotts. I was going to say that, vote, word. If you stop spending your money with these people, the only thing, the only thing I'm not going to do, those people understand is the dollars, we're the biggest consumer in America. But yet, with the force, of course, to check it out, income tax brackets and economic brackets and all that, if we stop spending money in certain places, I can guarantee these real time. You just can't go out for like, no, you can't go home. It's colonization of the political process, of anything that goes in the workplace, just that we sometimes dominate, we have to be more cognitive of our dominance, we are dominating this country, and we are going to be losing the percentage, our numbers are going to drop, but we've got to become more human in that process, and the way to understand what other people are going through is the first step, I think, because we have a lot to work on, in my opinion, so. I'm not going to say as it might be, because we are so resilient, we're so segregated. Right, right. But when, and I've been one of these people that when I see someone pulled over by the cops and I'm just like, ooh, what are they going to do? Is they're going to know, they're going to go around the block and keep an eye on the situation and everything, and I think that getting out and taping it, if you can, you know what I mean, you'll have jobs, you'll have lives, you'll have to get places, but if you can, be a witness to things that are happening. I mean, I think that the presence of a white person with a camera phone could be the difference between life and death, so you can see that. Did you have a hand up for you to get up? I would like to see a hand up for you, but in person, why? So there's this lack of community of those Hispanic students that's not from California. You know, I feel that older generations that have very simple to say, I noticed that people were, well, that's not a good idea. They don't like it, so I just had to think about it. That was a way out of the white people. And then we think they don't care. So we lose that culture, so I just, that's kind of the idea that they lose that connection, though, in the sense that we've got sense of community because they don't even know we're in the block. We don't want to be able to take care of the rest of the community and put all of the rest of the community in the right place, so we don't want to have to ask for help. And we're always at the community talking about what other things that what other people shouldn't do before it's let through. We've got to take that ownership of the problem. I don't care if it's not the children I'm doing it at home. I don't care if it's not the children. I'm not sure if we're going to finance a solidified future that we're going to tell them. I'm teaching them at home. And at some point in the week, we get about that power within our home. And it's going to start there. And like the brother-in-chief before he left, the respect is a huge issue. I was just talking to her. We have to start at home with this stuff. There's a bigger amount of respect for other children. My black sisters, when I see this, sometimes I'm like, what is this? What is this? What is this? You know, it's like telling everybody black heart because I'm a little bit louder. I'm telling my feelings about that. But you know what I'm telling you? How are we going to decide if we're going to do it? Everybody knows that we're going to do it passionately. Oh, hold on. But it is. You know what I'm saying? My advice is it makes us not want to speak out as we should and know we should. It causes us to lose trust in the community, to lose trust in the police force, perpetuate cultural and racial stereotypes. The police, I noticed that while we were discussing how police brutality affects our community, that we didn't few of us commented on the way it makes us feel towards the police. And when we brought that question up, some of the things that arose were that it makes us afraid and timid around the police and amplifies that respectability politics. It makes us afraid to take a stamp and makes us complacent, causes compulsion and makes us feel as though we have to choose sides. I think that we got something to do. Okay. So we came up with more than 10 so if you would just bear with me I'm going to try to convince them. One of the first things we came up with is that we need our allies to start voting for things that impact the community. We also want to supply 40 qualities. So promote that. The conversation begins with you. So we really need your voice, we need talking, we need you out there again and think it's over. We need to see you in labels. They're derogatory, they're not getting us anywhere. All it's doing is promoting hate. So that's the part we need to look. We need you to not be fearful. Number one, we have your back. If you're standing up for something for us you best believe we're going to support you on your turn. Okay. We need to stop the police quote. That's part of why our time is going up. That's part of why we have these fairies. That's part of why we have these kids. You're trying to be a voter. You're trying to be, you know, the big bad cop. What's happening? We're losing lives. We're going haywire. Not going the