0:00

Facing a year of historic political

0:02

divisiveness, economic uncertainty,

0:05

and geopolitical instability. Black

0:07

activists, advocates, and community

0:09

leaders from across the country Jose Martin Luther

0:12

King Junior Day twenty twenty four to announce

0:14

the launch of the upcoming National Day of

0:16

Action for Black Men. The purpose

0:18

of the Day of Action is to identify, call

0:21

out, and uproot the systemic challenges

0:23

facing Black men in the United States. Participants

0:26

will engage with elected officials, organize

0:28

and attend public meetings, lead street

0:31

demonstrations, and join community education

0:33

sessions and cities across the nation on

0:35

March sixth, twenty twenty four. Organizing

0:38

is already under way in Boston, New York,

0:41

Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia,

0:43

and other communities across the country. Two

0:46

of the men helping to put on this monumental event

0:49

are Horace Small, who with the Union

0:51

of Minority Neighborhoods founder and former

0:53

executive director, who has been working professionally

0:56

for nonprofit organizations, government

0:58

and political campaigns, and unions

1:00

since nineteen seventy four. And Matthew

1:03

Parker, who was the executive director of

1:05

Union of Minority Neighborhoods Boston,

1:08

Massachusetts. He is a visionary

1:10

innovator, community organizer, and

1:12

advocate who has made it his life's work to

1:14

bridge the gap in social, economic,

1:16

and health disparities within the black community

1:19

and other groups of color. And they

1:21

are our guests today.

1:24

This is the Black Information Network Daily

1:26

Podcast and I am your host, ramses

1:29

Jah. All right, gentlemen, welcome

1:31

to the show. How are you doing today, Horace, Let's

1:33

start with you.

1:34

Okay, ramses thank you for having us.

1:36

And Matthew Man, how are you doing today.

1:38

Glad to be here with you, guys.

1:39

Fantastic. I know we do have a lot to cover,

1:42

but obviously there's a monumental

1:44

event on the horizon here, so tell

1:46

us a bit more what we left out of the intro

1:49

of the National Day of Justice for Black

1:51

Men.

1:52

Matthew, let's start with you first.

1:54

Glad to be here. Thank you for having us. Really

1:57

excited about the day. It's been a

1:59

lot of work coming forward. We're

2:02

looked at things that are happening across

2:04

the country and you just want to say,

2:06

hey, hey, black men, we are stepping up

2:09

and we want to do it together. Community

2:12

back community to just address some

2:14

of the issues and also be engaged

2:16

with one another. Because we feel a sense

2:18

of community is missing, so we're trying to

2:20

get some of that back while we're also organizing

2:23

to move agendas forward around just

2:25

being engaged civically and socially

2:28

in our communities.

2:29

Okay, that's fantastic. And then Horace, of

2:31

course, I know that you want to take I.

2:33

Think is in light of the fact of what's

2:35

going on in twenty twenty four and what's

2:37

happening around the world

2:39

with governments and politics

2:41

and what have you, going this ripe

2:43

slant. It's critical

2:46

and it's incumbent upon black men to

2:49

step up and become engaged

2:52

and involved on the many issues

2:54

that not only affect black men, but also affect

2:56

the black community. Historically,

2:59

our sisters have been the fort down for

3:02

generations. In

3:04

light of the fact that we may have

3:06

Donald Trump again, it is absolutely

3:09

critical for black men to step up, make

3:11

their voices heard, but also acquire

3:13

the skills and the talents necessary

3:16

to keep the community together, to keep

3:19

the people involved, to

3:21

address the many issues that impact the lives

3:24

of Black Americans throughout

3:27

the country, and to use

3:29

this day. March six is a day to

3:31

go to city hall, to go to your state house,

3:34

to go to your county courthouse to go to

3:36

go speak to and talk to power,

3:39

and tell power exactly what it is

3:41

that you want and what you would like

3:43

to see for your communities. That's

3:45

what this day is about. And afterwards and

3:48

afterwards we go about the business of building

3:50

community for real, as Matt said, amongst

3:53

each other and being

3:55

supportive and being actively engaged

3:58

in the neighbors where we live.

4:00

So what originally came

4:02

to mind when I first was checking

4:05

this out was something similar

4:07

to like a million man march or something

4:09

like that. But it sounds like this is

4:11

something that's going to take place in all these individual

4:13

cities and everyone's going to have kind of marching

4:15

orders in their individual communities.

4:18

I may have that right, I may have it wrong.

4:19

Why don't you let me know exactly how the day is

4:22

going to look for the folks on the ground.

