 Well, so first my name is Rashad Norris and I'm the Director of Q&T Engagement here at Highline College and we're here today with a few young brothers that go to school here, attend here as students and also work here. So I will allow them to introduce themselves and then today what we're going to do is have a round table conversation or not even round table conversation but a conversation just around what does it mean to be a young man of color in today's world plus I'll give you a snapshot of the Black and Brown male summit that is now its sixth year in the making here at Highline College and where we started from and why we started that summit and with these individuals who attended the summit what did they see come out of the summit for these young men who are participants in our local school district. So I'll let you allow you to start. Hi, my name is Notorious Ezell, I'm the Program Assistant for the Black Emotions Cohort and I'm also the Intern Assistant for Sociology Department and I just I attended the Black and Brown Summit I think like two years ago like as being a caucus leader and just heavily involved with these young men so that's my role here on campus. I'm Josephus Tolo, this is my second year here at Highline Community College or Highline College should I say and I'm also an employee here at Highline and I'm also going to be talking about what it feels like to be a person of color and I'm going to talk about the Black and Brown Summit too. My name is Christopher Robinson, I am a student here at Highline, I've been part of the Emotions program that's where I met Rashad Norris and Ezell or Notorious Ezell so it's been cool being a part of this and having this journey and being a part of the Black and Brown Summit also so just to get started I've been here now at Highline for seven years and so we've or eight years I'm sorry so this is a sixth year for the Black and Brown Summit. The Black and Brown Summit how this all came about was my second year as an employee here at Highline I went down to a conference down in Florida and it was called the Black and Brown College Battle Conference and down in Florida it was set up where the the colleges worked together to put on this large summit that was a Thursday to a Saturday summit and so they brought in all the college young men from the local colleges and to the to a hotel room a hotel and they did a large conference there where these students actually stayed the night over and so when I came back up from that conference a couple colleagues of in mind we came back up here with the idea to put together our own summit here at the college so that's where the Black and Brown originated from two colleagues of mine Natasha Burrow she's no longer here and then Aaron Reeder who is no longer here as well and so we came up with a blueprint we presented to the college to his ex-staff and to our president to VP and we brought it up here so it being a sixth year this is something that is special it's been a part of Highline it's been a part of the community and then we just give you guys a little history of the Black and Brown summit where we started out in 2011 with 35 students it was maybe 35 to 30 students who showed up it was quite it was a experience because we know that we're in the most diverse community in the state of Washington so a summit such as this I thought was speak volume to the communities and to the schools with having their students attend well on that day it didn't just it just didn't happen like that it was very it was it was a low turnout but it was a good it was the ones who showed up we're supposed to be here and just to bring you up to date on the sponsorship with we had at the first content the first summit we had a achievement a dream which was an initiative that we had here at the college and it gave us like $20,000 and it was supposed to be buses that we're supposed to bring these students here to the campus but like like I said it just didn't happen like that we're in our sixth year we have over 500 students here now we have grown with our number of workshops we had like four to five our first year now we have enough like to eight to 13 and so our numbers are continuing to grow there's individuals that are now helping out sponsoring us with doing the summit we have our foundation we have our president's office also we have our rotary club and Federal Way their actual sponsoring so we have many sponsors that are helping with putting forth money to bring our students here to the campus so it's it's been a beautiful thing how we got to this number was I held a little small summit or not summits but small little discussions with young men of color at these schools and so that gave them a precursor of what was going to happen in November and there's so much with this story around the black and brown male summit the reason why you're here I would love to have you talk about what does it mean to be a young man of color in today's world because I know that you know there's a lot of not just scrutiny but a lot of stereotypes going on a lot of you know people have perceptions of what it means to be a young man of color I know the reasons why I put this together and I know the reasons why others who joined the team or the committee to put this together I know why they've done it as well but just coming from YouTube and from you as well you say what is it that really just sticks to you about the responsibilities you have as a young man of color in today's world or today's society or even in your community and I saw what you tell her well to start off I'm a lot of things I am a brother I am a father I am an uncle and I have a lot of responsibilities and I'm glad you brought that up because responsibility is something that's something responsibility is something that we have to take care of it's not something that we could put off and do something else and growing up my cultural background I was born and raised in Africa and I came here at the age of 11 so having those two atmospheres in two different environment it has really changed my life and I never knew how much of a value I was to my family to my society and to the whole world until an event took place that made me realize how important how different I am from other people a perfect example was important and I want to go eat with Christopher Robinson and Jordan Callaway and as we entered the restaurant we see that everybody else was seated eating their food and nobody was asked to pay first before they eat however us the three of us was asked to pay first before we were seated and we caught that but we didn't want it to blow out of proportion because we didn't know what was going on so we went to the restaurant and we were trying to figure out what was going on and Christopher and I were asking people in the restaurant hey did you guys pay first before you guys was seated before you guys eat and everybody was like no we didn't pay first and I was like hmm that's weird so Christopher took the initiative to go talk to the manager and he asked the manager hey how come you asked us to pay first before we sit we were seated to eat and she played the innocent game oh I didn't know it's the policy you know we're busy and then we asked her are we the only people that you asked to pay first before you seat us down to eat and she said yes and it was really shocking it was really shocking because that was my first time my whole entire life I felt like I was not worthy of anything I felt like just because the skin color of my tone the color of my tone I have I've been discriminated against I didn't understand and we have money to pay and I didn't understand why it happened and I felt like I didn't have any value so after that event took place it made me realize that there's a lot of things in this society nowadays that is going on especially being a black person it's really hard because you're always a target you're always a suspect anything that happens people always point finger your black oh go check that person and most cases you're innocent and I'm just a kid just like everybody else you know 20 years old still growing up have a lot to look forward to and that was my first experience that I have with racism and discrimination so that was a really big eye opener for me that was when I was like man this is a serious topic and I mean to address it and we came back here to Washington we told everybody that we knew about it and that was just one thing that stood out to me that changed my life ever since then you know dealing with racism is one part of being a black man and part of growing