The Dr. Mark Baker Episode

for having me say. Man, I'm gonna tell you something. You are the type of person that we need as a catalyst for change. You've been on the street, You've been on the ground. You come from the streets. You come from where I come from. You come from a place where a lot of brothers who need your assistance and guidance come from. Why is it so important for you to fight for the you know, the everyday man

and woman man. This is one of those things whereas like I'm really still fighting for myself, you know, huh. You know It's like I have family, you know, who are a part of this struggle. You know, brothers and sisters of the struggle in general is real. You know, have a cousin who's with me almost every day. He just did twenty three years. He's home, can't find a job.

You know, I have this real you know, and I think that, uh, if one of us have an opportunity to step out, we can't break our arms patting ourselves on the back, you know, saying I might I made it. I got mine, you got yours to get. That's not how I'm built. That's not how I was taught. That's not how I was raised. Uh, anywhere that I've been, whether it was you know, through organizations I was affiliated with, you know, positive you know, no matter how people view them.

Like nowhere that I've been, no influences that I've had have ever led me to believe that it's all on me. And when I'm good money every you know, I could just keep it moving. So it's just it's just was natural. Yeah, you let's talk about this position that you're running from. Uh, you're running for state represent I said, running from. You may be running for running from after you get in there and you with all the wolves that in now

that's trying to hold the people back intentionally. But you're you're running for Georgia State Representative District sixty eight. This is a special election U that was brought about with the untimely death of Representative Ties. Right, And at what point did you know that you wanted to run for

office in the first place? You know, as far as like not not not you got your you got your You made your bones as a city councilman in South South Forida, Right, but when you decided at what point that you want to go to the next level with the state rep and run for that? Man? I was at boxing with my son, a fifteen year old you know, shout out MJ. Mar Jr. And Marley but my son, he was boxing, and I got a call from a neighbor,

you know, miss in the jinking. She's like, Mark, I don't know what you're doing right now, but we need you in this seat. We really loved Tish and she did a great job, but we just can't go back to not having somebody who really genuinely cares about us. And I was like, miss Brenda, can I just call

you once I get out of this boxing. We got out and we spoke at great length, and I just didn't feel comfortable until, you know, after everything was over, at least a funeral, because people were really calling, and you know, she was just one you know, other people called. You know, I had a call from the mayor. Everybody was just calling accent because they knew I lived in the district and they got done too. Yeah. Yeah, And it was one of those things that, you know, after Council,

I literally ran for Congress. I ran for Congress because of my legislation that I passed and I wanted it to become infectious. But it was one of those things that like, I love our city South full toon. You know, I can call myself, you know, one of the founding Fathers of Southward then when we started in twenty seventeen. Uh and it's ninety two percent black, you know, and over one hundred thousand populations makes it a large city. It's one of those things that according to the National

League of Cities, it's the blackest city in America. Right. And so we have seven districts. I represent the district seven that you know carries and covers you know, part of the Old the Old no, it covers the border of Fayetteville, but the Old National Corridor too, you know. So I was a councilman on Old National That's the area that you hear two Chains talking about and Ludacrous and and JD. You know, all of these people come

from that area. And I was passing a lot of progressive legislation on a black city council that had the wine and Cheese area included. You know, shout out to the people who live on Cascade Road. You know, you ever saw the movie atl where New New Live. You know t I's love interest Laury in London, she lived over near the Cascade area, you know, and that's the area where affluent black people live. So our city comprises of people who live over there and then the old

National Area. So after passing legislation and fighting for you know, like all of the stuff I passed, it wasn't unanimous, and we're dealing with black people, and it just became one of those things when I ran for Congress saying it, I'm tired of fighting my people to fight for my people, if that makes sense. So it makes a lot of sense.

