A Better Future For All – with Raynard Jackson [Ep.93]

Linda:

Welcome, thank you for tuning in to this episode of The Prosperity 101® Breakroom Economics Podcast. My name is Linda J. Hansen, your host and the author of Prosperity 101® Job Security Through Business Prosperity: The Essential Guide To Understanding How Policy Affects Your Paycheck and the creator of The Breakroom Economics online course. The book, the course and the entire podcast library can be found on prosperity101.com. I seek to connect boardrooms to breakroom and policy to paycheck by empowering and encouraging employers to educate employees about the public policy issues that affect their jobs.

Linda:

My goal is to help people understand the foundations of prosperity, the policies of prosperity and how to protect their prosperity by becoming informed, involved and impactful. I believe this will lead to greater employee loyalty, engagement and retention and to an increased awareness of the blessings and responsibilities of living in a free society. Listen each week to hear from exciting guests and be sure to visit prosperity101.com.

Linda:

Thank you for joining us today. My guest today is Raynard Jackson. Raynard is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated columnist and president and CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC, an internationally recognized political-consulting government affairs and PR firm based in Washington, DC. He has a proven track record of balancing public policy with fundamental freedoms associated with a free market capitalistic society. Raynard is an internationally recognized radio talk show host and TV commentator and expert in communications. He has coined the term stratecist, and as a stratecist, he merges strategic planning with public relations.

Linda:

Raynard is also the founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future, a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to encourage more blacks, especially black entrepreneurs, to be involved in the Republican Party. I first met Raynard when I was deputy chief of staff for Herman Cain's presidential campaign and had been honored to work with him on other occasions and to participate as a guest panelist at a conference he organized to encourage women and minority leaders to be involved in the political process. Thank you so much for joining us today, Raynard. It's a pleasure to have you on the podcast.

Raynard:

Thank you so much. Always good to talk to you.

Linda:

It's great. So you have just a word of condolences to offer regarding a special friend and a family that you're close to, so I'd like to give you the opportunity to do that first.

Raynard:

Thank you so much, Linda. I was stunned and saddened, as I think most Americans have been and people all over the world to receive a phone call that the former Secretary of State Colin Powell had died earlier this morning. And it's funny, I remember like it was yesterday, the first time I was in the White House back in 1987, I was there to meet President Reagan, and again, I'm in my 20s. I'm basically right out of college. And I got invited to come there to meet with the president and his staff on some issues. And as I was walking towards Reagan's office, Colin Powell was walking down the hallway and the person that was my escort, stopped him and introduced me to Colin Powell back in 1987. And I've known him ever since then.

Raynard:

And he was just a delightful person, and what I loved about him, I had the opportunity, Linda, over the years to just sit at his feet and to learn of his ways and just to hear some of his experiences and his life story. And just through those conversations over the years, it really helped guide me along my career path, so I'm not handling the situation very well. And as you know, our mutual friend, Herman Cain, a little bit over a year ago, he died as well. So the past year or so, Linda, has been heavy on both of our hearts with some of the people we have been close to have moved on to bigger and better things. So I just want to offer my condolences to Alma and the rest of family and keep them in our prayers.

Linda:

Exactly. We all know what it's like to lose someone we love and so we offer our condolences. And thank you for taking time today for the interview but also just for pausing to reflect on that friendship and his life. We all have an opportunity to make an impact. And the last podcast that I released was called A Generational Legacy and I really dedicated it to my parents. Many of my listeners know I recently lost my mom. And as I was thinking about what we leave behind at the end of our lives, it doesn't the material goods or anything like that, it's all about our faith, our character, the love we share with others the love we pour into others and the leadership that we show. So thank you for that reminder, as you gave honor to your friend and to a great leader for America, but we do give condolences to their family and to you. Thank you.

Raynard:

Thank you.

Linda:

Thank you. I know it's hard, but we appreciate you being here. So well, I'd love for you to share many things. And I think the listeners will enjoy getting to know you, especially as your sense of humor emerges, but-

Raynard:

Be careful what you ask for, Linda, be careful.

Linda:

I know. I feel like I have to keep you in a box somehow a little bit but not really. Well, maybe really. No, I always appreciate your sense of humor, your faith, your leadership, your vision, your willingness to step out boldly into new areas of communication or conflict in a sense in terms of addressing issues of the day. So as a minority leader, what do you see as some of the most important issues that our listeners should be focused on right now?