up and being a person of color I feel like I have a lot of responsibilities you know I mean I have a lot of I have a lot of things to make up for those of us who are accused of not doing it right or or just of how we're looked at I feel like I almost have to step my game up and and fight harder than the average person just because of the things that are you know pushing against us you know one of those examples was you know when me and Josephus we went to the restaurant and we're you know publicly discriminated against you know and growing up in a you know state of Washington was like a hippie hippie hippie area you know in Seattle specifically and getting outside of my bubble right to where to areas where it's not as diverse like Portland and being in Oregon right where they're pretty much known to be blatant about it and it's not like it's not that other people don't think it you know I mean it's just that they said it openly and so being a person of color I'm constantly feeling this type of interaction with other people right and it's people of color too you know it's I feel like I have to be more responsible because I'm already looked at looked at in a certain way in a certain image in a certain mirror so I feel like that's why the black and brown summon is so important because for one when you're going through this type of this type of I don't want to say persecution but when you're when you're getting this type of pushback and you're experiencing these things it can do a lot to you psychologically I feel like one thing it can attack would be your attack how you feel emotionally about yourself about your people your surroundings and I feel like that's one thing that is tackling is you know when I dare at the restaurant I mean the food didn't taste as good you know what I mean like I'm eating what I love to eat but it's like I'm so emotionally conflicted and how I've been disrespected that the food is kind of like the food is not that good anymore you know what I mean and so we thought of a million or one things we could have done after the fact that we were there never experienced in that type of disrespect like that from story managers and things like that but you know it's definitely something that that's needed in our community and you can tell by the turnout I mean people show up because this is what we need you know I mean it's it's not something that we I don't feel like it's something that the community wants or something that we need and this is very valuable and important so so me coming from I'm a little older than you guys me Rashad same age my involvement in the black and brown and first in to kind of you know talk about what Rashad said about how does it feel I had a situation and you know I didn't know that happened to you guys because I'm real close working with you guys and I didn't know that happened and I had a situation maybe like a month ago that me and my daughter was in the car and I was driving my Cadillac and the police saw me and they turned around in the middle of the street and got behind me now my license my insurance everything is okay but they followed me and so my daughter was we was driving and they was following me everywhere I was going I was like and so my daughter bit down to do something I was like stop stop and she was like why dad and I was like they're gonna pull up she was like but we're not doing anything and so those post traumatic things that happen like as a result like me being older than you guys this stems from things that happen I grew up in the south I grew up in Alabama and just things happening down there still to this day have me you know I work every day I go to school I have like I own my own home you know all these things I'm a taxpayer I vote all these things but we'll still look that as being less than who we are and so my daughter caught it right then she caught it she was like dad I didn't you know and it was a shock and I was like wow I didn't been exposed to a lot of things in my life and you guys are and I'm still getting exposed to it and so going through all that racism and all that in the south growing up and then coming up here and then finding out about things like the black and brown summit did some of these things are not allowed in institutions now so they is it's picking shoes and so one thing that got me like want to be very passionate about helping and that's why I told with Shaw is like anything you need me to do I'll do it and one thing is because if it's a way for us to give back I have to be in that realm where I can help somebody else because I wasn't given the opportunity you know I'm able to see people like with the amulet and black and brown I'm able to see people like people that don't look like me still invest in us and when you got people that are investing you you know because that incident that happened with you guys that was horrible but then you come back and look on this end and you look at Rashad and look at what he's doing you look at what we're doing and trying to give back to you and not just you guys but the people that are coming behind you that's important and so my years attending the black and brown this is like this will be my third year I just got on the committee and I'm looking forward to just being you know just getting in because I seen these young men during the summer we was in and I was a caucus leader last year and I saw these young men like I was at a table with them and they like open up about like every like tell me what's going on and a lot of times we don't know what's going on with these kids like why are you in school like when you go to school why are you tired it's like well my teacher never asked because I was babysitting trying to help my mom I'll keep my little brother my little sister and these things like that that we never asked or they're never asked and so these things are important and the black and brown gave them a window to like open up and we can work with them and try to help them in a ways and they need their voice like our young men all people young people need their voice but our young men of color they really need their voice right now so that's good that's good and I was and and let me just say this because I know that I'm always I believe in team that's one thing I believe in team I believe that you know yes one person can get things started but the team is really that helps to push along and keep it going so the committee members that have been a part of black and brown for the last seven years have been amazing I mean been amazing for these young people and I just want to give kudos to all those who have been a part of the black and brown male summit and your work in the committee members all of you who've been a part of it the ones who who started out who have now gone on to do other things but who just are still connected to the black and brown male summit it's I just we just thank you I thank you it's been a great experience I know we're going to continue this going on and I would just say what really got me started and wanting to give back and I remember in my my master's program I went to evergreen state college for my mpa and I put together a mentoring program and I know I always want to do work like this this is something as you know people always say you're passionate oh you got a great passion for this and I tell people that no but this is my purpose I'm supposed to do this you know and we all read books and I'm a big reader and one one book that I read a person that I've idolized is Nelson Mandela and he you know his saying is each one teach one and I think is wrong for us is the man of color who have had the privilege and the the ability to to navigate in such a society as we navigate it in and became more educated with um knowing what surround us and knowing why we moved the way we move it's wrong for us not to give back right so when I see that when I when I see us as young men of color and we see a young man that may be moving a certain way that we know good and well that's the wrong way right you know I'm saying it's it's wrong for us not to say hey man stop right you want a wrong way right it's wrong yeah you know it's wrong but what we like to do is we like to posture up on one another so when we want to give each other some help we think we give in some some you know let's get down right and we need to change that posture so the black and brown male summit that's one of the goals is we need to change the way we see each other in a way we communicate to one another you know and so with that being said what book so what what individual that you