So it was like, if I'm going to do this, if I'm I'm going to sacrifice my time and energy effort, I want to go somewhere where people, you know, really feel different overtly we in Georgia, you know, and stepped to our beef on a different platform, you know, and and just move it that way, and it felt it would feel more authentic then, you know, as Marcus Garvey talk about us and our petty differences, you know, we can move on and we've been able to be progressive

and do a lot of great things. We got a long way to go, you know, like we're the next door to Atlanta, and Atlanta has had about one hundred and twenty year ahead start on South Fulton, so people will expect change immediate and overnight, but it's coming but I just felt like doing everything that I was doing, you know, as far as legislation wise, these were things that needed immediate healing on a larger scale on a national level, definitely on the state level as well. And

it's not enough of us being represented there. When I say us, I mean people who understanding inwardly digest what it means to be a part of our culture, you know, to come home with the lights off, you know, to have a single mom who struggles and you know, doesn't know where how she's going to pay all of the bills and stuff like that. You know a lot of us who make it there, you know, and I want my suits and my flowers and stuff too. But like it's a detachment I think from a lot of people

who represent us. You know, we make it there, and we kind of carry it different, you know, we want to prove ourselves to be worthy of being there, and like the other people there, as opposed to being willing to stand out and say, look, I'm different the people in the demographic I represent. It's different, and we need a voice at that table. I see you got your fellow Chicago and a T shirt on free Larry Hoover. You work a lot with his son, Larry Hoover Junior,

A really really good dude. You're from Chicago's West Side, that's where you originally madeor bones, so to speak. At what point did you decide that you want to to be a servant to the people. Well, man, that's a good question. I kind of just I had a good situation, you know, for a little while. And our city is a new city, and coming from Chicago, it's one of those things that when I go back home now on my block, like you know, it's a it's an awkward place to be from and be affiliated with my my

group of people. You know, Chicago is very It's one of those things. It's territorial, you know, and there's lines right where you can have Like I grew up on sixteenth Street, you know, and from Ktown all the way down to Kizzie is where my family is. So you have different affiliations that might be a block over in that little area from the Holy City towards Kizzie and the community, and you know the area where mister Jones owned everything. A lot of people call it Jones City.

We can go up a couple of blocks on twenty first or twenty second Street and it's Mexicans, and you don't cross that street like they used to chase us from one side of the fair, like you know those little makeshift carnivals. They come and they be in the parking lot or whatever, and we would go as kids to be in that you know, space or whatever. By the time they start identifying, it's like, ah, mind less road. We gotta go, you know, and we on our way out,

but they would chase us. And once we cross our side of the street, it's not like help is waiting. We could just stop because they not gonna come over there and we could pop off. They could pop off, but we're gonna be on our side. It's almost animalistic, you know, Is it still that way. I've been out of Chicago for a minute. I visited a lot for a minute. I mean I left in the nineties, you know, late nineties. Of course I left and went to school. You know, my mom made sure no. I went to

dinner in New Orleans. Actually shout out the Dealer University HBCU. One of the best ever, best four years age sociology or the minor in music, one of those degrees that if my you know, steps didn't just laying where what where it did, I'd still be just in the classroom teaching, you know, But I just picked the degree that had the least amount of math in it. I like, being radically honest. It wasn't one of those things. But here's the cool thing about sociology. It's a study of human behavior.

And if you can figure that out, you can navigate through anything. And you know what, I didn't understand that at the time, but not like the way I've landed. I'm like, oh my god, Like if I'd have had any other major, I wouldn't be able to sit across from people in rappert taste about their situation. Because we used to have doctor Barber Thompson. Anybody went to till the university. We know, she got busy and she made us know all of the historical framework and concepts behind

what made people who they were, how they move. You know, a lot of people give credit to, you know, survival of the fittest. You know, it doesn't go to Herbert Spencer like it should, you know, because he was one of thirteen kids to actually survive infancy and that's what made him think he was built different. And these little things that happened when you when you're younger, as you grow, they stay with you, and they stick with you and ultimately become It becomes who you are, how you move,

and how you navigate. And I think that it kind of brought me to a by the point where I became a public servant. I knew I'm represented old national you know, I'm from Chicago. Somebody from Atlanta couldn't come to sixteenth Street or the k Town area and just represent in them, you know, without having a conversation and knowing these people or finding out, you know, the true status of what's going on. And I made sure I