Raynard:

Well, I would be very candid with you, Linda. Not only relative to the black community but just in America as a whole, we have got to get our family unit back in order, Linda, because you cannot name me one thriving society or country in the history of the world to this day without a thriving family unit. And we have Liberals that's doing everything in their power to destroy the family. As a matter of the fact, Linda, in case your audience didn't know, even the founding of Black Lives Matter, one of their stated goals on their own website until they removed it was to destroy the nuclear family. That's what's on their own website. And when they got called for it, they removed it from their website, but they made no bones about it, Linda, getting rid of the nuclear family is one of their top goals.

Raynard:

Thus this opus of homosexuality, transsexualism and all that foolishness, that's what this is all about. Because if you destroy the family, you destroy society.

Linda:

Absolutely. And as the minority community, as we look, I think that minority members, especially blacks are beginning to see what has happened in the black community regarding the destruction of the black family. The black families traditionally are very conservative, very family oriented, solid work ethic, great values. And when the welfare society came in, it did so much to really damage the nuclear family of that minority community. Could you address that?

Raynard:

Yeah, and this is by design. This is not accidental. Do you realize, Linda, that as recently as the mid to late '60s, 70% of black folks came from a two-family household? So it's only within the past 40, 50 years that we've seen the total disintegration of the black family. And do you think is accidental, Linda, that there is a direct correlation with that and the Great Society programs of the '60s or the Lyndon Baines Johnson when he was president which introduced welfare, which introduced taking the black male out of the family unit. Because back in the '60s, Linda, the federal government would literally knock on black households doors, those who were on food stamps and welfare, living in project and other poverty areas, they were not going to do it.

Raynard:

If they saw any male clothing hanging up in the closet, they would get rid of your welfare benefits. The stipulation was, if you want welfare, you cannot have a man in the household. That was a policy pushed on us by Liberal Democrats. And now 40, 50 years later, Linda, we see the result of that. You have crime going out of control in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, my hometown, St. Louis. Why? If you take the male out of the house, so who's going to come maintain and control these juvenile young males with all that testosterone when they start hitting 14, 15, 16? Who's going to control and contain them?

Raynard:

A woman cannot teach a little boy how to be a man, no more so that a man can teach a little girl how to be a woman. Now, can you have a successful single parent? Yeah, I came from a single family home, but I had tough males around me. I have my basketball coach, my preacher, cousins, uncles and other family members, but also we have this sense of values instilled in us. That was a definite right and wrong. Even when I was in college, going to Oral Roberts University, one of the top religious schools in the country, when I would come home for weekends, Linda, my mom would let me go hang out with my friends from high school. We'd go out to the club, anything I wanted to do. But come Sunday morning, the question was, "Boy, are you going to church?" The question was, "Boy, are you ready to go to church?" It was no negotiation. No ifs and buts about it.

Raynard:

And so when you take the male out of the family unit, the males are always going to go act a fool. That's what they're supposed to do, absence guidance because they have all this testosterone flowing through their body. And the Liberals did this on purpose, Linda. This was not accidental. And so if Conservatives were to ever form relationships with black communities, and again, we don't need to preach to black folk, we don't need to persuade, convince and cajole them about conservatism, Linda, all we need to do is just invite them to be a part of the party and the club because blacks are some of the most conservative people in the country anyway. Polling data indicates that, but the black folks have been sold a bill of goods by the Liberal media and Conservative, Linda, have not effectively combated that to this day.

Linda:

You bring up some really good points. And you mentioned how it's very hard in a single parent household to raise members of the opposite sex to be strong males or strong females, when raised by the opposite sex. And obviously, we know of instances where that happens, but you bring up a good point in that it takes an enlarged community shall I say, whether it's teachers or aunts and uncles, or grandparents or someone who really helps come alongside that single parent. And so as Conservatives, this is something I think that we can do, we can come alongside people, whatever their race. They don't have to be black, but we can come alongside people, single parents and really help them because being a single parent is hard no matter what your background.

Linda:

And so when we can come along and say, "We salute you. We're here to help you. We will help provide for you, help support you, help your children have experiences and things, there's so many ways that we can support that are outside of government welfare programs that really show that relationship between a person to another person that has nothing to do with government program or welfare, but it's just about one human being lifting up another human being out of love and respect. And that's, I think, where we have so often drop the ball in America is that the left, the Liberals have convinced so many people that it's government programs that will support and help people. And actually, creating dependency never helps people. It always hinders them.

