Black Nouveau

[Music] Hello everyone.

Welcome to Black Novo.

I'm Earl Larbs and this is our edition for June 2025.

This month brings together two of Milwaukeee's biggest festivals, Junth and Summerfest.

We'll talk with Tony Kernney, Northcot Neighborhood House's executive director about Junth and what we can expect from its partnership with Summerfest.

Historian Dr.

Rob Smith joins us to talk about President Trump's efforts to eradicate what he calls quote illegal and radical diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

and we'll visit the United Nations School of International Learning's 10th annual NPS session held at the Bair Center last month.

June is also the month where we pay tribute to our dads.

Often overlooked, but just as important as mothers, of course.

In 1960, though, 73% of America's children lived in two parent households.

Today, that number significantly lower.

But of course, we believe that most fathers want to be involved in the lives of their children.

And that belief is what led to the city of Milwaukee to create the Milwaukee Fatherhood Initiative 20 years ago.

This is a participatory conference where we want to get information from you gentlemen on what you think can be done to help fathers be more involved, responsible, and committed in the lives of their children.

This was the first Milwaukee Fatherhood Summit held in October of 2006.

The result of a year's planning.

When I think back to when we started back in 2005 and we connected with the National Fatherhood Initiative to sort of use their model of the community mobilization, it's called the community mobilization model where you actually try to reach out to what they call non-traditional uh sectors of society and say look this issue of father absence it actually impacts every sector of society.

a lot a large percentage of the men that are incarcerated come from single female-headed households.

And so when we initially put the call out, it was like, "Okay, come to the table all of you non-traditional uh sectors, the business community, healthcare, uh law, education."

And when we put the when the mayor initially put the call out, all of those people came.

So did the fathers.

Initially, they hoped to host 300 dads.

Over 1,200 showed up.

Many who came did not represent the traditional nuclear family.

You know, this group is a group that I've studied for the last 10 years or more.

Um, particularly in the city of Milwaukee, and they they have some significant challenges that other groups of men I've studied don't have.

One is that there's a very high unemployment rate in the city of Milwaukee.

For the communities that they live in, there's a unemployment rate of about 75% on the high end.

Even though our national unemployment rate in this country is 6.1, it affects men um particularly men of color in a very different way and I'm talking more importantly about black men.

Um and in in this particular instance today um the other in other challenges they face is with the lack of employment and the um having children there's issue of child support which is a challenge they face that's significant and not understanding the child support system.

Um there's also the challenge of transportation.

If they're trying to get a job that's outside the community they live in.

um they are they they can be facing some other issues such as stop being stopped while they're driving.

Um they could also not know that the transportation system is like a 2hour sometimes three-hour way to get to work.

So there's this issue of access um this issue of employment and the issue of not understanding public policies that affect them in ways that may not affect other people.

Each year, the summit has a health fair as well as a job fair and sessions for fathers to get information on ways to better handle child support and on driver's license recovery.

Sometimes famous dads and sons were invited to share their experiences.

We were a bad group of guys.

I fight and argue and rob people and everything, but there was a little pride that goes along with it.

And occasionally as we'd be walking, my gangster buddies and I, we see this guy lying in the ditch drunk in the mud.

And you said, here the guy said, "Man, look at that bum down there."

And I said, "Yeah, sure is."

Then I'd get away from my buddies, get closer to home or get to where I was going.

Then I'd go back and rush and get that bum out of the ditch because that was my dad and I had to rush him and take it home quick.

getting on quick before people realize uh that's that's George's dad, huh?

There's a lot of talk about the crisis crisis in black men, crisis in black fatherhood.

Um what I wanted to do with this book is take it back because when I was coming up, there was similar talk about a crisis.

This book takes place in the 1980s and in the early 1990s uh in the era of crack hip hop is first dawning and everything and all the talk at that point was about how black males were an endangered species and what we were going to do about fathers and all that sort of stuff and I was lucky enough to have a father.

Um it occurred to me just as I was listening to so many powerful speakers before my dad was the most courageous man I ever knew.

Um and that that was just that's just straight talk.

That was point blank.

Um, and much of my childhood was about how I was going to live up to my dad, how I was going to, you know, be who who he was.

And we're joined now by Daryl Davidson, the city of Milwaukeee's fatherhood coalition director.

Mr.

Daryl, thank you so much for being here on Black Newvau.

Thank you also.

All right.

I saw you uh nodding your head when we were looking at the story.

So, talk about your involvement with the coalition and how long you've been at the head.

So, it brought back some great memories.