way you saw it playing out in your mind. Right? Going just the opposite. So we need to help black officers take a stand so where they're not being ridiculed on the job. Right? Let them know they don't have to choose. This is because they're law enforcement. It doesn't mean they have to go out and arrest us at a higher rate. Okay? It doesn't mean they have to be leaving you to work here on the comm. We need to embrace that. Let them know that it's okay. Make sure that our allies understand that Black Lives Matter is not offensive. It's not a hate group. If you're going to be with us you have to understand what it is that you're joining. That's very, very, very important. Sure that we are a big police officer. It's proper training on how to de-escalate situations. Some of the ways we can do that, we talk about better fitness for duty evaluation. Again, how are these officers on our street? How do we not know they may have a tag and a racism in them? Who's going to go de-evaluation? Are we there? Are we asking the correct question? Okay? Do you want to make sure that we actually have an operational definition of what policing is? So we need to redefine that. It could be that people think that policing is supposed to be about ourselves. But not as a police officer unless I use some type of aggression or assertion. Also, talk about our allies need to challenge their friends who may not understand the Black Lives Matter. We also need to make sure that you're kind of walking a day in our shoes. And I was like, can I get some help on that? I'm walking. I'm walking a day in our shoes. I was like, oh yeah, come on. Basically what I meant by that was a lot of these so-called racist cops don't really know anything about us except what they see on TV in the media. So they're not actually going up in our community. They don't know our culture. They don't know anything about us. So when they see us, they strike fear around us, and they fudge, gangsta-kill us, and it takes us out. I mean, we're just going around out of it. It takes us, you know, to the other place. Yeah. Yeah. I want to ask this to take such matters. So kind of following that up, it was taking a stand with the media. There's not that many black-owned networks. So you all have a point. You have your own radio station, the media station. So please be that way towards get the word out. Don't be afraid to speak up when it comes to the media. We need to make sure that kind of on that accord is speeding up when it comes to social media. It's making sure that our lives are valued just as much, if not more, as an animal. It shouldn't be that an animal gets more likes on Facebook. And then when a black person gets killed, there's no such thing. Right. But we definitely need your help with that. This is a big one, so I'm going to spend a little time on this one, is we really have to have a conversation about the damaging effect of white supremacy and how it is that you may benefit from white privilege. And what that means, because we don't start having that discussion. We're not going to get it. It really starts it. We're not being a hate group or a terrorist group. We need to talk about the KKK. How come we have not fought to get that eradicated as a terrorist group? So we're asking for our allies to stand with us. Let's get that done. We have change.org. We have all these institutions out here. How come we haven't started that? If we haven't, and if we haven't gone anywhere, let's restart it. Because it didn't work this way. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. I think you all just discussed this, but we want to mark on it. It's great that you already had that insight. Is that, basically, we're more alike than we are different. So we really need to unify and just heartland that love. And that's going to really push our movement forward. And to talk more about the media perception, saying that we don't control it. But maybe it's time that if you have a foot in the door, can bite us in. Let us come with you. Let us come to those interviews. We're not going to, again, put you out there by yourself. Please, we're standing at an olive branch. Very last one, I'm going to ask for a little help as well. Sharon, can you help me out? We were talking about the city hall meetings, and that a lot of the times when we have these, they're having time to work. So since you're there, if we could have a list, if we could have that list around, and we were saying, just kind of make sure that our voice is heard that way, right? Let me eat more of the community at the meeting. OK. Because they don't live in our community really. The ones that's representing us. They don't live in our neighborhoods. They live somewhere where they're in a data community, where they're protected. They don't live in the hood here. So we need somebody to represent each one of the different communities at the meetings, and speak up, and say what your counselor is not going, or your counselor is not going for your community. Speak up against the different, you know, the problems you may have while finding out what they're doing with the money that they're giving to take care of our communities that they're not doing. Because our kids are having to go all the way to the north of the side to go have