Speaker 1: If you're about to make a change in your life
Speaker 1: and you feel uncomfortable, that's the best.
Speaker 2: Feeling you can have because for the first time in
Speaker 2: your life, you're making a decision that's going to be
Speaker 2: best for you and not for what somebody told you
Speaker 2: to do, and that's when all bets are off.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I'm your host, Rashan McDonald.
Speaker 1: Our theme is there's no perfect time to start following
Speaker 1: your dreams. I recognize that we all have different definitions
Speaker 1: of success.
Speaker 3: For you and maybe decide to.
Speaker 1: Your ham it's time to stop reading other people's success
Speaker 1: stories to start living your own keep winning. Hi am
Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald, our host the weekly Money Making Conversation Master
Speaker 1: Class show. The interviews and information that this show provides
Speaker 1: off for everyone. It's time to stop reading other people's
Speaker 1: success stories and start living your own. My guest is
Speaker 1: author of the book entitled Gumbo Coalition. He's on the
Speaker 1: show to discuss the documentary Gumbo Coalition, which is currently
Speaker 1: a streaming on HBO Max. Please Welcome to Money Making
Speaker 1: Conversations Masterclass. He's the President and CEO of National Urban League,
Speaker 1: Mark Morio, Mark how are you doing.
Speaker 3: Hey, Rashan Man, thank you for having me. Good good day.
Speaker 3: And to all of your listeners and viewers out there,
Speaker 3: let me just say, appreciate the chance to be with you,
Speaker 3: and congratulations on what you're doing to bring to bring
Speaker 3: truth about progress. Thank you to people in the community.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it a lot.
Speaker 1: Well, before we even get it to Goumbago Coalition, I
Speaker 1: said your title President CEO of the Urban National Urban League,
Speaker 1: Explain to everybody who don't know what it is. What
Speaker 1: is the National Urban League?
Speaker 3: So the National Urban League is one of the nation's
Speaker 3: historic civil rights organizations. We go back to nineteen ten,
Speaker 3: so we're one hundred and fourteen years young. We are
Speaker 3: a network of ninety two community based organizations across the
Speaker 3: nation Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and the Twin Cities
Speaker 3: New Orleans, Atlanta and I can continue to go all right,
Speaker 3: but we're a unique historic civil rights organization. We focus
Speaker 3: on economic empowerment. We focus on bringing programs like job training,
Speaker 3: job placement, home buyer education, small business advancement, health equity,
Speaker 3: civic engagement to local communities across the nation. And then
Speaker 3: we're a national voice with other civil rights organizations, be
Speaker 3: it the NAACP of the National Action Network, of the
Speaker 3: Black Women's Roundtable, or the National Council of Negro Women,
Speaker 3: Lawyers Committee Leadership Conference LDF, and all of the above,
Speaker 3: because we work in coalition on issues that impact our community,
Speaker 3: so we are a force in local communities. We zent
Speaker 3: black people, not only black people, but primarily black people,
Speaker 3: and we don't purport to speak for all black people,
Speaker 3: but we speak for a lot of black people absolutely.
Speaker 4: So with that being said, the attack of DEI and
Speaker 4: we know DEI doesn't just support black people, but it
Speaker 4: tends to slant it in that direction.
Speaker 1: We know it impacts white women. So talk about your
Speaker 1: organization and what it does to curb the attack of
Speaker 1: DEI and also expound to people what is DEI.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you asked that question because to understand it,
Speaker 3: you got to go back sixty years ago. When the
Speaker 3: Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four passed. It banned
Speaker 3: discrimination and employment. It banned discrimination in public accommodations, hotels, restaurants,
Speaker 3: movie theaters, and the like. Band segregation. At that point
Speaker 3: in nineteen sixty four, black people only held for the
Speaker 3: most part menial positions in the economy, and we had
Speaker 3: a class of black people who were professionals and business owners,
Speaker 3: but they only could serve black people. That was the
Speaker 3: economy of nineteen sixty four. Doors were opened white women.