you kept in the minds in your mind when you move just keeps you just thinking is you know what this is the way I need to go this is a good way you know while one book that comes to mind for me would be a book by Joy DeGru post-traumatic slave syndrome and that's something that we actually had to read in the Mosier program and it speaks about that philosophy that Nelson Mandela had reach one teach one and I feel like I mean that's extremely important I mean why I'm here today is because of you guys you guys are the older generation and you are to set the path for me and I'm gonna do the same for the next generation you know and that's the most I feel like that's one of the most critical parts that we need in our communities and that's what the black and brown summit offers is for healthy role models in our communities to be able to say hey this isn't necessarily the right way you know when you have when you have a parent that's providing for a whole household and you have one parent and they're constantly working and like you said before that child could be babysitting at home you know what is he doing with that time you know he doesn't have a parent to necessarily influence him in the way that he needs to go so he has friends right and kids teaching kids probably ain't the healthiest thing you can possibly get so it's definitely important and I feel like it's critical for us to move forward as a people to have you know the older generation constantly mentoring us and giving us that wisdom of how we should move you know I mean plenty of people my age you know and they're just they're in a spot where it's just like man you know if if you would have had a dad right or if you would have had a role model a healthy role model therefore you definitely wouldn't be in a spot that you are now so I find I constantly find myself mentoring people my age you know what I mean and it's not something that I want to do but I understand it's something that we have to be able to communicate with each other we have to be able to educate each other and and I've been I had the luxury to be educated you know I met you guys it was a blessing for that and now that I get the knowledge I'll harness that knowledge you know I'll try to give it back to people in my community in general and within that line I think that the biggest portion of that is that growing up I never really had the environment that I would call home so what he said was I went out there to go look for my own home because if you don't have something ever on you said screw it I'm going to build my own home and that's what I went out there to go do and growing up there was this little seminar discussion that was taking place in middle school and it's called the line game and you start within the line with everybody else and they read out certain things that may or may not apply with you for example they would say take a step forward if you grew up with both here in the household when this seminar was taking when this little activity was taking place I was in the back of the line I had nothing I was in the back and I was all by myself and I feel like I was not of value because everybody else was up ahead and I asked myself my way why am I in the back is it because I lack of what they are asking me or is it because I have much more that they're not asking me and growing up we did the exact same line game in church it was a similar activity and maybe say it's about three four years that has passed now and the exact same questions were read out and I noticed that I moved 10 steps forward than I was last time and it wasn't because I didn't it wasn't because I tried to progress myself and be a better person it was because I was exposed to new light all I've known was darkness and meeting a notorious meeting you and knowing that there are people out there who cares about these younger generations that are trying to create a change because where we're at right now it's not where we need to be we need to be at a better place and seeing that people like you are taking the initiative to do that with the younger generation and teaching them and saying hey you're going towards this direction but that is not where you want to go let us steer you and that's why I'm really proud this black and brown cylinder was created because it helps enlighten those people who think they already know and like Bruce said how you supposed to fill up your cup if it's already full you know if you think you already know everything how you supposed to learn anything and a great line that goes with that with basketball is that it says one man can be a crucial ingredient on the team but one man cannot make a team and and real quick I want to clarify and because I feel like this is really important I what we're all not saying right is that there is any problem with black people right I just want you know I want to make sure that's clear I feel like the problem is the systems that are in place that are that are pressed upon black people and the importance of the black and brown summit is not to get black people better like a treatment or an ointment for our for our blackness I feel like the importance of this summit is to educate us on how we can arise above the systems that are in place you know there's there's tons of things that the systems do to us that directly affect us and we have to learn as men of color how we fight the system in a positive way and not in a self-destructive way or in a way where we just say screw it right let's do our own thing and you know but give us a way to fight and and that's what the black and brown summit is is you guys equip us you give us the weapons and the tools with with education right with a book in the hand instead of a sword you give us that power for us to understand how okay you know what when me and Jordan and Joe go to these places that are racist how do we deal with these situations do we cuss them out do we slap the owner right because that that's something that came to my mind right but but what we do is talk to the manager let him know we won't stand for this right and get the community involved to this involved in it so that we can we can radically change the system and i'm not saying we don't change everything right but at least we we do it the right way instead of the wrong way yeah and i am thinking i have to piggyback off you guys with that uh with the book dr. joy guru men rishad so i think we saw it together first first time in san diego and um well you talked about the systems and the first thing that came to my mind was about when she talked about in the book about being racist and about us as black people don't have the ability to be racist because we can't affect a total group of people we can't affect no no we can't affect nobody else no other race from going to get a car loan a house loan you know but we do have the ability to be prejudiced and we have to like in in in that i was thinking how do we like how do we channel that right like how do we i mean it's i mean just listening to you guys right today talking about what happened in the restaurant i'm like i'm you know how i am about you guys i'm like been way all they call me and i wasn't gonna do nothing but just tell you guys just just get out of there right but i'm glad you guys handle it and that lets me know that with uh the things that we're doing and if you know we can talk to people all day we can preach out and we can talk hey you should do but if we're not setting that example by the way we live and the things that we do that those words are irrelevant so and i'm glad you guys handle it that way and i would like to think that it had to do with Rashad me and a lot of more other ones that wrote that you guys are like you know because sometimes i've had to say man how am i going to handle this like you want to you know because i know i want to like lash out but you know what that's going to do it's going to only cause more problems so when talking about that book um that was the book that that book said it's like it's like my second bible it's in my bag it's with me it's in my bag like it goes everywhere with me so i can just refer back to it and in hell and not for in this thing here one thing i like about the black and brown is we have to be careful on how we're empowering the black and brown empowers our people in a in a positive aspect not because some people get billeted and get angry and saying you know what we're about to go you know you know and know your rights but the black and brown doesn't do that it actually imposes in that positive way where kids walk out of there