Raynard:

Let me throw this out at you, Linda, because these trillion dollars of spending that Biden is trying to get through Congress, the 1.2 trillion as well as the 3.5 trillion, if you look at our tax code and this is sound bizarre at first blush, but I am philosophically, Linda, against paid or unpaid medical leave or when a parent had a kid, whether it's adopted through natural birth. I'm opposed to it for the mother and the father. And let me tell you why. Number one, that's not the government's business. Number two, if you decide to have a kid, number one, I think you should be married and then have kids, but that's a whole another conversation there, but having a kid is just as much as a financial responsibility as it is a parental and moral responsibility.

Raynard:

And so just because as a woman, you can't have a kid, doesn't mean you should have a kid. And right now, if you look at our tax code, we give childcare tax credits for single women or they below the poverty line. We shouldn't do that. How cool would it be through the tax code if a Conservative will try to push through Congress and I'll be on the front line with them if they propose this, if you tell young lady in high school and junior high, "If you graduate from high school and you don't have any kids, we will have a pot of money at the end of the rainbow. When you get your high school diploma, the other will be a voucher for you to go to junior college, a trade school, university to learn any skill you want to learn. We will pay for it if you don't have any kids until you're married"?

Raynard:

Now, wouldn't that be a nice inducement and incentive as opposed to rewarding kids when they do have a baby at 14, 15, 16 years old? We give them welfare. We give them medical care. We give them an apartment. We give them food stamp. So guess what? You're going to get more of that behavior. If they knew that incentive was no longer in existence, it's going to make them think twice.

Linda:

Interesting. That's an interesting proposal idea. I would like to make sure that in that pregnancy prevention incentive, we eliminate the route to abortion because abortion doesn't end a pregnancy, birth does, abortion actually ends-

Raynard:

That's a good point. That's a great point.

Linda:

Well, I think it was Father Frank Pavone. I can't claim an original quote on that. I think I read it from one of his quotes or posts, but abortion does not end a pregnancy, only birth does. Abortion actually ends human life. And so if we're going to create a culture of life and a culture that respects and builds up people, we need to make sure that we're not creating a culture that promotes abortion within any community. And this is something that has happened within the black community too. If you look at the location of so many abortion clinics, ever since abortion became legal, we can look that I don't think it's by mistake, that they're located where they are and that's just a tragedy in my mind.

Raynard:

Hold on, Linda. Linda, you should [inaudible 00:17:25]. There's not one Planned Parenthood located in a white community. They're all located and blacks, or to a lesser extent, the Hispanic community. So you're being kind about it, Linda. No, Planned Parenthood are targeting the black community by design. This is not accidental. There are not one Planned Parenthood set up in a white community, Linda. Your audience needs to know that, and yet, our federal government and because the weak Republicans, they give Planned Parenthood $500 million a year in our federal budget. That's every year. They don't have to compete for it. They don't have to ask for it. It's a line item written into our federal budget every year.

Linda:

That should never be, and for all the listeners, if you do not want your tax dollars, if you do not want your money to support the murder of innocent babies in the womb, then you need to let your representatives and senators know that you do not want your tax dollars to be spent for abortion. And this is something the Pro-Life community has been fighting forever, but we've had some victories in different places, but we need to keep fighting because America really should be promoting a culture of life and doing, so from conception to natural death.

Raynard:

There's no question about it. Again, Linda, what frustrates me and you and I've talked about this privately, when are the Republican and when are Conservatives are going to do what Oral Roberts used to tell me, because I had the fortune of working for him while I was in university there for four years and he would always tell me, "Go into every man's world and meet them at the point of their need"? If we still believe in the principles of conservatism, Linda, if we still believe that our legislative agenda through conservative policies were made better, the black community specifically, when will we go into the marketplace of ideas and take that message?

Raynard:

I don't think these Conservatives really believe in conservatism, Linda, because if you did, you want people to hear your message. You want people to support your policy, if you really believe that. I don't think most ... How in the heck, Linda, can we be in 2021 with the diversity going on in our country and we want to be a ruling majority party? How can you ignore almost 40% of the electorate who are minority and not take your message into the folks you think need to hear your message? I don't get that, Linda, because they don't believe in conservativism. I do. That's why I'm willing to take the grief and the guff from the black community by me being a Conservative and Republican because I believe in the message. You know what? You go talk to the rank and file black person, Linda, they believe in it too, but too often, conservative thing, the Jesse Jacksons, the Al Sharptons, the NAACPs, the National Urban Leagues, they think they represent the rank and file in the black community and they don't.

Linda:

It's really amazing to me that you are bringing up such a good point and that the Conservatives of the white community, all communities, we do not always speak with our actions the way that we should. And the squeaky wheel gets the grease and I feel that cancel culture and all the censorship and everything that's happened has actually silenced so many people. And this has been going on for too long, obviously, as we've talked about, and I know you and I've talked about this privately as well, some of the establishment Republicans. Have I been a Republican?