Speaker 3: You're exactly right, latinos Asians, Indigenous Americans, and African Americans
Speaker 3: walked through doors that had been historically closed. And that
Speaker 3: change is what and the way and the implementation of
Speaker 3: that change is what people now sometimes called D E
Speaker 3: and I. What is d E and I rashon equal opportunity,
Speaker 3: That's what It is. A level playing field, opportunities for jobs,
Speaker 3: whether they be in white college jobs, in factor, in government,
Speaker 3: anywhere in America. It is about access and a level
Speaker 3: playing field. The attacks on D E and I have
Speaker 3: to be understood for what they are. They are the
Speaker 3: old segregationist mentality rearing its ugly head again. No ifs
Speaker 3: ands or butts about it. They can wash it, they
Speaker 3: can try to clean it, they can wrap it in
Speaker 3: swaddling clothes or fancy investments, but it is nothing but
Speaker 3: an effort to turn the clock back. So we in
Speaker 3: coalition with many others, are pushing back. We're pushing back
Speaker 3: in the courts. We're pushing back in the streets. We're
Speaker 3: pushing back in corporate boardrooms, in state legislatures and city
Speaker 3: councils to protect that progress that we've made in that
Speaker 3: progress is not enough, that progress doesn't go far enough.
Speaker 3: But we are not going to allowed and our When
Speaker 3: we had the State of Black America, I said not
Speaker 3: on our watch, right and when I say on our watch,
Speaker 3: not on the watch of our generation. Can we allow
Speaker 3: the gains, the progress, the change in America to be
Speaker 3: reversed because we don't fight back, because we sleep, because
Speaker 3: we're complacent.
Speaker 1: Wow, you know when I'm speaking to Mark Morayo, he's
Speaker 1: the president's CEO of the National Urban League, but also
Speaker 1: in this book noted Gumble Coalition as well as the documentary,
Speaker 1: he's the former mayor of New Orleans. Now. Also in
Speaker 1: the documentary he features his mom, which I think is
Speaker 1: a brilliant relationship because to hear her speak and then
Speaker 1: see how active she is, to see that you didn't
Speaker 1: have an you didn't have an option there, sir, between
Speaker 1: your dad and between your mom, you didn't have an option.
Speaker 3: Mark, my mom and dad, my mother, God bless hers
Speaker 3: ninety one. My father of course has been deceased from
Speaker 3: now over thirty years. But they were civil rights warriors
Speaker 3: and it was instilled into us the pride of being black.
Speaker 3: It was instilled in us the responsibility to fight for
Speaker 3: the underdog and those locked out and left out, and
Speaker 3: it was part of how we were raised. And in
Speaker 3: that sense, my mother in the documentary reminds us several
Speaker 3: times that these attacks of today feel like the attacks
Speaker 3: of the nineteen fifties and sixties. And she's repeatedly said,
Speaker 3: I haven't seen this in a long time. And as
Speaker 3: she has told me in numerous private conversations, she says,
Speaker 3: do something. You all have to do something. You have
Speaker 3: to organize, you have to fight, you have to make alliances,
Speaker 3: and you have to fight with intelligence and with passion. So, uh,
Speaker 3: my mom is is not only my mom, but a
Speaker 3: role model and a confidant and a mentor and a friend.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, it's a beautiful to you just staying
Speaker 4: there because when i'm of course, you know, I met
Speaker 4: you and I met.
Speaker 1: On the Steve Harvey Morning Show. You came on the show, yeh,
Speaker 1: And it was the interview by Steve Harvey, and that's
Speaker 1: when we first met and then when you came back
Speaker 1: on my show, Money Made coming masterclassed promoting your book,
Speaker 1: Gumbo Coalition and it's about your ability to bring diverse
Speaker 1: individuals into your platform to make a better city of
Speaker 1: New Orleans. Am I correct?