feeling good about themselves and who i mean who doesn't want to be a part of something like that and give back i mean a lot of things have been given back to me you know because i don't even supposed to be sitting right here where i'm in i am today but that's one thing that i like about the summit so yeah well i would just say this those thank you for your i love how authentic you are you know i think that that's something that is beautiful that's beautiful to see how authentic you are you know and i will let you know that the black and brown when i look at the black and brown male summit and i look at all the young men that are here one thing that i want them to leave with is i want you all to learn how to respond rather than react right you know i'm saying just respond right and when you respond you know that's when when when society the the society inequities amongst people of color against people of color when you respond you you allow yourself to be present in that situation right where when you react you're not truly present you're not there you're you're reacting in a sense where your your your fuel that you're reacting with it runs out fast right it runs out real fast you're gonna react it's emotions it's gonna run out you know and then you're like i'm tired like i'm done you know i'm saying like i'm done my fuel is done like i i didn't show my my my chest i didn't show my fist right but when you respond you're present right you present because you you really took time to have to dive in to the situation and really to to um like peel it right like an onion you know you you peel that and you start crying right because you start crying in a sense where you start to get to that that that the root right and you start to be like man this is just serious right you know and so with the black and brown i want i i i envision it to be a place where it's not just a moment but it's a movement where we move our young men to to to be a part and be present in conversations in the schools right so when i go to these schools right now i try to get them to become present right and like you said it's not their fault this isn't a black and brown fault this i'm not going to say in our black and brown kids i'm no they just need to be present within their their their their the system that they're in right you know you're in a game right now right you know and teach them to understand man you're in a cold game right and i told like i was at this school the other day you're in chess game right if you ever played chess there are many pieces those pieces can move anyway you understand you can they move any way they can any and most of the time most of the time those pieces are moving five times ahead of the move that they need to move right that you know i'm saying i hope i said that right but you know you think beyond right you think five steps ahead right and so we need to get our kids to start thinking five steps ahead right right that's what the goal is at the black and brown right so when you look at those young men that's what i'm trying to get them understand you got to move five steps ahead right you know think five steps ahead you have to you know you have to and not it's not because you're black or brown that's life right that's life true everybody else is doing it why can't you jump on right right you know what makes you what makes you different right you should be able to jump on right you know so just and just and and what would you say like just a benefit of a one thing that you just gained from you know attending school like you know a lot of our one thing that we have to understand too is everybody's not made for school you know this is everybody's not made for you know but those who are questioning who who who may be made for it they need to hear like what is it what is that one thing that you gained from school that you do is just clicks man that's a really good question from school i have learned how to carry myself i have learned who i am i have learned how to identify myself and i have learned how to react rather how to respond rather than react and that's what school has taught me although all all the sitting in classes hearing the professors teach me although i'm getting all that information of knowledge it is up to me how i use that knowledge and you know on sunday i went to church in the pastor's preaching he said god work through you to increase you so therefore you can be a blessing to other people to increase them also and i think that applies to all races there is no discrimination there's no discrimination when it comes to that and with school it has taught me how to carry myself because at first i used to think it's me me me i need to do this for myself but now i'm thinking okay if it's just me and i move on and i go to the after live then what's next there's nothing else it's the end for me so i'm trying to learn how to teach myself to make to build a foundation not for me but for my future generation and for their future generation to build that foundation so that when i leave there would say this foundation that was built here was built by josephus tollo and he did this and he held this community and he helped them and he was not racist he was not discriminated against anyone because this man loved every single body with his heart and that's what school has done for me it has it has taught me how to carry my identity with me and regardless of where i go who i am i'm always going to be me and i'm always going to keep it real i love that so so as far as school and school you know is applied i feel like school and education could be two different things however i feel like college definitely gives a gives you education i feel like the biggest thing about college for me personally i feel like it's the opportunities um so they give you of course you get the knowledge and a book and and all that good stuff but i feel like the opportunities that come with college is probably one of the most important things that that people african-american specifically we need you know they give a lot of they give a lot of support a lot of different areas but we need to be educated at i know for me um when i was in high school i didn't take a serious at all i was just kind of there all you know i was working on my music i was like man i'm about to be a megastar bump all this i don't care about none of this i'm still a star but but uh i i definitely didn't take education serious i used to have people do my homework for me i mean i said i didn't take school serious at all and i definitely didn't think i was going to college i mean i just wasn't that wasn't my personality type i knew i was smart but i didn't need college to tell me how to be smart i'm already smart or something to my set that i had but but uh when i humbled myself and um i was i went to a couple different jobs and i remember i was stacking bags at at the airport menzies you know a lot of people probably know what this job is just right down the street at the airport i remember i was stacking these bags and there was old dudes in the plane with me probably 60 years old 50 years old stacking bags and i looked at them and they're kind of ripped and stuff but i was like i don't want that to be me when i get that age i don't want that to be me making 13 dollars an hour and i'm 50 50 years old and the boss treats you like you're a child you know regardless of you know what race you are that's not gonna be me so immediately after i enrolled in school and the opportunities they gave me like they constantly educate me me meeting you guys i mean i don't know where to start you know um anybody i'll tell them to go to school anybody go to a community college minimum see you see fill it out you know what i mean but um i feel like it's really important and for those of us that are you know black and brown we have to we have to step or came up we don't have the luxury to sit back and say i will be okay i'ma get this job or that job because you know we're we're slighted right the scale is not even and statistic shows this you know it's unfortunately but it's the reality of life so that means we have to work harder you know what i mean we have to step our game up we have to be those to take initiative and think five steps ahead because even if the other boy ain't thinking five steps ahead he gonna get five steps ahead regardless and you ain't so you got to you got to be able to move now and so that i feel like that's one of the things that's important right yeah well college for and i was listening to what you guys said and i always say that college doesn't