did that. I tapped in with people like Bear who with all of the younger people in that area who had how could you call it the five O one C threes and the people that then set down for a minute, and now they back and they want to do better in their community. And you know, it just became one of those things like you know, we have shady part crips. It's no secret in my area. But you know, through me having you know, just the wherewithal and the knowledge base to be able to touch the

people that actually influenced them, right it was nothing for me. Actually, it was a great deal for me to shout out big U. I was able to reach the big U big U k We had a you know, a meaning pastor Anthony A kreflo dollars church and you know back in like talent. No, I'm just just stopped doing stuff like that. Got has a whole different mindset to like there's a lot of different mindset or it's just as I would say. And I can't speak too much on

it because I'm not a member of his church. But every time I've gone the traditional krefflo that has been spoken about publicly as we have this thing about him, he iss changed. And I've heard that he's publicly said that he was wrong about a lot of Okay, okay, so people, people can grow, you can grow. And because he threw me off man with that asking for a plane thing, you know, like trying to tell people that they were poor if they could didn't come up with

the money. That threw me off. But but you're saying that that's not the kreflow dollar. You know, yes, I'm saying that. I'm definitely saying that. I've heard you know, you know, now I'm just kidd no, no, but it's like but but he did. He does allow his space for us, you know, uh to do these things. And we held it at World Changes, you know, and I connected with Big U there and we you know, we talked about what was going on, and I mean we've

had a like I gave him a proclamation. I think it was almost two years ago because we went down like in that area about seventy percent in the type of crimes that was you know. But he has a program called Developing Options, you know him and I think Don Osborne, Jeffrey Osborne's daughter, was together with that program.

And you know, we ain't had the money to do it, but you know, it's one of those things where he used his influence to you know, rap with people who you know are out of the power and kind of use black recognomics to make stuff work, you know, you know, passing ideas and if we have you know, other other opportunities or jobs for people. That's what his program did. But you know, he was able to help in that.

And I think that you gotta go to the people. Everybody, everybody not gonna wear the suits, you know, you got to find the real people to come and give truth. You know. That's why I haven't had a problem aligning myself with people who think different, you know, whether it be shout out to Resa Islam, that's my brother. You know, we do a lot of stuff together. I gave him a day and you know, I work with him and you know, and and we do a lot together, especially

during the pandemic. Him and even doctor Luma Johnson, that's my brother too. He comes down, you know, and we do stuff. So we like I'm if I'm representing the black of city in America at that time as I was, I wanted to make sure we we really dealt with our issues and we were true to you know, our demographic. So okay, So you just mentioned Riza Islam and doctor Umar.

Working with these guys who have some different views, but the one thing that they have in common, even Big U, the one thing that they all have in common is that they love black people. I know they doubt and so I think that we have to get used to working with each other and not not expecting something that's superhuman from each other. Like we have to give each other grace knowing that we don't have to agree to everything. We don't have to agree with everything that somebody says

in order to support that person. As long as our common objective is to advance our people in one of the words that you like to be used is progress our people, then that's what that's the bottom line. That's what should matter more than anything, the advancement of our people. And so all of these guys, I look at them the same way. They all are working in that same But what happened with you growing up that made you

want to be that type of person? Did you see something that you see somebody did somebody set you, pull you to the side and say, look, son, this is how you do it. I'm a product of my environment, right. So I think that when people look at the leaders of what they used to call gangster disciple, which is now internalized as growth and development. Right, we had people who were on the playground right doing that cusp of that change is my generation. Right. My cousin and I

tell you about who just came home. He was probably perplexed, being about ten years or so older than me, trying to take on growing and developing in the community. So they had rules for us. Now I would notice that they wouldn't necessarily abide by the rules that they would we was selling us because it was kind of new to them. You know, do as I say, not as I do exactly. And so now as kids, you know, we would you know, we would still figure it out.

We would get around some stuff. And I'm not perfect. I've had situations and you know, and you know, before eighteen, actually three times before I was eighteen, I was with the police, you know, and the last time was pretty serious. I had to fight a felony charge for somebody. And do you know at eighteen years years old, I came back and for like Christmas break, But it was just, you know, the bottom line is there, even when you make it out like you don't have to do nothing

but exists. Not to Chicago's not different from you know, in the city, in any part of this country. You know, like this plans and traps for you to actually take a trip and fall, you know, and it's not one of those things. It's intentionally set up for that, you know. So I had people who were telling me, yo, man, it's good to see you, man, but dude, man, you broke out. You need to get away from here right now. Bro.