Speaker 3: Yes? And we yeah? And New Orleans is a city
Speaker 3: majority African American city, but a very very uh diverse
Speaker 3: in dynamic city. And the challenge of leadership in a
Speaker 3: city like New Orleans, in a lot of cities, is
Speaker 3: you got to bring a lot of people to the
Speaker 3: table in order to build a force to move forward.
Speaker 3: And that's what we worked hard to do. I had
Speaker 3: an open door policy. I spoke to people, even people
Speaker 3: I didn't agree with. But when it was time to decide,
Speaker 3: the buck stopped with me and we made the decisions
Speaker 3: that were necessary. And we decided that I was not
Speaker 3: going to treat those who had not supported me as
Speaker 3: automatic enemies. Some people didn't support me, I said, if
Speaker 3: you want to work with me on fair terms, hey,
Speaker 3: you can be a part of this coalition. And so
Speaker 3: we had you know, everybody in that coalition, and we
Speaker 3: named it the Gumbo Coalition because Gumbo's got all sorts
Speaker 3: of ingredients in it. And our leadership coalition had great
Speaker 3: ingredients in it, and people I think responded to that
Speaker 3: because it gave them something to be a part of.
Speaker 3: Make no mistake about it. You know, equity was at
Speaker 3: the center. Inclusion was a guiding principle. We moved the
Speaker 3: city forward. We gave Black people an opportunity to participate
Speaker 3: in the economy like never before. We bought the Essence
Speaker 3: Festival to town. We had Super Bowls, we bought the
Speaker 3: NBA to town. We add a ten thousand new homeowners.
Speaker 3: It was an important period. But what I tell people
Speaker 3: is we really worked hard to get everybody pushing in
Speaker 3: the same direction. And that's a hard thing to do.
Speaker 3: It's not easy to do, and they are always going
Speaker 3: to be people who are outside, people who are outlives.
Speaker 3: But a big tent and a big coalition at the
Speaker 3: Urban League, we're trying to make sure that as a
Speaker 3: historic organization, we're not trapped in yesterday. So we've made
Speaker 3: several initiatives that are designed to bring young people the
Speaker 3: national urbanly young professionals. Our college initiative called the Black
Speaker 3: Executive Exchange or the Business Executive Exchange Program. We are
Speaker 3: working hard because we have to have everyone in the movement.
Speaker 3: Commons says it well in the song Glory. I love
Speaker 3: the line it takes the wisdom of the elders and
Speaker 3: young people's energy, and we can't function simply on an
Speaker 3: individualistic platform.
Speaker 4: Right, you know, it's beautif. First of all, I want
Speaker 4: to remind everybody if they don't know, that his dad
Speaker 4: was the former mayor of New Orleans and it was
Speaker 4: a beautiful thing that's mentioned in the book Gumbo Colisha,
Speaker 4: if you care to buy the book or find a
Speaker 4: book in the library and read up on a book.
Speaker 4: He made that transition and followed in his father's footstep,
Speaker 4: and his.
Speaker 1: Mom was along the way. Now, now let's go to
Speaker 1: what I saw with my wife on HBO Max. It
Speaker 1: was not of the book per se, same title, but
Speaker 1: explained to us the difference.
Speaker 3: So in the documentary, me and my partner in the
Speaker 3: documentary is a Latinas sister by the name of Janet McGee,
Speaker 3: a strong civil rights leader. She leads Unidos US. It's
Speaker 3: the largest civil rights organization that focuses on the Latino community.
Speaker 3: And we've worked together for you know, a long time
Speaker 3: on a lot of different things, and in this documentary.
Speaker 3: We wanted to showcase how we work together. We wanted
Speaker 3: to showcase cooperation and a collaboration between African Americans and Latinos.