Linda:

I used to be a county chairman for a Republican Party, a county Republican Party and I'm really thankful for that experience and I'm proud of what we were able to accomplish and the education we were able to bring to so many people in a very Democrat area where people began to see the policy differences, helping people understand that these are policies that make a difference. It doesn't matter whether you're black, white, red, yellow or anything in between. The policies are about freedom, prosperity, growth, opportunity, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and those are the policies we need to promote. Whether it's in the black community, the white community, this is what we need to promote

Linda:

And we have been too silent, you are right, that we have been too silent on this into the black community and really everywhere. We have allowed the left to silence us and we need to roar like a lion, not baa like a sheep. We actually need to roar because our country is at stake and not only our country is at stake, but the freedom and opportunity for our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren. What do we want to leave them? It grieves my heart to think of these families like you mentioned at the beginning of the episode, black families that for so long had fathers in the home. They had these strong family backgrounds. We can hear of so many black leaders who grew up in that environment.

Linda:

And now, what have we done to especially this minority population? And now we look at what's happening with the Hispanic population, they also have very strong family values and very rich faith and life-enhancing values, life-protecting values and what will happen to them as canceled culture and censorship and public school indoctrination gets to them and their next generation? So we really have an opportunity now to stand up, which I really do want to pivot and have you talk about Black Americans for a Better Future, the black entrepreneur, the opportunity to bring people into the political process who understand these minority communities but also understand the bottom line of a business and what kind of policies need to be enacted at federal, state and local levels in order to have businesses prosper, so families and individuals can prosper.

Raynard:

Good question. Black American for a Better Future, Linda, is a Super PAC, 527 Super PAC, but then we have a sister organization, Black American for a Better Future Educational Fund, which is our C4. Our mission is to get more blacks involved in the Republican Party, the Conservative movement, but we focus strictly on the black entrepreneur. Why? If you look at the composition, Linda, of the black community as far as leadership, it used to be the black minister. Now it's the black entrepreneur and why? If you look at the composition of the black church, typically the head of the deacon board and the chairman of the board of trustees in the black church is typically the entrepreneur.

Raynard:

So if you get the entrepreneur on board with you, he'll bring you the pastor who'll bring you the congregation. And the black businessman is more likely, for example, if you had a permission in your church, say it's 15, 16, or 18-20 years old, he made a bad choice and his life ended up going to jail for five or 10 years. Guess what? More than likely, when he gets out of jail, the preacher picks up the phone, call the black entrepreneur in the church and say, "Hey, Jonathan, he's getting out of jail in two weeks and we need you to give him a job in your company. I don't care if he's sweeping the floor or dusting the windows or whatever. We need to get him some to get them back on his feet," and the pastor saying said to the businessman, "I need you to do this as a favor to me."

Raynard:

And the businessman, of course, is going to say yes, out of supreme respect for the position of the pastor. Now more than likely, this black businessman probably grew up with this kid's mother or father. So, "Oh, yeah, I remember him when he was little baby. So yeah, when he gets out, tell him to come by and see me." And the kid goes by to see him after he gets released from prison and the guy tells him, "Hey, I grew up with your mom and dad. The preacher called me about you. Hey, listen, we all make bad choices. I'm going to give you a job, but don't embarrass me and don't make me regret it."

Raynard:

All of a sudden, now, this kid started sweeping the floor, he ended up in management 10, 15 years later all because someone from that community gave him a second chance. And so what we do with the Black American for a Better Future, we go into the black community through the entrepreneur and we promote policies that's going to help the local community but also position the black entrepreneur to become even more successful because guess what? If this black entrepreneur is growing his firm, he's going to have to hire more people. And a businessman cannot afford to be in a community where he has to put prospective employees through remedial training, reading, writing, arithmetic, because the school system failed the kids when they were growing up.

Raynard:

So guess what? This black businessman is a big proponent of school choice and the vouchers. Isn't that something we can take that Republican governor in that state or their Republican congressman and every Republican senator to say, "Hey, we can bring you the black community support school choice and vouchers because this businessman, he's growing in revenue, but he's having a hard time finding employees. We need to get them into private charter voucher schools, so that when they finish, we can hire them. It's a business necessity"? That's the holistic approach, Linda, to what we're doing with black American for a Better Future. And it's been working so far.