a birthday party at a pizza place. Why don't we have a pizza place on each side? So we can have big parties at the hang-ons. Why don't we have anything to, right? Our kids don't do it. They always have to go to the northwest side, to the north and east side. You know, that's not fair. Our kids deserve the same that all the other kids have been in the same place, you know? So we need to go back to the other meetings. Yeah, pretty much it. This last one seems to be for us. But if you all don't mind, I just want to share it. We were talking about empowerment and teaching our children at home. I'm just going to ask our allies to do that as well. You know, it's hard at home. You start having conversations about why we need to align with one another. Your children are going to pass that on. And guess what? There are going to be many advocates at school saying, oh, this is what we need to do. You know, spread love, spread love, spread love. OK, so how does police brutality affect our community? One of the first things that was thrown out was that it's a work. We're mad. It makes us nauseous. We cry. We're embarrassed to be white. We want to apologize. We feel like we benefit from the system. We're powerless somehow to have to change our reason why we're here. We feel guilty. We've lost friends and family. Trying to speak out. We're going to be friends with them. As part of the statistics that have happened, my nephew was Marquise Jones, who was killed in Chachos in 2014. And regardless of what the media has said, Marquise did not have a weapon. Marquise didn't have anything to actually use what was going on with the passenger. Any vehicle that was in an accident, that he decided, and this is not about me, I want to go public. And he was too much. The officer pulled the weapon without asking any questions. And this is in black and white on paper. Everything. A cop did not say, stop. You stay here. Don't move. Don't do anything. Marquise proceeded to walk home and started jogging down the driveway. And was shot at nine times. And one bullet hit him. Second, severed him. They ordered him to die before he hit the ground. So when y'all say, or other races say black lives, you want to get mad at us because we say black lives matter, majority, if you look at the news, you pay attention, you read, majority of the black men that are dying have no weapons in their hands. They don't cause any type of friction. They're dying on our streets because the police, as he said, are afraid of us. They feel that we, with the dark skin, and this is women too. We have Saturday's land, we have several women that some of y'all may not know about that are dead because they are afraid of us. The media has betrayed us that way. Rappers have betrayed us that way. So even now, with what's going on, I've started paying attention, and I'm talking to one of my friends. White people are afraid of us. Y'all get in the elevator with us, y'all are afraid of us. And the joy of us, we're not gonna do anything. We're not even thinking about you. We are just getting to where we need to go. I have several Hispanic friends begging to inward, like it's nothing. Like it's nothing. And I'm like, do you realize you're basically on the same level that we're from? When they look at y'all, they see the same thing with you guys. So as a community, we need to come together. San Antonio needs to wake up and understand there is a problem here in our own city. We worry about what will go on in back rooms in Minnesota and our heart aches for those people. But look and pay attention to what's going on in your own city. Read, go talk, we have protests. We have all kinds of different things going on in the city. And we put it out on social media. I don't do Instagram and all that, go over all that. But we need to, that's what we need y'all to come out and support us. If they see us all as one community, as one person and we come out and we speak against the violence that the police are doing here in our own city, we can stop what's going on. If we start here, it's like a pebble. You drop a pebble and what does it do? So we gotta start here and worry about what will go on in our city. We can't go into other cities and work because they don't worry about bears. It's San Antonio and ever since my nephew was killed, it is only a handful of people that come out when we protest or we go to anything. And it was said from downtown, we're not worried about them. They ain't like this. What can they do to us? But if we come together as a majority and as a voice as one, they can't do anything but listen to us. My name is Walter Perry, I'm a community activist over on the East Side of the Town. I'm a short man who grew up in the East Side of the Town. Now they do it here in the East Side of the Town. Well, let me tell you this really quickly. I'm a part of the East Side community. I grew up, I ran with gangs as a teenager. I ended up going to prison at the age of 17. I did almost eight years. I went from 1993 to 2001 when I was in there. I obtained my associate's degree. I got a Trump dollar license and I still owe that right now before I get my business degree. That's, I've been home 15 years already. Yeah, yeah, the reason why I stated that is because there are a lot of guys like me on