Speaker 3: And then underneath it, there's some important stories. The work
Speaker 3: of the Urban League in the Greater Metropolitan Saint Louis
Speaker 3: area of the Saint Louis Urban Leagues Save our Son's Program,
Speaker 3: which grew out of the tragic murder of Michael Brown
Speaker 3: in Ferguson. Janet's underlying story was her advocacy on behalf
Speaker 3: of a family that had been separated by harsh immigration policies,
Speaker 3: and so those were followed so people could see that
Speaker 3: in the work that we do, we might be at rallies,
Speaker 3: we might be testifying before Congress, but we're working with
Speaker 3: individuals and families and young men and young women on
Speaker 3: day to day challenges across the nation. I wanted people
Speaker 3: to see the success of an Urban League re entry program,
Speaker 3: which is in Saint Louis, just one example of many
Speaker 3: programs similar to that that we run all across the nation.
Speaker 3: Janet wanted people to see the pain of an intact
Speaker 3: family being yanked a part because the husband was deported
Speaker 3: right or set up for deported because he didn't have
Speaker 3: the right papers in hand or the right papers at
Speaker 3: the right time in hand, So all of that, But
Speaker 3: we also focus on Charlottesville. We also focus on the
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen and the twenty twenty election, and we focus on,
Speaker 3: you know, the white supremacy movement, the white nationalist movement,
Speaker 3: which is tearing the nation apart, and it's manifesting itself
Speaker 3: in attacks on d E and I, on voter suppression,
Speaker 3: on book bands and alike. And we wanted people to
Speaker 3: see we have to have a coalition of black people
Speaker 3: and white people, and Latinos and Asians and Indigenous Americans,
Speaker 3: people of all religions Jews, Gentiles, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, Hindus,
Speaker 3: people that may not be in an organized a formal religion,
Speaker 3: all genders and gender identities regard we have to build
Speaker 3: that is focused on democracy, on economic conclusion, on leveling
Speaker 3: the playing field, and on a just and equitable future.
Speaker 5: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Speaker 5: Money Making Conversation Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Speaker 5: Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan MacDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
Speaker 5: continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
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Speaker 4: Wow, you know it's really important that. Let me break
Speaker 4: down a little more detail.
Speaker 1: When the Save His Sons, Save Our Son's program, they
Speaker 1: feature a young man named Bradley Cobb. Oh yeah, brilliant storytelling.
Speaker 1: Really at the very beginning when he's introduced, you say,
Speaker 1: just took the wrong fork in the row. That's all
Speaker 1: Bradley Cobb did, the wrong fork in the rod because
Speaker 1: I always tell people in life, you always come to
Speaker 1: a fork. You know, it's the direction you choose. Can't
Speaker 1: plan your future, but that doesn't mean you can't turn
Speaker 1: that fork around. That's the Bradley Cobb story. When he's
Speaker 1: talking about the Janet story that was featured, that's missus
Speaker 1: Rose Escabar and her husband was snatched and sent back
Speaker 1: to El Salvador. So we see that try and play
Speaker 1: out with the kids and realized that you can make
Speaker 1: these laws. Politicals put their effect everyday people. And I
Speaker 1: believe that resonated with me as a viewer. I was
Speaker 1: compelled to want to know more post story more changes more,
Speaker 1: because that probably frustrates you doesn't it.
Speaker 4: Mark that you know there are not enough post stories
Speaker 4: about the Bradley Cobbs or the Rose Escabars.
Speaker 3: So you know, Sean like you, I'm sure I grew
Speaker 3: up with a lot of Bradley Cobbs. Yes, a lot
Speaker 3: of guys in my neighborhood may have taken the wrong
Speaker 3: path for a moment or two. Some took a wrong
Speaker 3: path and have paid a long, long, long, long sentence
Speaker 3: for taking them wrong. What I think we're trying to
Speaker 3: say is we cannot throw people away because a person
Speaker 3: takes a fork in the word Brothery Cobb. You can
Speaker 3: tell by listening to him, the brother is brilliant, He's smart,
Speaker 3: but he also understood, Hey, I did make a bad move.
Speaker 3: I've paid for it, and I'm going to try to
Speaker 3: come correct. I'm going to work on a pathway that
Speaker 3: is going to allow me to live a productive life.