teach you tell you what the thing it teaches you how to think and so me coming from this end and rasha i know because me and rasha have been dealing for some time now i'm coming from that student aspect to now a teacher you know a professor aspect and going here and being an advisor with you guys and doing all these other things college has i mean you know we know the catchy terms access and and that's and that's fine but i met like i met so many wonderful people while i was in college whether i was sitting in the classroom or whether i'm in front of people teaching but i've learned so much from you guys that books could never like the stuff that i got from you like and you and you books they're not in the books like i don't i don't know if they'll ever be in the books because i read a lot of books and i haven't those experiences there you can't like we was in uh we was at uc davis remember man we walked to like 12 31 just talking on the college campus of uc davis in california we were just sacramental and we were just talking about just like people were walking by us and looking like why is these young black what are these what are they doing we weren't we weren't getting any trouble we weren't like we weren't drinking we weren't doing we were just talking about knowledge the bible and books and that stuff you can't like those kind of things right there you have to value those for what they're worth because in in reality we all won't be here all the time but it's little things like that that that matter and so college college has gave me those relationships that i never thought i would have and it's not on a system that we're we're friends because because what i can do for you or what you can do for me or vice versa i tell we always talk about this all the time like you need me i'm here no attachment nothing let's make it happen so that's my experience from college and i would tell you this that this has this has been you know i've been in some jobs i've been in some some careers i've been working with you for the last you know i would say 10 years you know i had a job before this where i i worked on a military base and i worked with youth whose parents were over in iraq or in war you know those youth were very empowering to me you know just seeing what they had to go through to see you know how they had the that that street game or that game was totally different from the game that i was giving them and they gave me some rules in their own games too so we was like it's just changing rules right that was real cool right you know and i work with you now and you you're just changing rules with me too right so i'm still learning so don't ever think that you know you get to a certain age and you just stop learning you know that it never happens like that you know like you got it all and i always tell the youth you know if you're the smartest one in your group your group is stupid but man you're doing something wrong man you're doing something wrong so when you when you have an opportunity to really learn from some experienced individuals or from individuals who who walk that that that that walk who who's been proactive and who learn who knows how to respond who can teach you how to respond and you got to get you got to sit down you got to sit down you got to sit down and listen and i love your clarification chris when you said that you know it's not about going to school it's about really what are you getting from there like what's the knowledge that you're receiving what's the what the what is the skill set right you know what skill set do you have right you know when these black and brown young boys come i want the workshop presenters to really teach skill sets you know and that's another thing i want to just highlight at the black and brown male summit is our workshop presenters they're all local these are local young men of color that come in and do this work and people always ask you where's y'all where's the big name where's you know who you know bring in i'm like you know what i'm bringing in my man right here right because my man that's a big name right not just is a big name when these kids go out to the grocery store they're gonna see them you know see them and you're gonna recognize that he got his own business or he works for another college and we all in a same situation we all want the same thing for you ain't no competition there's no some some of these guys are coming back for the third and fourth time fifth time sixth time you know this is these are local local stars you know it's not until we you know i don't want to go big and go and go get you know the the famous athlete not saying it's a bad thing right but then when you start writing that people just come just for that right and they miss out they miss out they miss out on the meat you know you you here for the dessert you didn't get no meat yet you know i mean truly you you you you you here to eat the dessert and then you about to leave you forget the whole meal right right you know and i'm not about that you about to you about to stay here and get some food you know and you get the dessert at the end right some ice cream right and something i actually learned um from the emoji program you know which is on college campus is is you know what education is about you know the root word of education is to induce and induce is to to to bring out of you know i feel like that's that's different from from teaching somebody something when you're teaching somebody something i feel like that's more of your training right you're training them how to react or how to respond to certain things whether education is to bring out that knowledge that's in everybody and i feel like that's you know a big part of the black and brown summit that it plays also is we want to educate people not not train them you know or or or or impart knowledge in them but we want to bring out that beauty that that beautiful mind that we all have you know that god's implanted inside of us and i just want to say when you guys were referring to books the first book i have ever picked up my whole entire life to read was the bible and it it did so much good for my soul and for me individually that i rethink my decision before i do it it makes me think over and over is this what i really want is this what i really need because this is different between what you want and what you need and most people they usually go for what they want rather than what they need and i recommend that if you read the bible you're never going to be the same i'm going to just leave it like that yours but man i know he's watching over my shoulder somebody's always okay well i i mean i agree i think that reading in general it just stimulates your mind you know i think that it just it does something to you when you read in some aha moment you know you read the aha moment like man i love going out to the schools and doing a power point on information that the students just have never heard of and then just sitting there looking at me like man and they think i'm the smartest do it i'm not just read that that's not for me but it's beautiful for them to think that you know man i'm not missing out a lot right you know and these young boys they are hungry it's beautiful to go out to your schools and see how hungry they are just to to have someone come in and and truly be consistent of taking time to go in there and just have some bold discussions just have a bold discussion right you know and and these discussions are around relationships you know um parenting right you know i have a group right now of young boys at a school that's 15 young boys of color in this in this group and out of 14 out of 15 have no fathers at home so you can only imagine the the first time the interaction i had with them where they were all over the place it's like they couldn't they didn't know how to sit still they didn't know that i were i was there to help it was almost not even help i mean just there to be um just to be present with them and have a conversation with them they just didn't know how to act and it was until it was it was it until i asked them like who has fathers at the house like you know and it just you know one person and then when i asked them how would you define yourself give me one word they never nobody they don't know they don't have a word you just don't know how to look to be introspective and really define themselves so that's the first conversation i haven't let's define you you know don't let allow people to define you you define yourself you know you define yourself yeah and you'd be amazed at these