my side of town. But you wouldn't know that because these guys get the door shut in their faces constantly, every day. I just have to step through the cracks. I don't know how, but I did. Now, what I'm doing, I'm on the East Side. I'm talking to a lot of these young brothers and young sisters, Latino sisters, white, because there are certain sides of the East Side that we have this mentality. When you think about the East Side, what do you think about? Good, right? You think about it's going down over there. You think about do whatever you want to do. But that's not the case right now. The case on the East Side right now is that we've had over 12 burdens since the beginning of this year. A lot of these murders have been senseless murders. Murders behind anything from a Facebook post to somebody looking at you in the store. So my fight is not necessarily just the police. That's one aspect of it. Our fight is mentally on that side of town. As a people, we have a mental disease that we think that good mentality is the way for us to go and it's not the case. So what I'm preaching right now to my people, all the people on my side of town, because I deal with a lot of youth, I've just done a youth forum just now, is that you have to educate yourself on who you are. A lot of us don't even know who we are. We have names, we have nicknames, we have street names that we got tattooed on us, we have artists, other stuff, but we don't really know who we are as a people. So I'm serving as an example to people who went through these types of things, to show them that there are opportunities, but here's the problem. I just told you that there's a lot of guys like me over there, but they get doors shut in their faces because of the things that they've been through. So I'm asking everybody who's white, everybody who's black, everybody who's Hispanic, Latino, Latina, Native American, whatever you are in here, our power is in the boat. That is the true power. We can make all the programs we want to, we can save a few hundred, save a few dozen, but when you pass law, you are changing thousands and thousands and thousands of people. Who is not registered to vote in here? Tell the truth. You are not registered to vote, but if you are registered to vote and you're not voting, you are part of the problem. You are a part of the problem. When you don't vote, when you don't go down to city council, when you don't know who your representatives are in your district, you are a problem. Not only that, when you see people who are rallying for certain causes, like police brutality, funding for social programs, when our youth on that side of town allow them to have not had a job and never reached the ages of 19 years old. I remember growing up, I started working at the age of 14 with B.C.Y.C. Those programs do not exist over on that side of town. You know why? Because the African American culture is not being respected. It's not being looked upon as people that need the help. They call us those bangin' leaders on the east side. Yeah. Well, you are a business owner and you go from funding to the city. They said, what do you want? I want help. Oh no, you're gonna use that money and print it for drugs. That is the mentality that the city council and our black mayor has formed. And she lives on the east side. On the east side, our council person lives on the east side. She walks right outside of her yard and she looks at downtown and she walks right back in. Not with the intentions of trying to come over to something new on that side of town, but to see how she can suck the rest of the life out of those people. The east side is not a people of savages. There are people that need help. We have hope. We have a lot of creative people on that side of town. We have a lot of fatherless babies on that side of town. We have a lot of people walking around just combobulating full of drugs and they need help. So my white friends, you probably looking at me and saying, wow, man, you're a real admiring doctor, stand up and say, no, I don't want you to do that. I need your vote. I need you to look at our issues and say, how can I use my white privilege to help this group? Latinas, Latinos, American Indians or whoever else is in here? You need to figure out how we can put our votes together. First of all, let's think of something that we can all benefit from collectively as a group. And let's vote it. Let's vote about it. And find out who your representatives are. If they're not doing what they're supposed to do, you vote them out, vote them out. They're going to continue to do what they're supposed to be. They're going to continue to suck the life out of your community. We have problems like affordable housing, the east side, what they did, gentrification is a definition. You lower the price of suffering. It's out of a community. And you make everything cheap. Then you come in and you buy that lower price. And once you get it, you raise it up again. That's what's happening on the east side right now. People with this place from a large community and just shot everywhere. What they did was wander the whole area, tour around the places, build something else and raise the value of, and now these people can't even move back. Economic genocide. Why is that? And they