Impact Network CEO on Racial Inequality

Bishop Bishop Wayne T. Jackson. He's the founder and CEO of the Impact Network, and Bishop Jackson joins us on the phone on this Wednesday from Detroit. Bishop Jackson, thank you so much for joining us on Bloomberg yr Old, thank you for having me. First of all, I want to ask you about the situation Detroit having to deal with I feel like so much over the last five six months here because of the virus and then of course of the impact of what happened in Minneapolis. Let's

talk about the virus. How are you guys doing well in Detroit? We're doing well. But when you look at the overall view of African America's around the country that dealing with just COVID nineteen, you could see that the people of color are heavily impacted by UH, the virus when you talk about deaths and talk about hospitalization, and

so we are definitely um within the storm. And when you look at what's going on in the community and the communities across the nation of black and brown community, you you see that the health care when it comes to UH, the type of healthcare that those were in the urban areas of getting opposed. Once in the suburban areas, UH, it's totally different. So all that that is a factor of what's happening with the COVID nineteen in our community.

Perhaps I was talking about talking to the doctor this week in one of the uptown hospitals here in New York City too, and said, you know, because of our neighborhood, you know, we were overwhelmed. It was, you know, a minority neighborhood, UM socio economically poorer neighborhood, and they had tons and tons of cases. So what do we need to do to bring healthcare in the earth been areas up to what we see in the suburban areas well.

You can see that first of all, the nutrition is a very big factor of how, you know, the African American community is impacted by this virus because when you don't have UH the type of national grocery change in our in our community and you have liquor stores, you have marijuana stores, you have a lottery stores and gas stations, when you don't have a place where you can even go get fresh produce and the nutritional meats and have the uh the type of nutrition that they need to

sustain that when you look at how is going in the neighborhoods, you could see that going to fast food restaurants and eating fast foods and drinking UH soda and not having the proper awareness of nutrition. That's what impact it's all about. We are about making sure that we could educate our people not only in the spirit ritual aspect, but also in the net aspect, so on an impact.

We are dedicated as a voice in our community not only to affect Dechoy, but again, as you said, we had ninety million billion homes all around, and I want to talk about that voice, UM, because you're right, that's an incredible platform, UH that can certainly impact so many as you said, ninety million plus. But what I want to ask you to just talk about educating people. I feel like these concerns, these problems, these gaps, these inequalities

that we've seen are not new to society. They're just being laid bare once again because of the virus, because of what happened in Minneapolis. So how do we really get changed? How do we make sure that in those urban areas you can get fresh produced I mean, I went to school uptown in New York City and it was a little bit of a sketchy neighborhood at that point, but there were markets where I could as a student

access fresh pit produce. But how do we make sure because as we know, healthcare became such a determination or determining factor when it came to the virus and how well you did, So, how do we make sure essentially poorer neighborhoods have the same access to healthier eating options, that they can have, better supermarkets and so on, that they can have, you know, community gardens. Yes, so you're you're correct about that, and that's that's going on to

uh we are. We have people who are setting up and thank God for that, the community gardens where people can come in and actually have organic vegetables and through that they can grow. It's a process of education, and this is what is all about. When you don't have the knowledge and understanding, what's that your disposal, you know, you go at that which is wrong because egns, that's what ignorance does. And when you have UM national change, grocery change that need to come into the city and

be able to service the people. I believe that that's going to take um a community outcry of having the them to be responsible and putting these um these supermarkets into and grow storied into our community. But again, like you said, we could start somewhere and that's that's what's happening. And I'm glad you mentioned that. What about policy, what do you think about lawmakers, whether it's on a state level, whether it's on a city level, whether it's on the

federal level. What can be done, in your perspective, policies to help out and solve some of these gaps that are out there. What the policies you know what I believe Carol, especially we've we've come into this new UH presidential election that we've never seen before with its pandemic going going on. I believe that when we look at the different areas that we focus on, when we're talking about building our military, which is great. Also, infrastructure was great.