They just left his shooting and I'm thinking, why you still want to sit on the corner the sixteenth at home? And exactly what they told me is why you gonna stay here? You know. And so it became one of those things whereas like a lot of people feel like, you know, they don't have a way out, you know, but I realized, like I'm a part of them, I'm the same. So when I had the opportunity, I don't. I don't think that nobody told me anything that was

drastically different. I think I slipped through the cracks and kind of made it. And I think that when you talk about how my progressive nature, as you mentioned, it's one of those things as a black man in America, you know, so you have the progressives, you have the conservatives, you know, and or I just can't think of anything politically or political ideology that I want to like. To be a conservative means to keep the same, the root word,

to conserve, keep the same. There's very little about America in its history that I want to put my energy and time and vote to try to keep the same. You don't see what I'm saying. So I think that you know, when you become you know, aware what was political when you become aware of the social political of people who were revered in my neighborhood, like Larry Hoover, you understand, and you know, just like we were talking about sociology, you have to look at the times and

what was going on. You know, you have the time then to understand that Fred Hampton was just probably two or three years younger than Larry Hoover in nineteen sixty nine, December fourth, when he was assassinated right up the street, right up the street from where I was. I grew up on the West Side. It's like, so these were people who were goal oranizing our communities because of what

was being inflicted on us. And no matter how people felt about them at that time, if these people had the opportunity to mature and grow and get older, you know, who's to say what that trajectory would have been. And so that's why they rooted him, right, because they knew their potential, right. And so if you'd have ran into me, you know when my mom needed money to help out, you know, in my little eighty dollars when I started working at McDonald's, how I was figuring out how to

make it be more than eighty dollars. You know, it's one of those things that I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be talking to you, you know, because I have a lot of friends who they're not here, and I see their family and they're proud of me, and they're expecting me to go faster and further, you know, you know, for their say. So I can't watch, I can't watch. I got to make sure it work. Go to Fords reloaded podcast you break after spak you mentioned being with

the police. Now you at some point became a police officer. You was a school resource officer. Man, how was that experience? Man? It was amazing. It was the best place I could have been. Shout out to Bear Creek Middle, Shout out to Renaissance Middle, Langsy, Huge Creek's out. And if I wasn't I wouldn't be here either, because those same kids did I flushed, they weed in the toilet. All the kids who were like man Officer Baker Obi, they still call Obie at times. Ob You looked out. You know.

If it wasn't for you, I would have gott dot, you know, and like for me to walk around and still have the deference from these young kids with bids and they thirty years old and they like remember me, and then like, yo, you look older than me, kid, like you know, and so like these are people who ran my campaign. One of them, in particularly right now,

is working in my absence, like organizing. You know. So I think that you know, it's one of those things that you can't teach a child you don't love, You can't teach a child you don't understand, and you can't teach a child that you're afraid of. You know what I'm talking about. So it's like when you lead with that meaning I love you, I understand you, I ain't scared of you either, it gives them one of those things we're like, man, you know that's a man right there. Man,

you just said a month full. I ain't scared of you either. We don't have the luxury to be afraid of our youth. We don't have that luxury because see me, the reason why I interveing, the reason why I'll drop the hashtag free game, and I even do this podcast is to give you that information and instructions to help you navigate through this work, crazy beautiful world. And if I don't do it, I'm more afraid of you, I would be more afraid of what you will become if