were promised this. Over 300 families was promised this. So this is something to think about because it's going to affect your neighborhood soon too. Gentrification is real. And the problem starts when we don't educate each other. We have to educate our people. We have to de-educate them and then re-educate them again. So I'm asking everybody right now, if you have access to resources, please. It doesn't necessarily have to be money, it could be income services. It could just be your vote. But we need you when we go to City Hall to ask for these types of things. And black people, I'm talking to my people, vote. Your vote matters. Don't sit up there and say, I would like this person, I'm not going to go vote because the person I want is not there. No, the person that's making decisions for your neighborhood and for your kid's future, they said to write at City Hall. And if you don't get up and go do something, I don't want to hear that crying. I'm looking at everybody in here because the problem is us. It starts with us. What are you going to do to make your community better? I'm not going to depend on nobody to save me. I got blocked for that. But what I am depending on somebody is somebody to step up, speak up and go to the polls. So join your neighborhood association. Join your PTAs and get involved with your kid's future. Join some things that's going to change your neighborhood one city at a time, one block at a time. So you don't have to be seeing somebody like me standing up here and getting at you or having one of your kids go to the penitentiary because they didn't know the law. So before I close, I want to tell you that crying on that side of the channel is tearing us apart. And it comes from lack of love. So I want everybody to think about this when they go home. What can I do to be an inspiration to somebody else tomorrow? And when you wake up, I guarantee you're going to have to answer it if it's a city leaving your heart. My name is Walter Perry. I'm easy to find. I'm on the East Side all the time. And if you can't find me on Facebook, go vote. Thank you. About me, I'm not a failure. I stand up, not perfect, but I stand up. In the face of adversity, in the face of racism, we have to stand. Because if we don't do that, we're going to get walked all over. And what I wanted to do tonight, was just really empower everyone to find your inner voice, know that everybody in here, that's the most powerful tool you have. Don't stop. You can't stop. And say to yourself every day that you won't stop. There's no way we make it if we lose our voice. And if you haven't found it yet, that's okay. Because a lot of times what we do is we do it another way. Right? Your voice could be the work you do with your hand. Your voice could be the email that you send that you have along. Your voice could be a handshake, a hug. Let's do that. Let's make sure that we're spreading love. Let's make sure that we're unifying. Let's make sure that we're teaching people that we believe the same. We have to do that. I want to talk to you from a mother. Yeah, but it's just like college, right? I don't want you all to know me as that. I want you to know Mary Katz. It's so important because I have a two-year-old son and it breaks my heart. He's two now. My thought is what happens when he's 12, 22, 32. I can't go home. I don't have family here. But I can't go to Chicago. You want to know why I can't go where my mom is, my brother is, where my uncles are, where my father's resting place is. I can't go there because they will kill him. Right. And I didn't labor that long. I'm not out here being a single mom butting my butt to Barry Charleston. I am here to make sure he becomes somebody. At two-year-old, I'm already hearing how articulate he is. How such a great job you're doing with him. Well, you know what? I would really love for everybody to grow up with him. I would love for by the time he's 22, that it's not just a subset of people who was able to talk about who he was before he became an adult. Yeah. I need you to know him when he's a grown man. And I can't do it without your help. None of the mothers, none of the fathers, nobody in here can do it without your help. I embrace you. I can hug and kiss each and every last one of you. But let me tell you something. Love is what we need. We're not gonna get through it without you. And I love you. I don't know you, but I love you. I love you. Baby, I love you. You hear me? I love you too. And I'm asking that you love us back. And how you love us is be our ally. Don't be afraid. We spoke before about we got you. We got you. Those aren't just words. You have to understand something about black culture. When we say that, we mean that. We say fear of our own. And that allies you are our home. So I love you. I hope that you don't fall silent. I hope that you become empowered, that you stay the course. And I did write an essay Sunday because I was badly struck. And when I'm upset, that's all I can think to do is write. You know, I don't believe in violence. I don't believe in profanity. I don't believe in looting. I believe in taking the stands and showing you that I'm everything that you say I'm not. So I have that essay here today. And I know that people don't like things that are long. It is