4:24

Well, hopefully it's going to be a number

4:26

of different things. Hopefully in

4:28

cities, in towns across America,

4:31

people will take the day because elected officials

4:33

are going to know people are going to take the day. Black

4:35

men are going to take the day to go visit their

4:38

elected officials and talk to them about the

4:40

issues that matter. To them and

4:42

everybody can play in this. If they can't

4:44

go, they can send a text,

4:47

they can send an email, they can write

4:49

a letter. We want. What

4:51

we're striving for is grassroots

4:53

participation so that the

4:56

power leak can understand that we

4:58

too as a community have power, that

5:01

we too as a community have a voice,

5:03

and that we too must our issues

5:05

must be addressed as well and working

5:08

again in solidarity

5:10

with our sisters and other leaders, you

5:12

know, addressing and coming up

5:14

with strategies to address the issues that impact

5:17

our lives. One of the biggest,

5:19

one of the things I'm proud of stuff is that

5:21

this is strictly a grassroots operation,

5:26

a grassroots strategic plan. There's

5:28

no superstars, there's no political

5:30

leaders, there's no Barack Obamas. It's

5:33

people who have been doing the work

5:35

of social justice all their lives

5:38

coming together and saying, let's put our

5:40

let's put our collective minds together and

5:42

our resources to address to help

5:44

black men address some of the issues

5:46

that impact our lives.

5:48

Fantastic. Now, one of the things that

5:50

really stood out to me is the

5:52

positioner for the event, Rise Up,

5:55

Reclaim and Revolutionize. So,

5:57

Matthew, why don't you give us kind of the thinking

5:59

behind this and maybe why this best conveys

6:02

the intent behind the National Day of Justice

6:04

for Black Men.

6:05

Well, the intent is just to keep

6:07

us if those who are

6:09

engaged and those who haven't been engaged in well,

6:12

or those who've never been engaged, everybody

6:14

can participate. It's so important

6:16

to make sure that no one feels like they're

6:19

not included. This is something that yes,

6:21

we can find ways to step forward,

6:24

find ways to be engaged, but this is every

6:26

single level. So if you're a black

6:29

man who hasn't figured it out, there's gonna be

6:31

information on our website and our social media

6:33

is that will say hey. Step one

6:35

is just as simple as calling your local

6:37

alderman, your local block captain or counselman.

6:40

Step two could be organized and a

6:43

group of folks together to discuss what they

6:45

want to do, and so on and so forth.

6:47

There's so many ways to participate. We just want to make

6:49

sure every black man and support of black

6:51

men know that this is day of action for

6:54

everyone to get engaged

6:56

or get re engaged.

6:57

Okay, now I want you to keep with that because

7:00

it sounds like you're making it very easy for

7:02

people to make an impact a

7:05

lot of folks that listen to this show obviously,

7:08

are they exist in

7:10

kind of the digital space, online

7:12

space? Are there any virtual

7:15

options ways that people can do any

7:17

sort of organization online,

7:20

anything like that that they might find at the website,

7:22

and if so, plug the website.

7:23

Or the infrastructure, social media, et cetera.

7:26

So folks can be sure to tap.

7:28

In absolutely

7:30

on our digital platforms, which

7:32

will be mostly X

7:35

formerly known as Twitter, some Instagram,

7:38

TikTok, Facebook, whatever

7:41

social platform we have available,

7:43

we'll be posting about different ways and strategies,

7:45

whether that might be going live, there'll

7:48

be some hashtags going on. Just whatever way

7:50

we can find to connect people with information

7:53

and ways to do it themselves and do it with each

7:55

other, we're going to include.

7:56

Okay, so one more time, let's make sure

7:59

you plug the main website where everyone

8:01

can get up.

8:01

Yes, National Black.

8:03

Men's Abazee Network and it's

8:05

a Black Men's Day of Action.

8:07

Okay, perfect, perfect, all right?

8:09

And from what I understand, this is going to be

8:11

an annual thing, right, so this is something

8:13

that people can stay engaged with, right.

8:16

Ramsay is I would like to think that this is yes,

8:19

absolutely answer to your question what

8:22

we'd like to think is that this is an

8:24

opportunity, particularly now in the twenty first

8:26

century, that the need

8:29

for national organization the black

8:31

men working on issues that

8:33

impact both locally nationally and

8:36

doing so strategically and

8:38

with focus and vision and working together as

8:40

the community is something that's important. We're

8:43

hoping that after this is over, we're going to be start

8:45

We're going to begin our classes so

8:47

that brothers can get the skills needed

8:50

that they can continue to participate.

8:53

Well, that is that is

8:55

fantastic and I

8:58

can't wait to see what comes to this one more time.

9:00

Do me a favor. Plug the website.

9:02

Let's do it clear and loud, just so

9:04

everyone knows how they can participate.

9:06

The website is Blackman's avcday

9:08

dot com.

9:09

All right, perfect, well, I would like to thank

9:11

you both very much for coming on and

9:14

sharing your commitment to

9:17

the successful, informed, inspired

9:19

future of the black community once

9:22

again. Today's guests are Horace Small, founder

9:24

and former executive director and Matthew

9:27

Parker, current executive director of

9:30

Union of Minority Neighborhoods.

9:32

And you know, we're making sure that we

9:34

come to Phoenix, and when we become to Phoenix, we'll be

9:36

looking for you all right.

9:37

I'll be standing by all right brother.

9:41

This has been a production of the Black Information

9:44

Network. Today's show is produced

9:46

by Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts

9:48

you'd like to share, use the red microphone talkback

9:50

feature on the iHeartRadio app. While

9:52

you're there, be sure to hit subscribe and download all

9:54

of our episodes. I'm your host,

9:57

Ramsey's Jah on a social media and

9:59

join us tomorrow as we share our news

10:01

with our voice from our perspective right

10:04

here on the Black Information Network Daily

10:06

Podcast