Linda:

That's really great and I so appreciate the whole concept of the educational component there because I've talked to so many business leaders who have had that very same frustration. They have to do remedial reading programs to just help employees be able to do the most basic thing on their job. So our public schools, by and large, not all but by and large, are failing our American citizens and our young people and they're filling them with all sorts of things they don't need to learn and neglecting things they do need to learn. So thank you for your organization and for the employers who stand up and speak for school choice who speak up for creating better opportunities for young people and for the ones who give young people a chance.

Linda:

We've all been there in life where we need a second chance for whatever reason. Big choice, small choice, it doesn't matter, but we all need to have that opportunity to do better next time. And so being able to show people that is amazing. What do you feel is the best way for our listeners, many of whom are employers themselves, what do you feel is the best way for them to be able to not only educate employees, but to be able to educate elected officials and potentially impact policy that can help all of American citizens but especially those in the black community?

Raynard:

A good question, Linda. Every businessman I know, whether they are a mom and pop operation or they're a big guy doing hundreds of millions of dollars a year, I tell everyone I meet that you should know on a personal basis your elected official. I don't care what your policies are politically, I don't care what party you belong to, but your congressman, your city councilman, your state rep, US congressman, US senator, every quarter, you should have them come by your company and meet with you and your employee. Even if you have nothing specific on the agenda, your employees need to hear what he's doing as your representative whether it's local, state, federal. And when you pick up the phone and call that elected official, they should know who you are. They should know you're involved in the community. And these are the type of relationships you should have.

Raynard:

And so even when you disagree with them, you can be disagree respectfully and on principle. It may come to a point where you all agree to disagree. That's okay, but the only way you can change a person's heart and mind is through what I call or what we call in foreign policy constructive engagement. Well, the US needs to talk with China, Iran, India and Pakistan, even though we have major philosophical differences as far as our global relationship. To say nothing to them is political malpractice. And so even if some of your elected officials are more liberal than you to bear, even if they are a big proponent of, say, abortion, you're not going to change your mind by not conversing with them.

Raynard:

I think it's possible to have respectful conversations about issues that you disagree with and guess what? Over time, they may come more to your direction on certain issues. They may even change your mind on certain issues.

Linda:

Well, you bring up a good point about finding the issues you can agree on. I think that there are always points of agreement that we can go to. No matter how much we disagree with someone, there's always some point of agreement that you can drill down and get to, and by working to get to that point, you really show respect and care for the other person, if we are really trying as Conservatives to treat others the way we want to be treated, right? This has often been some of the reasons why we are a little meek in comparison sometimes because there's often is a double standard on how people want to be treated.

Linda:

You even mentioned like the crime. Sometimes these really violent acts that we've seen, especially in the last two years, violent criminals in big cities around the country, there's really little to no consequence except to defund the police, right? And then you have people sitting in jail for a very small infraction of a nonviolent crime. So bringing balance into that, but when we can talk with our elected officials and we can educate others based on the point of agreement and then moving out from there, it's like Dawson Trotman, the founder of the navigators ministry often said, "They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

Linda:

And you have brought that up repeatedly in this interview in terms of showing true caring concern for the family members, the young people, the church members, the community members, the business leaders. And when we do that, it escalates into us caring for our nation and it helps our nation to prosper. And those are the values that have made this nation strong, by the left really attacking those things, going back to what you said at the beginning, attacking the nuclear family, attacking the values of God, family country. That is what they are seeking to divide us. And I believe that we are much less divided than the media would have us believe, that there are more of us that are united and really want to love our neighbor as ourselves and we are not as divided as the media would have us believe. Do you agree with that?

Raynard:

I agree and taken what you're saying, Linda, another step further, is the liberal media does that on purpose. They want to divide us and they want to give the illusion that we are at each other's throats more than we are in agreement with each other. For example, Linda, I cannot tell you the number of times, even recently, last week, I had a member of Congress call me, a friend of mine and we were talking about this whole notion of, "Why do we need a Black History Month and we're all Americans and I don't see people do color?" And I said, "Well, if you don't, Congressman," I said, "I need to take you to my eye doctor. We need to get you some glass if you don't notice when I walk into a room I'm black. Now if that knowledge and realization causes you to treat me differently, then there's a problem, but are you noticing that I'm black is not a problem."

Raynard:

For me, Linda, when you walk into a room to notice that you're female is not a problem. And so Solomon once told me in Proverbs 4:7, "Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding." So this is how it relates to back to my conversation with this congressman about Black History Month. He was incensed that that was [inaudible 00:34:55] a need to have a Black History Month and I said, "But Congressman, let me tell you something," based on the script that I just told you," With all thy getting, get understanding," I said, "Do you know why Black History Month was created?" "No, I don't."