I've been in this position for three years and it's been wonderful doing everything that we've done with the fatherhood summit and the fatherhood coalition.

But many years ago, I started off as a person with a vending table at the very first fatherhood summit and everything that I brought to that table was gone in a very short period of time.

There were so many people there.

After that, the second year, I became a member of the planning committee and from that point forward, I participated in various capacities.

I spoke, hosted workshops, was one of the people who did security, did delivery of food, so many different things and met so many people.

It was a wonderful experience.

So, talk about the summit this year.

What can we expect?

When it when will it be and the impact you expect it to have on the community?

We anticipate it being in October.

We're still in the planning stages right now.

So we expect a really good event which is going to have multiple agencies that are community partners as well as our professional um referral networks.

We also are looking forward to many of the people who were part of the fatherhood summits and the participants they are going to be back because it's a very special time and in some people's cases it's a family affair.

We've had people bring their sons.

So, we've had the experience of working with fathers who became grandfathers through this event.

And that's wonderful.

I believe the other thing that's going to be good is knowing that many of our partners such as Milwaukee County and our WCS partners, uh, Wisconsin Community Services, our other partners with the Wisconsin Justice and the Parenting Network, Aurora Family Services and others.

We expect them to have the same type of impact that they've done in the past before.

So, job services, uh, addressing family needs, uh, dealing with child development issues, as well as teaching fathers how to be better parents.

Talk about the amount of fathers that you serve through the summit, but also through the coalition.

So, multiple years, we've been seeing over a thousand men per summit.

and through the years we have activities during the um other parts of the year.

I take a look at what's been going on and I know we've definitely served over 15,000 individual fathers and that's very impressive.

Yes.

And in the process of doing that, I know that that has a larger impact on the number of children that are being served, too, because for every father who's there, there's a child who's being represented.

And so, we're looking at increasing their income capacity and their trajectory with their job and their careers, as well as what type of educational goals they might have believed that they couldn't attain, but we were able to work with other people and get them to um reach their goals.

I know you talked about some of the partners that uh the summit has but talk about uh who makes up the coalition who all helps in this effort.

So if we take a look at the multiple agencies such as father's making progress we have the parenting network the many different organizations my father's house any organization that is teaching uh parenting classes um that is black child development network organizations that might be a part of government agencies quai government agencies so Wisconsin community services has been one of our partners in the past social development commission we also have Marquette University and their school of law.

We have the um workforce development partners.

So, multiple I know that I'm going to end up missing so many because if you take a look at some of our past um brochures as well as our program books, it comes off as if there's a thousand people who make this thing come together.

So, while we have about a minute left, talk about the importance of the uh the the coalition and the summit.

Just whatever you want to share about why it's important to the city and to the fathers throughout.

Well, when we have strong fathers, that is a component with problem solving and addressing issues that ultimately make strong families.

And when we have stronger families, we get stronger communities.

And what we're looking for are raising the standards of the children so that we can have them be a part of making this a stronger Milwaukee.

Many of our results that have come back from the research have demonstrated that the fatherhood summit works and we know that we're getting calls from many people across the country who want to duplicate that.

That includes what we're doing with Milwaukee Recreation, Daddy Daughter Dance, and the influence that we have on not only fathers and sons, but fathers and daughters.

Do Davidson, thank you so much for joining us here on Black Newvau.

[Music] Last month, the Baird Center welcomed over 3,800 students from 18 Milwaukee public schools for the 10th annual United Nations School of International Learning, MPS, World Fair.

The yearly UNSIL gathering allowed for students in grades 4 through 8 to showcase what they've learned about the 193 countries who belong to the United Nations throughout the school year.

The idea is to bring students together to brainstorm how to eliminate common problems that people face around the world just as the United Nations would.

Common issues such as gender equality, world hunger, and even pollution.

We asked one student why pollution is bad.

It makes it to where the ozone layer in our in our sky depletes and causes a radioactive energy from the sun to seep through causing a lot of problems for animal light uh animals and plants.

We asked another student how we could get rid of pollution together by stop littering, stop using gas and using more uh electricity instead.

I think us Americans, we need to start saving and composting.

Composting is when you have food and you put it in like a garden and you can do tomatoes, food, and you can just put it in the backyard.

People are wasting food and not recycling it.

If this keeps happening, then we have to face the consequences in the next few years.

More than 600 million people worldwide are project to face hunger in 2030.

That's bad.

Yeah.

Uh, I feel like it's really a different experience to get to learn from a peer.

Um, especially an NPS peer cuz they don't I just almost feel like it's a better experience cuz it's like everyone is kind of learning at their own thing and then it's fun to just hear how a younger like how youth view everything and their perception of the project and stuff.