six pages. But if you want it, let me know. I guarantee you will not be disappointed. It is titled How We Overcome because there's a lot in here that all of you have already said. So I know that we're on the right path. You want it, let me know. Thank you. Jonathan Jones, what can I say? I've been in this fight for a little bit. My brother, Mike Love, or more, I guess more recently recognized as the organizer of the recent gathering that we had at Travis Park, which Kim's with the case at expressing this board so accurately described it as all that matter. Right. It went so far as to quote me as the all-life matter organizer. Yeah, yeah. But what are you going to do at this point? Like I said, there's some people that's not the last time we're going to hear from us so they'll get it right next time. All that being said, I want to reiterate something that I'm sort of a walkthrough of saying and that even though we're in a fight for Uber versus Pax, there's literally an issue with San Antonio right now. We care about our spurs and we care about our restaurants. While we got people dying. You know, the distractions are out there. And I'm not saying you can't do both, but it's an issue with our sensitivity right now. Like, well, we can comment and share and we can go on Facebook and we can like things and love things and then where are we when it's time to fight. So all that being said, my business from moving forward is, as Ms. Debra said, I said before, you cannot in any way police a community that you're afraid of. I'm going to be very important, get out of our neighborhood. If you can't stop thinking with a gun, get out of our neighborhood. If you were witnessing the robbery and you see that man run up at gas station with that best buy with the TV in his hand, I don't even think it's the best buy over there, but. If you see him walking out with the merchandise and you're afraid, sitting in your car and waiting for somebody else to show up. Because we can investigate the robberies. We can find the merchandise, we can find the curb, we can watch videos, but we can't investigate a dead body. There's no more he say she say the other side of the argument is dead. So we need police reform. That's my first thing, we need police reform. Whether that be diversity, cultural training, but you're going into a neighborhood of people that you don't understand, you don't understand our language, you don't understand what we talk like, what we look like, you don't understand our mannerisms. You're going into these situations of grief. And that's what we got situations like for Glen O'Cat stills reaching for a license and he gets shot because you're scared. Why are you scared? I don't know, you're going to be done, but that's just a stupidity. I do know why I'm scared, but anyways. That's all we end up in these situations like this. All that being said also, somebody mentioned it earlier, City Hall. The citizen advisory board are people that are not even a part of the citizen that they're representing. That's another thing that I think needs to be changed. We got people out there that's representing us, the community, that is not a part of the community. So all that being said, police reform needs to get in the city, like what's with the same thing with both people out. With a lot of skating that's going on right now in our city, I think one of it is because we are a very huge growing city. By 2020 we're expected to be one of the great cities in America, and I think there's a lot of things that because of that stand in front of us, trying to keep under wraps. Because they don't want us to know what's wrong. They don't want that in the media because we want to be great, we want to be cool. We want to be like the other cities, but we... Like people said, we might end up like the other cities, like Baton Rouge, like Baltimore. Because I can guarantee, when one thing goes wrong, this city is not as much different as we have to think they are. Just because we've got this furthest and they're together, I can guarantee you that these cops around here, they're not as good as we try to think they are. So, all that being said, moving forward, I think community is very important. Like when Brother Watson was saying, we got to go on the other end, we can't just stop it just because we got to go to love. We got to be ready to educate people. We got to be ready to show each other love because we got a lot of people out there that have lost and confused. Men's board over at Sam Houston High School does a little boy named Eli who's a freshman. He's a track runner. That's where the UTSA is when we connected there. Eli was telling me about a running that he had with the police officer and how angry he was and what he wanted to do to the next cop that he ran into. All I saw was Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown. I just saw the list. I just got scared for that little boy's heart. And we need that mentor. We need people to go in there and show them a different way. Because there's a lot of pressuring teams going on right now, we got our young people that don't even know how to navigate those emotions. And we're not really showing up until they die. So that's an issue. So I'm not gonna talk much further from here. I do have