Raynard:

I said, "Because you white folks would not report in the history books black contribution for America, to America rather, so we had to do it ourselves. You all would not include us in the historical activities and so we had to tell our own story. And so we had to talk about the contributions of blacks to the Union Army back during the Civil War. We had to talk about discrimination. We had to talk about Martin Luther King because even in the '60s, they wouldn't put Martin Luther King's contribution in the history books in early '70s. We had that really protest and act the fool."

Raynard:

So I said, "Now, Congressman, where you and I can work together on this issue, if you all start promoting a holistic approach to American history which includes black folks, then over time, that will be less of a need to have a Black History Month, but until you all tell the whole history of America, not the white European view of history, but the whole view, then it no longer is a necessity for us to have Black History Month." And he said to me, "I never thought about that." Actually, a lot of times, Linda, conservatives come up against for like affirmative action.

Raynard:

Another issue we talked about, I said, "The reason I was a big supporter originally of affirmative action because you white folks wouldn't let us have a fair opportunity to get a job. We had a PhD in physics like the white guy that PhD in physics, but strictly because he was white, he got the job. We didn't get that." You have black back in the '60s and '70s men who have PhDs in physics working at the post office. And they put in 30-40 years at the post office with a degree in physics. So affirmative action was to try to create or solve a problem because of man's racism and racist views here in America, LBJ, Lyndon Baines Johnson in the '60s, my godfather, Linda, Art Fletcher, who the highest ranking black in the Nixon administration, he wrote affirmative action at the instruction of Richard Nixon, a black Republican.

Raynard:

So Linda, I have the privilege of sitting at the feet of luminaries in the black community like Arthur Fletcher. It was called the Philadelphia Plan that morphed into affirmative action as we know it today. And so when I sat at his feet over the period of 30 years, Linda, and found out from him how it all came to be, all the meeting he was in with the president of the United States, with members of Congress and all this stuff. And so before Conservatives are quick to get rid of a program that has a racial component to it, Linda, with all thy getting, get understand it get understanding. Understand what necessitated the creation of this program before you say, "Let's get rid of it."

Raynard:

And so the question then become the rationale to behind the setting up of these programs, whether it's Black History Month, affirmative action, are those barriers removed? And if the answer is yes, then let's get rid of all these programs. If the answer is no, then maybe we can amend some of these programs until we get to a solution. But again, and this is what drives me crazy with the Conservatives, Linda, and this is why they're not appealing as much to the black community as I know they should and could be is you got to understand what's going on in the black community. You got to understand what's going on with women on issues relevant to them. And that's what's missing within the Conservative movement, [crosstalk 00:39:02].

Linda:

I think you bring up some good points, and as I was thinking about how Donald Trump did so much better within the black community than people thought he would, there were reasons for that and I'd like you to address that. I know our time is a little bit short, but I also think of how when we looked at, "Okay, there was racism before. Before the Civil Rights Movement, everything, yes." And we over time in America have worked to correct those wrongs. We haven't always gotten them right. We're all humans. We'll make mistakes and we do our best to make things better.

Linda:

I personally feel like we can do a whole another kind of racism. Sometimes now with CRT and others, there's racism against white people. You and I were talking about this before we were recording, is just the whole concept of the white man, the white alpha male or whatever. And in our society now, that's almost bad. And so we need to look at this and say, "Okay, well, what did we learn from the Civil Rights Movement? How can we keep everything good from that and build on that to make it better for all of our citizens, not just the minority people?" but like you said, are we integrating these positive things into our society?

Linda:

And if we are, how do we build on that for the future? And if we have taken steps backwards, well, what do we need to do to correct that? It doesn't mean that we are a totally racist society. It means that maybe there's people who have those views and we need to overcome that with education, with better policy, with really helping raise our children to understand what truth about people. We may have different skin colors, but we all have basically the same needs inside, right? And the need for freedom and opportunity and family and all these things.

Linda:

We can learn from those mistakes from the past and build on them for the future, but if we just cycle around and go back to segregating people by a variety of ways, whether it's by race or vaccination status or gender or anything else, masks or anything, by segregating people, we are creating division and a divided house can never stand. So that is, like you said, part of the plan to divide America. Before we close, I would like you to address just why was it in your opinion that Donald Trump created such great support within the black community for his presidential campaigns?