So, I always find it great to get insight from younger students like us.

The thing that I take away the most from today would probably be how important student and um kid voices are and can be.

Um it really shows how like we do have an impact on our community in the world.

And I think that we are almost taken for granted in some ways because like people think like oh we're just kids like we don't really have as much of a voice as like adults.

But I think today really showed how we do have a voice and how we can change things.

The importance of society listening to young voices is because not only are they going to be our leaders in the future, but young children even in K4 and K5 through 8th grade and in high school, they have bright new ideas.

They're the next generation of IT and AI and technology and they have an understanding that past generations don't.

But if they grow up in such a program like UNSIL, they learn compassion and empathy and care for the world, for other countries and other students and other people and animals around the world and the ecosystem.

so they can combine all that knowledge with their knowledge moving forward.

We need to listen to them because they have wonderful, wonderful ideas and a fresh new way of looking at things that we may never have thought of.

I've been coming here for the past couple of years and engaging with young people who are paying attention to issues not just on the ground here in Milwaukee or across our state, but really issues around the world.

And that's what the focus is here.

uh focusing in on issues that uh are cared about and are addressed by the United Nations.

The kids discussed some major issues that the entire world faces.

However, they also came together to celebrate and appreciate the different cultures the world has to offer.

To end the day, the kids showcased cultural fashion shows and musical and dance performances.

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] On his first day back in the White House, President Donald Trump signed an executive order cracking down on what he called illegal and radical diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.

After his first 100 days in office, Trump has managed to purge government and military diversity initiatives.

He also threatened to strip billions of dollars from universities that didn't roll back diversity of incentives.

Marquette University professor Dr.

Rob Smith joins us to discuss why DEI is now in the crosshairs.

Thanks for joining us.

Always a pleasure.

So, um, after signing his executive order to eliminate DEI, Trump said, quote, "We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based."

How did diversity, equity, and inclusion get in the crosshairs?

Well, it's always been in the crosshairs.

Uh obviously the language of uh colorblind policy dates back to the Jim Crow era in the ways that uh the federal courts interpreted the 14th amendment to then make room for Jim Crow segregation in the face of an amendment that actually clearly uh sanctioned full citizenship.

So by the time we get into the 1960s, this fundamental question of equal opportunity is being addressed in a number of ways, politically and legally in the courts, particularly in reference to higher education and education more broadly.

Brown decision of course and then also in employment.

And so what what DEI represents is the maturation of equal opportunity in education and employment.

Uh that's gone through the rigors of judicial interpretation uh as well as other policies that then clearly earmarked what schools could do, what employment institutions could do to make sure that those institutions remain fair and equal in terms of access to all folks and then ultimately uh meeting the muster of the law.

So the crosshairs in terms of DEI being in the crosshairs, it's always been there.

But to refer to it as radical and illegal is just simply not true.

Uh this is race baiting.

Uh this is u uh using race as a clarion call in a lot of ways.

Uh it's it's indeed this political theater uh that has has deeply impacted politics.

And it's more importantly, James, the uh process by which this administration is looking to uh destroy the architecture of equal of equal opportunity broadly in in education and employment.

Well, what has been the fallback for companies that have rolled back DEI?

Well, you know, folks have met uh resistance in terms of boycots.

Mhm.

Uh there are uh people who may not ever take part with sharing their dollars with with some of these companies again.

We we see how performative a lot of that activity was over the last several years in particular.

Uh and also we know that for many of these corporations because it was performative, they weren't ever really serious about it to begin with.

That's that's a point.

So are you surprised that companies roll back so quickly?

No, not at all.

Not at all.

Because so much of this is still very new.

And as we know across employment sectors in particular, there there's sector after sector where there's been very little uh significant growth in African-American presence anyway.

Who benefits primarily from DEI?

Is it really white women?

That's what you hear all the time.

When we go through the legal and historical trajectory, particularly around equal employment opportunity, white women were certainly the the larger uh community of benefactors from what we used to refer to as affirmative action.

Uh it's it's it's indeed true that gender equality uh as as well as racial equality was a significant part uh of title 7, the equal employment provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But we also see how important uh the the presence and the welcoming of women more broadly into various uh areas and facets of higher education has been under title 9.

Uh so the the the questions around racial and gender inclusion and and there's that word right inclusion has been significantly impacted by the presence of white women.

So when the helicopter in the airplane crash happened, Donald Trump really he took to the mic right away and he blamed DEI as a responsible for this in some kind of way.

Are you surprised that he did that?