words you know these boys i go back they got courageous right you know respectful you know what and then some stuff is you know it makes you you know pretty much emotionally you you become emotionally attached where a young boy said that he was depressed you know how you'd be depressed in eighth grade something great come on now man you know these no shit i don't stress these kids got stress you know and and and that doesn't just that um doesn't speak to just our young men of color that's a lot of kids in the schools who are depressed but just coming from that circle that i work with those in a conversation that would have it so once again the black and brown it was it was constructed to help these young these young kids be more proactive for themselves to be advocates for themselves and i love that you guys are advocates for yourself and to really be present in the moments of where they're at with one another and i have a question for you so through these years you've done such a great job in which you and your team with this black and brown summit i got two questions first what do you need help with to continue this and what do you see this summit in the next five years because i think both of those and i tried to i'm i'm lining those up to be you know one one question to support the other one for longevity and for sustainability for you and for your team and so and what do you need from us as a campus if that makes it even better and where do you see the summit in the next five or ten years well i'm and that's a great question um i envision the summit being a staple for the community and especially for the college where i will i see this becoming like a three-day conference and i think there's a lot of individuals that were not that are not included just because of logistic wise in the day of the in the time wise of the event we can't have all everybody here on that saturday right you know just fire cold wise and then some people just can't get here on a saturday understandable right and there's some people who are missing amongst our younger youth and our adults so i would like to see us have a thursday where we allow our eighth graders or seventh graders be present with themselves because that's a difficult conversation right and i think that we need to start a little bit younger i think that the investment piece comes in a little bit younger so now when you invest a little bit younger we can be you know we can be consistent with the summits where these kids if we talk to you at eighth grade we know you come in ninth grade 10th grade 11th grade 12th grade we have you now we we're investing and we continue to invest in these young youth these young kids so on the thursday we do an eighth grade event it's more controlled eight thirty one we have the same type of setup where we have workshop presenters friday i'd like to have us have a community form where we really discuss with the community about how we can be more proactive in working with this population while either it's in school or with our businesses i think that's something that i would like to get in more conversation at the table is businesses local businesses around jobs you know exactly that's big i think that you know if you look at the the employment for that population it's very it's very low so when you talk about what type of skill sets we need and for a business for a community well how can we help this population you know what can we do internships what can we do and then that saturday we come in with our summit you know so we keep it like a we make it truly a conference for all you know and the good thing is we added the team and i we added that parent and that adult um piece with the summit on a saturday and that's been well received and they have their own sessions because at the summit if you don't know there's their state there they're kept out of the workshops with the young men just to keep it separate and they keep it um where they can have their own discussions and so i see the summit truly being a staple of the college i too have a question you mentioned earlier that you were teaching your ify others and they couldn't find that one word that kind of sum up how they felt or who they were and after several times went by and you were communicating and afflicted with these students in their lives they were able to come up with words now if there's a student out there or anyone specifically who wants to come to the um summit brown and they don't know what it is that they're going to take within that from within that seminar what's one thing you could tell them out there that that's one thing for sure that they guarantee they're going to learn and is going to change their life well i would well that's a great question the summit um one thing that you will see i think we're visual learners right off the back you know where we our kids we we usually go to where we see majority of us at and for example for that is like sports a lot of our young black and brown boys we're football basketball statistically and shown we see that on tv so visually it's something that it gets to us it just entices us when you step on this campus you see 500 black and brown young boys who look just like you who are being fed the same information like you and you see them engaged in conversations that alone right there should sit with you it should sit with you quickly just for you can see that there are others that look just like me who need the same fuel that i need right and we can and we can get the same fuel there's a place for that to happen right so there's no competition here so we all can get the same fuel right and we can all you know we can all drive off we can all be successful at one time with the same fuel and it's good and one thing that i would say that you would get from there not just that but just as far as a term that you're going to get from here is you're going to get empowered i really believe that right now our young people of color especially our young men they're not empowered like the the the street doesn't empower them the schools are not truly empowering them there and it's not that they're victims but they're invisible you know it's almost like you walk in but nobody really is talking to you right you you you know you you and you you in the area man really talking to you right you know where we got to get them more engaged we got to empower them to say man come be a part of this conversation right man you come over here right you just as important to anybody else right you know and when you talk about equity equity it's not just the instruction piece it's like man it's the empowering piece we have power over here why aren't you getting empowered right you know what what's the reason for that so i think that with that question you they're going to get empowered you know so if you go back around and ask them what's that one word i want that word to be i'm empowered you know or i'm courageous you know you know or i'm i'm you know i i have confidence you know there's there's these words that are our action words you know that we can say that you know what you receive something and now you're ready to respond you know so that's the beauty of the summit i think that's that's the difference um from you know the black and brown and any other place that you go to just listen or talk about stuff that us as a people should to try to do and i mean i've been to ten places where you where you go to these events and they want to talk about it and you know you're just there and you just you talk i mean that's all it is is really just talk but you know the black and brown summit it sounds like it's something that's very much um intentionally involved in the community i feel like that's if you if you do a whole lot of talking and a whole lot you know and not enough walking then it's kind of like what's the point you know and here this is not a place where you just want to go and talk about it but this is a place where we empower you to show you how you can take advantage of this and how you can you know actually put this into action wherever you go you know so like the perfect example how you got how you got people in the community that's already there teaching that's already walking right because this person could run in this person there they can get together move on from there it's not like we're just coming together and talk about how we feel and our emotions but it's how we can be empowered and how we can actively use this in our communities yeah that's what i like about it the most in addition to that this empowerment is not just