I think we should have a policy to help the African American community where we have a investment in lives. And I really believe that when we look at how African Americans have been taken for granted when it comes to our vote, and now that we see UH President UM nominee of Joe Biden coming up now and picking a woman of color who was well qualified, I really

believe that's going to bring a lot of energy. And it's got to take people who really realize that if you're not boots on the ground and don't know what's going on, then this is not really a issue with you. But I really believe that as we begin to get people inside who can help with the policies and get it past where we can really help the community, especially with health, healthcare, social justice and prison me for them

and things like that. One thing I want to ask you about when it comes to crisis, Bishop Jackson, is you know, I feel like Hurricane Katrina, you know, taught us a lot about again the inequalities that are out there, especially when it comes to the black community in the United States. Um, what did we learn, what did the black community maybe you know, get better prepared for perhaps

when it comes to crises. I'm just curious about the impact. Well, you know that when that happened in two thousand and five, that it was a major impact or on that American community. And the when they leties broke, they are you know, it went through all the different wards and and killed people and also uh ruling from their their places. When you even look at some of the pastor came to just happen the past years, we could see that the African American was affected by it and impacted by it

in a negative way. And so when you look at what we learned by it, first of all, I feel that we as a community and I speak you know from my perspective, that we have to join together when our resources to help in those you know, nobody is uh born or want to be in harm's way. You know, that's where the people was living and that's what happened to him, the impact of that hurricane. And so what we did from Detroit, we got bus loads of people, We went down there, brought them back to Detroit, gave

them jobs, put them in housing. And so we learned from that that we are resilient people and we have to help each other, work with each other, and work with mankind as a whole. But I do wonder, you know, we're in a society where for years, especially when we talk about the inequalities in society, whether it's men versus within, whether it's whites versus blacks, or you know, people of

color in general. You know, people create focus groups, they create initiatives, and yet here we are and the inequalities and injustices still exist. What's the breakdown in the system. Why hasn't more change come about? I really believe that some of it is ignorance when it comes to people who can make changes. Uh, this is my personal view that it's ignorance or a lack of concern. Um. I you know, the problem has been going on, not just recently, but you know, before you and I were even born.

And I just really believe that there's a great awakening is happening in our country with the Black Lives Matter, with the death for George Floyd. You could evidently you could see, you know, it's evident, you know, the way they choked the life out of him. And this is what's been going on not just with George Floyd, but you can we can sit here for now and name

different ones. Well, well, and let me ask you because I think we all thought, or many people thought that, you know, the nation as a whole took a giant step forward when Barack Obama was elected president. And yet here we are yes and and als, you know, after hundreds of years of of slavery and being not you know, able to vote. You know, African Americans don't even have the privilege even getting the marriage license at want at

one point in time. So it's not it's gonna take more than eight years to correct the things that has been going on, and it's going to take a continue uh effort from you know, from the political side, to the spiritual side to the business side. Well, and I want to talk about the business side. You run a network that reaches you know, ninety million people in the United States. That's that has the power to be pretty influential.

It's quite a platform. We see other media networks certainly using that platform to be persuasive when it comes to policies and ways of thinking in the country. So how how do you approach that with your network and what you're thinking when it comes to content creation and so on. Well, I believe that I have a great responsibility because before Impact Network was born in two thousand and ten, there was no African American, Christian or faith based of television

network in our nation. We have over forty seven million African America's in this country in seventy claimed to be strong religious. UH has strong religious conviction. It was there was no voice out there. And so what we have done and what we are doing is educating the people. I feel it's a great responsibility for us in ninety million homes, and as you said, there's a lot of influence that we have when it comes to UH. The voices that we put on Impact. We have Jesse Jackson

and also l Sharpton UM. This is the only network to have to UH icons, UH civil rights icons who are on every week talking about things like does that affects the UH? The community and our our effort is okay, it's time to vote, okay if we want to not spend whether Republican or Democrats, we want to put the facts out to the people. What's best for the community, what's best UH for us as a people. And so what we're doing is getting our impact to vote, getting

out the vote. We're bringing on qualified people that's going to talk about the different issues than our community needs to hear and and be able to respond to it. Hey, just quickly, just got about thirty forty seconds. I am curious, curious what the viewing trends have been, the growth maybe, or what you've noticed since since the pandemic and the shutdown. And just got about forty seconds here. Okay, real quickly.

It has grown up. We thought it was going to take a major hit, but it didn't because people were at home and people are looking for good family entertainment, good family viewing and all their faith. Their faith has you know, kicked in a lot of times. We know we run in and we don't think about our faith, but their faith were kicked in, and so Impact has been a killer in a lot of these homes when it comes to of this COVID nineteen and what we're

going through even without economic situation. Okay, we're gonna leave it on that note. Great to get some time with you, and we wish you well. Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, He's founder and CEO of the Impact Impact Network, joining us on the phone from Detroit and as I mentioned, they've got an audience of some ninety million in the US and air on Dish, Comcast, Verizon, Fire US, and so much more