Raynard:

Well, that's a good question and an easy question there. Linda, something happened in the '16 election with Donald Trump that has never gotten any exposure except for the column I wrote and I'll have to dig it up and send it to you back from 2016. Trump set off a political tectonic shift in the political landscape in '16. You've been around long enough, Linda, you've been in campaigns, both local, state and national and you've been around the game a little bit. And notice Trump would always invoke the black community in the '16 election. I wouldn't care who we are speaking in front of, and in most cases, it was a predominantly white audience. Trump would sit up here and say, "We're going to get this percentage of the black vote. We're going to do this. What do you have to lose?" that famous quote there in Detroit.

Raynard:

From a marketing and a PR perspective, Linda, which is what I do for a living, I sat and watched that and he repeated that every day, every day, every day. And one thing about branding is repetition. Trump is a master at branding, but here's what he said that no one talks about, Linda, typically, Conservatives and Republicans argue about, "Are they going to get any support from the black community?" Whether they're doing anything to earn that support, that's a separate conversation, but that's the typical question in the campaign for Republicans, "Are we going to get any?"

Raynard:

Now, 2016, Trump comes along. He didn't ask that question. He said, "I'm going to get this percentage of the black vote." Now whether you thought it was full of crap or not, but politically and PR-wise, he's changed the political landscape by focus on the question from, "Are we?" to, "How much?" And if go back to that time, Linda, even the liberal media were debating how much he was going to get, not if he was going to get, but how much. Do you understand the tectonic shift in the political landscape? That one statement by Trump did to shift the conversation from, "Are we?" to, "How much?" That's a tsunami in terms of approach to the black community.

Raynard:

And so he ended up getting 8% of the black vote in 2016. By the 2020 election, Linda, he ended up getting 12% of the black vote which is they 25% increase, how much he's going to get, not if he's going to get.

Linda:

Right and I know one of the things that there was historically better employment rates within the black and minority communities, historically high home ownership rates. This was incredible during the Trump years I mean. What he did to really help build the economy which in turn helped all minority communities and really helped to open the pathway of prosperity for many black people all around the country.

Raynard:

There's no question. And if you look at issues, Linda, Trump did more for historically black colleges and universities, HBCUs, than Obama did. And I remember there were four black colleges that got really devastated by Katrina back in 2005, I think it was and they chipped and tapped into a loan fund that George W. Bush as President set up to help black colleges in distress. Collectively, Linda, these four schools owe the federal government, I think, $340 million. They went to President Obama and asked for forgiveness of that debt. He basically couldn't go fly a kite. When Trump was president, asked the same thing, he pulled out a pen and wrote off $342 million dollars in debt to these four black colleges and these four college presidents will admit it, they've admitted it publicly. It's on the congressional record. You could do your own research.

Raynard:

But if Trump is supposed to be such a racist, Linda, why would he wipe off the books almost a half a billion dollars for four historically black colleges? And so Trump did a lot of good thing that to this day most black folks are not even aware of the substantive, tangible thing that Donald Trump did specifically for the black men, not all Americans, but specifically for the black community. That story has never been told, Linda.

Linda:

I agree with you on that that they really needed to bring that more to the forefront because truly the numbers showed the amazing improvement in the lives and opportunity and prosperity available to the black Americans under Donald Trump's presidency and so those policies worked. They'll work again. Obviously, we're in a time period right now, we are recording this ... Actually, we're recording it on October 18th, 2021 and the policies in America are not leading to growth and prosperity for American citizens of all races right now. So we can take some of these policy examples that we had from President Trump and from other years in our nation where we saw really great growth and opportunity and we can apply them to all members of our nation. They're all people of our nation, black, white or any other color.

Linda:

And so what would you say, just in closing three points that you would give to employers to help them be encouraged and empowered to speak about these issues to their employees.

Raynard:

Easy, number one, talk to your employees. That simple, Linda. A lot of employers, they have this separation, this distance between them and employees. Whether you got two or three employees or you got 2,000 or 3,000, they are your backbone. Talk to them, not just about work and business, "Oh, hey. How are your kids doing? How is your mom doing?" Make sure they feel comfortable coming to you as an employer but also as a person. That doesn't necessarily mean you need to blur that line, Linda, between employer-employee because sometimes you got to say difficult things to them if they're not doing their job right. So you got to have a certain space there.

Raynard:

But again, if you have fulfilled happy employees, you're going to have a lot of happy customers too. That's one thing. Just talk with them. Get to know and make sure your employees and your company get to know your elected officials. I don't care ... Again, you all don't have to be of the same ideology and party. They're your elected officials even if you didn't vote for them. Bring them in to make sure they know your employees. So if they're your employees having a problem, say, with their kid's school and he's a city councilman or state rep, he or she, as your employee, has the relationship to you to feel like they can pick up the phone and call their elected officials.