Speaker 3: And the good thing about saying ourselves is that most
Speaker 3: of the young the young men in the program, and
Speaker 3: they were a medium term. I mean these were not
Speaker 3: people who did on wan or two years with people
Speaker 3: doing eight, nine, ten, twelve years in the penitentiary in Missouri.
Speaker 3: That most of them were able and as a scene
Speaker 3: in the in the documentary were able to come correct
Speaker 3: and we lost one or two people who repeat they
Speaker 3: were recipedists, and it goes what we're trying to do
Speaker 3: is demonstrate not perfection, because there's no perfection, but we're
Speaker 3: trying to demonstrate his progress. That's true and why we
Speaker 3: have to invest in Well.
Speaker 1: You know the beauty of this gumble coalition which is
Speaker 1: streaming on HBO Max right now, you can watch it.
Speaker 1: I'm talking to Mark Morial, the president CEO of the
Speaker 1: National Urban League. I felt the way you told the story,
Speaker 1: you know, the George Floyd is in there, the impact
Speaker 1: of America, Donald Trump of course.
Speaker 3: Is in there.
Speaker 1: His mom is in there because I think the reason
Speaker 1: I bring up his mom because I believe you got
Speaker 1: to have history and one thing you don't want to
Speaker 1: know when you're talking to somebody who is history, and
Speaker 1: that is his mom. She can see when history is
Speaker 1: repeating itself and you should listen to people who've been
Speaker 1: there that.
Speaker 3: That's what I felt.
Speaker 1: The inclusion of your mom, Mark, was very important.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, the documentarian sat down with my mom
Speaker 3: and then said we have to talk to her as
Speaker 3: much as possible. And you know, my mom raised five children.
Speaker 3: She was an accomplished activist and professional in her own right.
Speaker 3: Started out as about my mom. When she was a
Speaker 3: young woman, she and her friends tried to join the
Speaker 3: League of Women Voters in New Orleans and they were
Speaker 3: not allowed to join because they were black women. They
Speaker 3: went and started their own organization called the Louisiana League
Speaker 3: of Good Government, which was a black women's civic association,
Speaker 3: which had about a thirty to thirty five year life.
Speaker 3: But when I thought about it, think of the shit
Speaker 3: determination of these women, Black women, many of them teachers,
Speaker 3: in their late twenties and early thirties, in the waning
Speaker 3: days of segregation around the Civil Rights movement, Civil Rights Act,
Speaker 3: Voters Act, having the gall and the gumption and the
Speaker 3: drive and the determination to create their own entity. And
Speaker 3: so what they ended up doing. And I remember this
Speaker 3: as a boy. She said, after the Civil Rights the
Speaker 3: Voting Rights Act passed, we had to go into communities
Speaker 3: and neighborhoods and teach people about voting, how to vote,
Speaker 3: where to vote, how to get registered, how to evaluate candidates.
Speaker 3: She said, that was the work we did. We did
Speaker 3: it in public housing, we did it in neighborhoods. We
Speaker 3: did it in churches, so you know, as a little boy,
Speaker 3: I remember running all around with my mom. Sometimes you
Speaker 3: didn't like it, going to various activities right at various churches,
Speaker 3: in public housing, and you felt like, I'm being separated
Speaker 3: from my friends. I want to just hang out with
Speaker 3: my friends. But it was such an experience of exposure
Speaker 3: for me to learn about how activism really worked. In
Speaker 3: those days. You had so many people doing so many
Speaker 3: things because they were part of a movement. Right.
Speaker 1: You know, as we wrapped this meeting up, let's interview up. Listen,
Speaker 1: because yes, we went all the way up to the insurrection,
Speaker 1: which was January sixth. Let's talk today. I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about politics. I'm talking about America Day. We kind of
Speaker 1: mentioned it with being under attack, deis HBCUs being under attack.