something that's going to last you for a day or so you know like like what shot said it's a feel that we give you and that feel is everlasting you take that empowerment wherever you go and you you show that empowerment because you have established that empowerment from the black and brown summit and you take that empowerment and you go ahead and you empower other people and you start a chain of movement and by the time you start that chain of movement by the time you notice exactly what you're doing and you're actually aware of what's going on everybody's going to be empowered just like the reference from the bible it says that the fish in on the boat was overfilling but jesus took that fish and he added on another boat and it didn't say that the boat that already had the first fish was half empty or half full it says both boats were full and that's because it was that everlasting empowerment so if you think that if you're going to have that empowerment just for one day or two weeks and then you're going to be feeling back to the it doesn't work that way you know that empowerment is always going to be over there and that feels is going to be everlasting feel and man come through what is it is that um i can teach you how to fish or i do teach your person how to fish you would feed them forever but if you give a person a fish you would feed them for a day there you go so reach reach out teach you how to fish right i know but something i didn't want to mess it up but that's it right there it's like man let us teach you how to fish right amen you know let us let us teach you how to fish okay and it and you know i want to go back to what we first started because you know i love that when you and you did your induction and you said you are a father and a brother oh and i'm a father i'm a father of two boys and a girl you know 10 8 and 7 and i look at my boys and i just know how important it is for them to see real real work within the community like you know to get that give back and that that ultimate respect not just as a a a father but just as a man in your community like you got to give back you know it's like man you just it just it's a feeling that you just have you know it's like you got to get back man you know what i'm saying it just it just it just wrong for for you to just have like so much you know knowledge or or just the the experience that can help someone else you know i'm saying just i just felt you just got to give you know and you know being an athlete and and playing a position as a point guard you know and basketball that's something i mean you did shit you know you did shit like you man you you win one game man hey hey now everybody in the game everybody everybody got to get in the game man everybody want to be koby right right but can't shoot like man i missed the ball right man point guard got 30 points and everybody else got two three don't draw now look i don't go in my stats but i'm gonna say i don't go in my stats i didn't pass a lot but when i did yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i don't go in my stats but i would just say that you know just growing up as a point guard your first instinct was you give first oh yeah you you gotta give or you gotta kick it and it feels good as he's somebody on score oh right you know so it feels good to be able to go out there and just play hey man you're gonna shoot the rock and then when the kids shoot it and it's like they had that awakening that you know oh i can't shoot yeah oh yeah yeah you better you better go on take that yeah you better go on take that shot and it feels good and it just feels good man and one thing that's you know i'm a visual learner also so how i envision it it's kind of like a stream or a river right and the moment that that stream is blocked up it becomes distilled water and what happens to distilled water is that you can't drink it no more and and and and it's it's full of you know all these different type of germs and bugs and stuff because it's not constantly moving now when you're when you're a stream that's constantly moving is going into different bodies water connected right and that that's where that's kind of like us right we have to constantly be pouring out at the different people in different avenues because it opens up our experience um and it opens up our opportunities and so it's reach one teach one and you keep that stream going don't block it off because that's actually unhealthy for you study actually shows this you know you want to be closed off and and shut up okay but what about when you need somebody you know you don't want to lend this brother five bucks so now you down and out right but you're not isolated yourself so now what and it's not even just about money but it's emotional connection with other people also you know these these children these people out here they need us and this is a time when they need us so it's up to us what are we gonna do right are we gonna be like oh well they you know i see they need help but i'm gonna do me and focus on me with this individualistic mindset right and just do my own thing or am i gonna go down educate these brothers about how how to operate right and move in these certain areas and connect them to me and who knows you know one of these young men can open up a door for you later on in the future you never know so it's important to keep the stream moving because if you block it off it becomes unhealthy right and it's irrelevant nobody can drink from it right if you do you get sick from it you don't want to be a sick person right so to be a healthy person is being part of a community and that's you know that's part then it's good i like you said that about helping them because i you know i got two boys too and uh two sons and it like i know i don't like to be celebrated for the things that i should do i'm hope i'm saying that right i should do that right like i don't tell a lot of people i don't baby i i never got to the point you know people be like i gotta you know i gotta keep the kids it's never been like that from day one it's never been a job it's never been a duty there and a lot of people see me now they see my kids with me my son is playing ball my daughter's with me a lot but this is the way it's been it's not like i'm trying to make up and there's nothing wrong with making up but it is something that i wanted to do and to say all that that we can do for is it takes it when we're doing for our own that is cool that's what we're supposed to do but the effort and the sacrifice is to go out to these young boys and give back to these young boys because what my sons have with your sons have and daughter have with your son you know they don't have that you know what i mean some of these kids don't have that and so this is what we're doing so sometimes my son has attended all of this the uh the black and brown since i've been here and you know and that's good but a lot of things i look at and he enjoys it but a lot of those kids that he's in sessions with he comes home and i ain't never told you that he's like he this is where i get the most love from him after the black and brown like i and christmas and his birthday because he he's coming home he was like that i was just talking to some of the guys that he he never met it's like man they don't like i was telling him about like you're at my games and the uh you know we went on a vacation and you know i got my own room and i got you know and not just about what you have but most importantly we have been fishing and you know i try to fish so much you know but that time that a lot of these boys don't have and so i put myself in that position because i understand that growing up with my dad not being around and so i try to ask these boys when i'm the caucus leader man what do you guys need like what are you like what do you guys need and if it's possible for me to get a fishing trip to take you guys because that right there means a lot that means so much we we did a we did an activity uh in california about it put all of us in one line and it said if you if your dad ever took you fishing it was questions like this take two steps forward next question if you have a relative that's incarcerated take two steps back so these questions started going on and on and on you know did you ever have to come home to a house where nobody was there take two steps back and it was so amazing how spread out we were at the end and it was people that i had been in the conference with talking to the whole time but when we started asking those they started asking those questions about the things that jew