cars, so I just want to stay next to everybody. I'm working with a lot of people, like Walter, like Ms. Debra, like Ms. Mary Kay, like Ms. Mary, which I appreciate so much for this meeting, and my brother, Mike Lowe. Anytime we're out there marching, anytime I'm both in the gathering, he's both in the gathering, I can guarantee you it was my brother, Mike Lowe right next to me. No matter how much we differ on opinions, we were just talking about this last time at the gathering. I was like, I'm about to make my M-O-K. I love you all like your brother, man. I love you all like your brother. But we're gonna be out there. So come out, and I want to thank everybody, that whole bunch of cars with me today. And so we're gonna be doing something moving forward, staying in touch. So, yeah. I know. And what? And then the lift left the top. Mother lost it. No, no. Tech something prepared. But if you hear nothing else tonight, please hear this. You heard some amazing ideas and concepts. And how many of you heard something here tonight that you have not heard before? Great. How many of you heard something here tonight that you've heard many times before? Exactly. My point in saying that is none of this stuff is new because the system that created police brutality is not new. And so it is bigger than San Antonio. It's happening out there. It's bigger than San Antonio. It's bigger than Texas. It's bigger than the South. It's bigger than the United States of America. It is a global issue. I had someone ask my son who's in New York right now, don't do, don't you wanna move back to New York? You know, you really wanna deal with this stuff in Texas. He said, I'm black. Where am I gonna go if I have this issue? Right, right. If you look at it as a global issue, here's what happens. You realize you can't fix the whole problem. But each one of you can do what you do and do it best. So if you've heard me speak before, you're hearing the same thing again. But if you haven't, please hear it again. No one single person in here is going to fix white supremacy. No one person in here is going to fix police brutality. You're not gonna fix it in the globe, in the country, in the state, in the city. You're not gonna fix it in this room. But you're gonna do what you do. So if you bake cookies and you sell those cookies for 10 cents and donate that money for somebody else to do something, do that. If you speak on Facebook, spread that joke. Do that. If you go around to your garden party, do that. I will say this. At this point in the game, with this many people dying, we no longer need allies. If you are here to be an ally, I ask you to reconsider. Forget allies, at this point, we need to accomplish it. If you're not gonna be able to do it, you can step back. So if somebody who's willing to shed blood for this cause can do the same. When we say shed blood, everybody's not gonna march. I have a disability. There's some days I can't walk. I can't stand up. But those of you who know me know, I will speak my tail off. I will write my tail off. Some of you have audience with Congress people, with mayors, with people that you go to work with. Use that. Whatever you do, you would be. Do it well, do it hard. White supremacy is a demon that has permeated this country from the conception. We're not gonna kill it one individual. But together, we can kill this demon with a million times. We're here tonight with Ashley Billard. She's the president of Black Lives Matter at UTSA. And we just wanted to get a general statement from her about how she felt about this event, how it went, and the overall Black Lives Matter movement across the United States and the current status of racial racism in the United States. Hey, I think the event tonight is a great step towards having a conversation that's inclusive of the victims of police brutality, the victims of anti-Black violence within our San Antonio community and worldwide, but also with the allies who wanna contribute to the cause, and they may not know where to start. So this is like a learning opportunity for them. They can come, they can discuss amongst themselves the issues and hold each other accountable, but at the same time refer back to having that African leadership that I believe is important in order to dismantle anti-Black violence. Because if you don't understand how white supremacy affects a Black person or African people as a whole collective, then how can you work together towards dismantling it? You know, the room is very hot, but I think our passion for justice and for liberation and to change is even hotter. And I think tonight a lot of us will take away from these conversations and learn how to implement them in our own lives and we'll connect better and unify, which is also a powerful standpoint. Like you can't do it alone. Like Reverend Max was saying earlier, you have to get together with people and work together in order to truly make a change. One of the points that I wish we kind of elaborated on tonight was how, like yes, love and unity is gonna be beneficial to us, but we also need to have the money and the power to back ourselves up. When we dismantle this system, what are we gonna implement in its place? What are we gonna replace it with? Yes, solving police brutality is one thing, but