Raynard:

And then number three, always find out from your employees what does it take to make you more satisfied not only with your job, but is there anything else we can do as a company? Do we need to set up a revolving emergency fund so that when employees are having problems, like one month you may be having that financial crunch, that you need to pay your monthly daycare bill for your kid? Maybe there's a fund you can set up as an employer to say, "Hey, we'll loan you $500 to get over the hump. Would you pay us back when you get back on your feet, so that we'll have money available for the next employee that may run into financial difficulties?" because, Linda, you know as well as I know, we're all one bad decision or one tragic event away from being in a situation where we need other folks.

Raynard:

So like you said earlier, "There, by the grace of God, go I and you and me and others." And so make your employees feel like they are worth something and they're not just an employee where you're just driving a whip on them and saying, "Deliver, deliver. Produce, produce." These are human beings too. And so if you make them happy, like I said, you're going to have a lot of happy customers.

Linda:

That's so true. Those are really great points. And in that podcast that I recorded last week, called The Generational Legacy, I spoke of the restaurants that my parents had when I was growing up. And we had restaurants 40 years ago, right? But when my dad passed away also, but more recently, when my mom passed away, I literally had former employees and former customers contacting me, telling me, how much they loved and respect my parents. And I thought, as business owners, as leaders, we need to be thinking 40 years from now, will someone that we haven't even spoken to in decades, will they be still saying that about us, so we all have an opportunity to leave a legacy, we have an opportunity to leave a legacy?

Linda:

I would add one other point for employers, our public school system has done really a disservice to our citizens and that they've not taught civics enough and an understanding of the Constitution. And I would give a shameless plug for my book that would help people understand Prosperity 101® Job Security Through Business Prosperity. It really helps people understand how policy affects their paycheck. And I know when we can even just provide copies of the Constitution for employees or maybe we have a poster with the Bill of Rights, we need to help this generation, these younger generation understand that America is prosperous because of these policies, because of the foundational documents of our government.

Linda:

America is a different nation and we may not be perfect. We've talked about some things that need to be addressed within our society and things that we've had to address within our society that we've needed to correct because we're all humans and we make mistakes and we have biases and we can lead improperly, but we have a foundation to our government that can really provide opportunity and prosperity and liberty for not only our citizens, but then we can light that path for freedom for people all over the world, but it's up to us to let people know that that is the reason why America is the beacon of freedom for the world.

Raynard:

Couldn't say it better than myself. That was a great job.

Linda:

Well, thank you. And with that, I know you have also written a book. Would you like to tell the listeners about your own book?

Raynard:

Yes, it's called Writing Wrongs, W-R-O-N-G, Writing as in writing on a piece of paper, not R-I-G-H-T, Writing Wrongs: My Political Journey in Black and Write, W-R-I-T-E, so there's a lot of play of words there.

Linda:

Great title.

Raynard:

Yeah. Thank you. That's culmination of some of my best columns. I've been doing a weekly column for, God, almost 20-25 years, so in the newspapers across the country. And so it's like my best of the best broken down by section, from sports, culture, politics, foreign affairs, etcetera. So if you want to see my evolution-

Linda:

Well, people can find out more about you at raynardjackson.com and they can find out more about Black Americans for a Better Future and bafbf.org or just Google Black Americans for a Better Future and you'll probably find it but bafbf.org. And your book is called Writing Wrongs: My Political Journey in Black and Write. So I hope that the listeners will all go find that and thank you so much, Raynard. We appreciate your time. I hope you'll come back again and I'm sure that our listeners will be really blessed to hear everything that you've shared today. Thank you.

Raynard:

Thank you, Linda, for inviting me.

Linda:

My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you again for listening to The Prosperity 101® Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share and leave a great review. Don't forget to visit prosperity101.com to access the entire podcast library, to order my newest book, Job Security Through Business Prosperity: The Essential Guide To Understanding How Policy Affects Your Paycheck or to enroll you or your employees in The Breakroom Economics online course. You can also receive the free eBook, 10 tips For Helping Employees Understand How Public Policy Affects Their Paychecks. Freedom is never free. Understanding the foundations of prosperity and the policies of prosperity will help you to protect prosperity as you become informed involved and impactful.

Linda:

I give special thanks to our sponsors, Matthew's Archery Incorporated and Wisconsin Stamping & Manufacturing. Please contact us today at prosperity101.com to let us know how we can serve you. Thank you.