was exposed to as a kid and stuff and then you started talking about privilege because we always think about white privilege apart you know what it's a privilege for us to be sitting here it's a privilege for us to be it's a privilege for you to have the black and brown it's a privilege for those boys to get a chance to come to the black and brown and so that's why i asked about what do you need to keep this going because we want to actually give everybody else that's coming behind that same privilege what i would say this and we and we i have to and we have to thank highline college and and president jack birmingham and his leadership with the board with the exec staff on down from um faculty who who've been involved all those individuals with jack birmingham leadership dr jack birmingham leadership our president he has allowed this to be a part of the college a lot of presidents not doing this right you know you don't see a lot of colleges having the um the the the programs that speak to specific populations like this right you know you just don't have it you know not only do we have the black and brown we have the yell you know that speaks to our young women of color and that's a young educated ladies leading and that's a beautiful summit in itself because the ladies are like we need something but what's what's going on what is going on so ladies we we got that that's our second year third year coming up this year um and then you know we have our um seed that we have um southeast asian coalition we have individuals on this campus that have programs for that specific population um faculty and staff members who are on a coalition for that southeast asian population we have our uh pacific islanders they just had their program um you know we you you so you see the importance of um certain subgroups having specific programs you know our access for our students of disabilities that's one we have our veterans we're trying to put they're trying to put an event together so there's events that are going on that the college has taken note and have stepped out of that conference zone and just had these events for these specific populated groups which you can't speak to from a lot of other colleges right so i just really give thanks to um the the leadership that we have here at the college that allow this to happen and now it'd be a sixth year and you know you have individuals coming from last year individuals come from north of seattle eastern washington you know portland oregon i mean this is big and this allows holline to be put on a map where they're they're they're very um inclusive about what they're doing um in regards to um the support for the communities that they serve and plus they they they take that um that lead and have in programs such as this you know so you know what what do we need we just need that that continued leadership from the college that's all we need we need to continue leadership from the college i if we get that everything else will follow you know because you get to live you you have to allow it to happen first and then everything else will follow you know so man this has been good this has been this has been good we can we can we can truly eat on this we can eat on this this is good man it's been it's like i don't know i forgot the cameras in front of us to be honest with you you know so i just say this this is ended with some words of wisdom like what is it that we want to end it with with if we were to just uh young young men know um you know what is it that you just want them just to hear and just to be encouraged about just give just give them some a tip of the wisdom before we leave and then we can sign off so who's first i'll go first um one thing that and i'll be very brief one thing that i would give our young kids and um coming from my past experience is that never and it is simple is to never give up and the reason why i can say never give up because i'm a living witness um people that gave up on me i didn't graduate initially from high school so i all this was it's extra for me and it took people believing in me and me working hard and so you know a lot of times people tell you that hard work doesn't pay off well no even if it just makes you feel good in yourself to say that you know i did that you know i did with the help of god i did that and so the with the words that i would give them is to never give up never give up it is behind our pain it is purpose it is purpose behind our pain so yeah and i'll just say that you know speaking from a tutorials just talking about i know that we've been through a lot as a people you know um and i just talked about slavery but even some of the things that that that we experience now um and and there's two things that i learned that you could do with pain right one of them is you can let it consume you right and you can you can disappear like you were talking about and become invisible or the second option is to take that pain and use it as fuel and use that fuel so you can fight harder and and get through those things that that are that are constantly pushing you back right and get through adversity and get through get through all these things that that want to overcome you but you can use this to get to a better place you know say you know i've been poor before i won't be poor in the future i'm gonna work hard to get out of this i'm gonna work hard to provide for my family you know i didn't have a dad but you know i'm gonna be a better father use that as fuel and as power instead of becoming a victim to it don't just say you know what i never had a dad so forget it i ain't gonna be a dad i'm gonna be absent but to encourage them empower them and tell them to use this pain that we have as a people but use it in a positive way where we can use it as a weapon um words of encouragement i'm gonna just say this as if i was talking to my son who's not here with us today and i know he's in a better place but i was born in africa and i keep on saying that because i wanted to stick in your head you know where i have come from where i have traveled i want you to take a look at my footprint that i have come the travel that i have come through and i'm here today and it doesn't matter where you come from it matters where you're going and as long as you have a plan and it doesn't even have to be a good plan you just got to know exactly what you want out of life and highland community college or highland college provides that we have love we show you love we give you love if you don't have anything else but love we give you that and that's all that matters if you love somebody and somebody loves you back because love is not jealousy love is not hatred love is not envy love is nothing but pure pure love and when we give you that love nobody can't take that away from you no matter what so if you want to know why or any words of encouragement i love you and i love everybody and his love that we need and his love that we're gonna give and i would just say that um to my young men of color um i would just say be patient you know we we're we're quick to to move or we're quick to be upset when somebody's talking and i tell always to i always tell people is that you shouldn't be upset that somebody's talking to you you should be upset when nobody's talking to you at all when nobody's talking to you that's when you should be upset you know so just be patient um i would say um stay the route just stay the route that is provided to you from these individuals um that are workshop presenters at the black and brown male summit or just from those community leaders that you run into or that you engage with in your classroom or any of your other settings that you were that you're privileged to to speak with in a circle i would just say be patient hold on to their words and really go for a movement not a moment and when you go for a movement the only thing that separates a movement from a moment is just courage that's it that's courage that's it and i would just say thank you again for highline college for really just the support that you've had with all the summits especially our black and brown male summit i would say thank you for you brothers for just taking time to really just to have a nice little dialogue this is this has been good you know it's been real good and i love you brother this man and i'm looking forward to um to just continue our relationship you know and just being a part of wherever it's about to take us wherever it's gonna go down it's gonna go down but i know it's gonna go down with some love that's it all right all right all right thank you