I don't speak. That's what I'm afraid of, because at some point I'm not going to have the physical problems that I have today. At some point, I'm not going to be as sharp with my my brain skills. At some point I may end up, you know, one of

those dudes just you know, sitting on the couch. I don't know, but if I'm going to be that dude, if I'm going to be here in any capacity, I would be more comfortable with knowing that we have a lot of great people out there that are amongst us who got the game and who understood the assignment that we got to look out for each other, that we have to invest not just lip service, but our time and our money and our resources, our connections and our young people if we are to survive, if we are

to go to the next level. And man, I commend you, brother, because I was looking at some of your work. I was looking at some of the initiatives that you've been involved in, the laws that you have passed, and I'm like, how the hell does he get all this stuff done? You have been busy, like damn bro, like, what are some of the laws that you passed when you we was a city council in south in the city of South Forton. Man, thanks for that. First of all, it's

been interesting, man. I think that the first thing was that was big, I think was the decriminalization of cannabis and what I'm saying cannabis because I had to do somewhat of an education campaign for a lot of our old people are older adults who you know, like, you know how it is they think of it riefles. What was it called what I was growing up. I don't want to smell riefles everywhere, and you know, but I had to let them know that I did it not

just for criminal justice reform. I did it for criminal justice reform, not just so people can smoke weed. Pointing out the truth that you go to Fulton County Jail, over ninety percent of the individuals who were there at the time, they looked just like me and you, and they just didn't have a thousand dollars for a fine, you know, and they would lose their jail that mean,

lose their job because they're in jail. So you know, six months, you can't pay a thousand dollars is something that people on the other side, on another coast, I'm making billions of dollars. They're putting it back in their education system. And this was when it was unpopular that I passed that. People told me, yoh, you'll never get reelected. You know, your base is older adults. You know, they're

not going to vote for you. Butction campaign proved wrong, and I was like, you know, this was I think the third piece of legislation to decriminalize cannabis, which I like to say now so because it's different than the other word, you know, and it's it allows to be

it allows for one to re educate themselves. Although I don't smoke, and I don't I'm not even the guy that's into it like that, because I really feel like, you know, given the controls that they have now is no telling what it's being infused with the different states of things, you know, And I know you know reason or reason to get into that with you and you know, trust me, we rock out and talked about that before.

But the bottom line is we can fix all of that, just take us out those cages because of it, you know. So that was the first thing, and then I realized that when it passed, I need to just go. I need to just go, like I can literally sit down with an attorney and ultimately an excellent city manager. Shout out to Odie Donald. He's the chief of staff now in the City of Atlanta for Andre Dickens, but he was our city manager in South Fulton. I would sit

down with him and our attorney, Amelia Amelia Walker. Shout out Amelia Walk, amazing black woman attorney. She sat down with me and everything that I wanted to see different that I would talk to my people about. Man, I went for it. I went for it. Starting with that, then I was like, okay, I didn't even realize it at the time. But being an educator, you know, I taught at Clark as well. You know, I went there for my master's and my doctorate, but I taught at Clark.

I taught current issues in African American studies, and I was the first male professor of women's studies there. And being an educator in African American community and living in the city where you're still acknowledging Columbus Day, you know it's an issue. So you know, when I abolished Columbus Day and the news people started calling, and I didn't know that I was the first in the state of Georgia to abolish Columbus Day for Indigenous People Day. And

I was like whoa. And then that's when the Italian Americans started stepping to their beef. But I don't know. My bully used to live across the street from me, so you know, you can't scare me on the internet. But it was like, you know, it was one of those things that you know, I didn't. I wasn't like trying to say, hell, this is the first, you know, but I found out in the process that it was the first, and it was a big deal. You banned Columbus Day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks, it's a big deal.

Say don you ain't got to do nothing else. You're going to help to get his ass Upboudy here man, man, it's crazy. So we lived like we live about thirty miles from Gordon County, right. Gordon County is the headquarters

for the Cherokee Nation, right, and it's in Georgia. The Trail of Tears started that you know, the small explain the trailers is when you know all of the natives were uprooted, giving their land up and they were sent off to I believe Oklahoma, and uh they literally had to go on foot and they had blankets with you know, smallpox uh infused in order to kill him off. You know. And this guy didn't even know where he was going. And we call them Indians to this day because he

thought he was going to India. But that's why he thought he was like any from understand he never even stepped foot on American saw. But he has a day. He's amplified, you know in Georgia, which was so hypocritical and you know, but I mean it's one thing to be a trail and start something, because I think like two other cities have done it, possibly three now, but

it's becoming infectious. It's a movement now where people are doing stuff and I've had a shout out to you're not along with my sister, she's a fair CON's granddaughter. She comes with me every year we try to do something to amplify and let people know what it is. Shout out the fair con and his granddaughter. Yeah. So, I mean it's one of those things, those two things they're like, oh, you're shaking up the table down there, you know, you're doing. And that's the thing about the

older cowardice people in position. You know, you get somebody with some energy, they want to do something different, they want to step to our beef, and they try to pull your coat tail and tell you to cool out. I was going to ask you about that. You beat me to the punch. I was going to ask you what's more difficult penetrating the white gatekeepers of the old