Speaker 1: You still reside in the city of New Orleans. Gumbo coalition,
Speaker 1: this is all about diversity. I think that's all. Mark
Speaker 1: Cuban was saying, you want to reach out and get everybody,
Speaker 1: and that's a Gumbo coalition. And he said Mark Cuban,
Speaker 1: who is the owner of the Dallas math vergs or
Speaker 1: he sold the team, but he still is the operation
Speaker 1: lead with the average maverickers saying by having DEI that's
Speaker 1: what makes corporations and America successful. When by having Gumbo coalition,
Speaker 1: which is about diversity, which is inclusion, makes America great,
Speaker 1: not saying so I see d and Gumbo colicious hand
Speaker 1: in hand.
Speaker 3: Mark Cuban's right. Many are right. Many embrace the fact
Speaker 3: that if you look at the American future without all
Speaker 3: of the human talent that we have participating to the
Speaker 3: fullest and having an opportunity to participate in and enjoy
Speaker 3: American prosperity, the nation will not move forward. This, you know,
Speaker 3: Rashwan is really as it's a battle in a fight
Speaker 3: between the past and the future. People who think, oh,
Speaker 3: let's go back to what it used to be like
Speaker 3: know when it used to be people talking about the fifties,
Speaker 3: you know, a third of the population, fifty percent of
Speaker 3: the population, women in African Americans were completely excluded. Look,
Speaker 3: I like to watch old shows. I was watching some
Speaker 3: old television shows on and I looked at it and
Speaker 3: I said, every single actor on this show is white
Speaker 3: men and no women. Then no African Americans. Then I
Speaker 3: look at the credits, the scroll of credits after the show,
Speaker 3: I said, even the makeup artists and a ward robe
Speaker 3: consultants are men. That was America of the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 3: in the nineteen sixties. So you and in fact had
Speaker 3: you know, twenty five thirty, maybe thirty five to forty
Speaker 3: percent of the population that had one hundred percent of
Speaker 3: the power and the responsibility. So this is not to
Speaker 3: say black men, white men should not be included. That
Speaker 3: is not what this is about. It's about saying that
Speaker 3: everyone needs to be included in decision making in high
Speaker 3: level positions, and everyone is qualified, everyone has innate ability
Speaker 3: to participate, and we got to affirm that principle. And
Speaker 3: that's what the Gumbo Coalition is all about. When you
Speaker 3: put all of these flavors in gumbo with shot and
Speaker 3: you put it in a little spice, you can't beat it.
Speaker 4: Let me tell you something. You know from Houston, Texas.
Speaker 4: You have to sell me on no gumbo. Now, that's
Speaker 4: what you're trying to tell me. The chuck the road,
Speaker 4: do that gumbo because the beauty by gumble put it.
Speaker 4: Look some sausage in there, crabs, chickens, some shrimp, some
Speaker 4: some tomatoes. Get that root right, that's what Gumbo coalition
Speaker 4: you know, I know that you know the uh, the
Speaker 4: Gumbo coalition that's streaming right now current on HBO Max.
Speaker 1: It's been the streaming for a minute. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to bring light to the correlation, also bring back our relation.
Speaker 1: Let you know that I'm not only an advocate of
Speaker 1: your brand and what you represent the National Urban League
Speaker 1: that anytime, Like I said, this call came to me
Speaker 1: last week, interview was set up this week that you
Speaker 1: need your voice heard and spread across this country in
Speaker 1: some ways this world, because my podcast is international congratulation.
Speaker 3: Here what you've built in, what you are building to
Speaker 3: talk to people. I like what you're doing on the
Speaker 3: campuses because US is such an important part of what
Speaker 3: we all have to do more of which is to
Speaker 3: really reach out, include listen, have conversations with the emerging generation,
Speaker 3: with young people. And I'm deeply appreciative and I'll be
Speaker 3: back again. We'll check in and appreciate you and your
Speaker 3: team for having me today and look, God bless ing,
Speaker 3: may a force continue to be with you.
Speaker 5: Thank you for joining us for this edition of Money
Speaker 5: Making Conversations Master Class. Money Making Conversations Master Class with
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