And are you surprised that uh this is what it's come to?

Not at all.

We should not be surprised at anything that comes out of this administration or uh any of the the the ways that race uh is being manipulated uh by Trump and others.

I mean, this is uh a very clear indication of the ways that uh white nationalist sentiments have have infected our our federal government and has been a part of shaping this policy agenda.

So that kind of language, that kind of of race baiting, that's going to be here throughout uh this administration.

So as we prepare to celebrate Junth on June 19th, some cities are rolling back their Junth uh activities because out of fear of DEI and what the Trump administration may do, uh do you think he will go after Junth?

uh the the the to directly answer your question maybe uh the the truth is there's nothing anyone can do to injure the brilliance and the importance of Junth Junth uh has been celebrated long before it was a a federal holiday and it will be celebrated long after now of course for those folks who might have to work on Junth and in the event that that happens that's unfortunate but we'll figure out another way to celebrate like we always have.

That is the moment where as African-Ameans, citizenship was indeed recognized.

We won't let that go.

All right.

Thanks for joining us.

Always a pleasure.

This is how we do it in Milwaukee.

Happy Junth in Milwaukee.

Neither rain nor excessive heat can stop Milwaukee from hosting the state's largest Junth celebration.

It is one of the oldest annual commemorations in the nation and has been sponsored by the North Cotton Neighborhood House since 1972.

[Music] The event is held on June 19th, the actual day in 1865, the General George Granger notified the enslaved population of Galveastston, Texas, that they were finally free.

Two years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and two months after the end of the Civil War.

This year its theme is Junth, a celebration of love, life, and freedom.

Listen, there's a world famous turkey leg.

You shake it, you crank it off the bone, off the bone.

When you not come off the bone, I get your money back.

Every year when I go, I have a budget.

Uh, so I start on one end and I eat my way around.

500 or more vendors serving all types of food.

Barbecue, in my opinion, is is one of the only foods that bring every culture together.

Every from Wall Street to construction workers, everyone comes together.

Uh this year we're hoping to have a pan-African zone so that we can allow other cultures within the African-American community to to be spotlighted as well.

We we started creating the zones four years ago so that we could make sure that we touched everyone.

So, Kids Zone came along first.

We have the train, we have the rock wall, we have everything so that anybody under 12 can enjoy it as much as they can, followed by teen and senior zones.

This year, the teen zone is designed for a safe space for our young people that want to come enjoy the Junth festivities here.

And what we doing is u making sure that we're engaging our young people in a real way just to stay positive, to stay safe.

And so this is what the teen zone is about this year.

Then we brought in the veteran zone.

Um so we're just looking to make sure that everyone can talk about their contributions, that everyone can [Music] see not only their peers but can get services as well based on who you are.

Junth is an American celebration and we've consistently over the past 5 years tried to get that across to everyone that this is an American celebration and it's an opportunity for you to see some of the best of the African-Amean culture.

However, it's an American celebration.

If you look at all the components, you know, slavery was a terrible thing.

Junth recognizes its end.

That was not just African-Ameans.

It changed the way of life for Americans, period.

And this year, Milwaukeee's Junth is teaming with another major Milwaukee summer event.

Well, the partnership with Summerfest came about because we celebrate our celebration always on June 19th irregardless of the day.

Summerfest has gone to a new 3 weekend format and this year it starts on Junth.

So Junth will be occurring over the next three years while Summerfest has occurred.

previous years that didn't happen.

So, we have these two great festivals.

It was important to figure out how we could work together and potentially bring more people to Milwaukee during this time um to have some elements of Junth at Summerfest.

So, we'll have our full festival on Martin Luther King Drive and at six o'clock um the Junth court and a number of other members of Junth will join Summerfest for its opening ceremonies.

We'll have a vendor day there where some of our vendors will be doing a tasting at Summerfest.

So you buy this ticket specifically for the tasting and you would get to experience the products that these 12 vendors produce.

You know, while Northcot started Junth in Milwaukee, Junth belongs to the people of Milwaukee and that's all of them, not just African-Americans.

It belongs to the people of Milwaukee.

That's why we'll never leave Martin Luther King Drive.

Can't go any place else.

It's got to be available for the people.

Black Novo will be at Junth again this year.

Join us at the corner of Burlai and MLK between 2 and 3:00 p.m.

and tell us what Junth means to you.

We may use your commentary on the air and we will broadcast our special Junth edition on Junth at 900 p.m.

Before we close tonight, this reminder to check us out on all our social media platforms and we hope to see you out at Junth for the Black Novo team.

Have a good evening.

[Music]