police brutality is not a source of its own. It comes from something else and it's a symptom of a much deeper problem, AKA colonialism. And so how do we get rid of colonialism? And so I think those are the steps that we need to take in order to truly receive the liberation that we ask for. And hopefully from this I can take away a lot of different points, different viewpoints and I can figure it out, see how we can even reflect on the UTSA campus and how we can make a change for the students there and get them involved in the San Antonio community and realize it's not just a social media movement, it's a real life movement and we have to be proactive in that. Sorry, did I answer all the questions? Yes, you did. Once again, I wanna thank Ashley for giving us some of her time today. Ashley, I think it's important for people to understand this white supremacy doesn't just affect African Americans or Hispanic community and a lot of people, I think we talk about white privilege so much that people don't realize how, I don't like saying white people because I don't believe in that, but you're greatly oppressed by white supremacy as well. And one thing is I feel like that community is so much more asleep than other communities are because you think that you're safe because of your color. And I think part of Black Lives Matter is all life matters because all life comes from Blacks. So if we're not safe, you guys definitely are safe. So it's important to understand how white supremacy is oppressing you as well. A lot of people don't know what that means, a lot of people do it unconsciously. What was the word? Microaggressions. Mike, what is it? Microaggressions. Mike, give a definition. Oh, you're so pretty for a Black girl. She literally said something in there about her son being so articulate. That is a microaggression. That is somehow amazing that a young Black child could be articulate. Oh, that was a microaggression. Over Daniel Brooks, the actress, was flying first class on an airplane, and they said, oh, aren't you lucky? Right, as if that's somehow, you know, oh, you made it to this section, like that's unburned. Those are microaggressions. Those are small, little racist attacks that are done unconsciously, and they don't seem over, right? Like you said, you don't have a cross burning in your yard anymore. And I think that it goes to, it's more convert. I think that we get taught this like historical lesson of like a hundred years ago, it was this way, and that is racism. No, we need to recognize what is racism and racial prejudice now, and the language they're using now, and confront that. And you know, I just have offices like school boards, but I would add that both our county and our city have various boards and commissions. These are not for the most part elected offices. You can actually apply the serve on them, and it's up to city councilmen in that district to help choose, and a lot of these boards do not have plenty of open seats. The position I used to serve on was an elected position, it was called a representative of the poor, which oversaw programs under the Community Action Division, which is a federal program. I served for about 14 years, but over half of that was as a holdover, because I couldn't find anyone to run for my seat. And that's a problem that all these boards and commissions have, which are volunteer positions. The housing commission still has holdovers. And this is a commission with the city that addresses housing issues. I would encourage any of you to get involved with support, run for various school board seats, or serve on various community boards, but also remember the city needs people to serve on the various boards and commissions that actually a lot of the initial action that city councils take come from these boards and commissions. The police, I mean, it's very real life, I mean, real facts for relative information up to the very hour and moment. And the last thing is mapping police bodies. Those websites, campingsero.org, checkthepolice.org, thecountchip, either.org.com and the mapping police bodies. Listen, if you don't know what you're talking about, it's kind of hard to hold the conversation. It's kind of hard to build credibility if you're just going about your opinions and your feelings, but mid-life, women-life, numbers don't. And the numbers speak for themselves. Those are some resources to be a part of the conversation. I've been around. Me, too. So you remember the 1960s and the 70s. Vietnam. Free love. You have free love, but a lot of dead soldiers over and Vietnam, a lot of dead people here. So it wasn't not everything that, you know, freedom is the last word that's gonna jump on. Anyway, here's an idea. Everybody partner up. You know what the police do? And they're out and around. They always have a partner. Always have a guy that's backing him up wherever he is on the other side of the block of the side of town. So what we need to do tonight, everybody you see here, how are you gonna guarantee, you know, the future? This is the future, folks. The people you see here, this is it. Get a partner. We all partner up. Then when something happens, you know, we've got a partner. We know what happened here tonight. We know what we wanna see in the future. Just an idea.