Negro black gatekeepers. You be surprised, man, how many amazing white people want to help our situation and how many black people want you to be quiet talking about your anguish and your pain. Are they saying that out of fear of retribution? Are they saying that because they feel like you're gonna mess with their bag? I think it's both.

It's an amalgamation of both. You have some who feel like, man, I've been in this seat for twenty years, and I've been here because I've been quiet and I haven't shaken the table. And then you have people who feel like, you know, man, don't push this because you're gonna mess with my personal situation, you know what I'm saying. So it's like it's probably a little bit of both. But like when when you ain't when you ain't make me,

you can't hold me. You know. It's one of those things the people who like I said, my kids from those schools and a lot of them don't walk past and became famous. Shout out Playboy Carti who was one of my students. Shout out Gunner there was, you know, one of the students who walked walked the halls to Bear Creek Middle, Like these are people you know who's gone on and you know, made millions of dollars or whatever.

But their classmates are the ones who run my campaign and help, you know with literature, and they're out, you know, and and they make stuff happen. But that's the point of a community, you know, you have the phonics in the world is community, common unity. We have a common unity. We understood when I let my garage go up in the morning when I was working. Then I would see the same kids that I was about to see in fifteen minutes where I drove because I lived in the

same community, and they like, good morning over. I'm like, man, I ain't got to talk to y'all till another fifteen minutes. Leave me alone, you know. But they would knock on my door. We would go play basketball. I would open the gym sometime on the Saturdays. And they knew that I cared, you know, because I had people who cared about me when I was that age and and you know, pour it into me. So I think that, you know, that's that's how everything ultimately works out. But you gotta

when you're in the position. Back to your real question. It's a lot of people who know that we've been wrong, right and want to help, and we gotta get old the hurdles of ourselves. Like when I said, fight my people, to fight for my people, man, it's hell. It's hell because it's like, yo, don't talk about it like I when I passed to Breonna Taylor law right, and this is the thing with police, and this was the first two to end no knock warrants in the city. Actually

nobody has done that in the state. So I passed that and we have a large police department. Man, And it didn't make me popular, but my license is clean, you know what I'm saying, Like I'm I'm I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. So even if it you know, the biggest thing was I mean, being able to do certain things. Even with the marijuana. It was argued that this takes away a tool from the police because it's normally that scent, that smell of weed that allows them

to go further in their investigatory process. And it's like, well, first of all, you know, fall back in the first place. You know, why are we looking like our community does that? And then we don't do it in other communities. You know, we normally checkpoint and fall back to see how they want to lead in their communities. Like policing in America is that's hobby here forever, if I got to popping

into that. But the point of it is, it's like, yeah, I think fighting those people with the old guard is probably the biggest one because like I've I've worked with black politicians and I call myself a public servant. You know, I think it's Minisafarka who says that probly means multiple and ticks means bloodsuckers. You know, so a politician you follow me. So so it's like I I like, I know politicians who have been if this ain't going my way, no matter how great it is for the community, this

will never happen. Promise you that And minute and actually moved that way, whereas it's been negatively detrimental to our society. And these people will constantly be elected, they will constantly

be there. How does this happen? And state after state, city after city, municipality after the municipality where you have elected officials who have done nothing but lip service and go around taking pictures at your grandparents' anniversary, fifty anniversary, they comes show up at the barbecue, they make a speech when somebody is murdered by the police or something like that, How are these people consistently reelected? Like? And how do the people allow it?

I think these politicians, they have a similar disposition to the preachers, and when you watch how they move, how they give it up, it's really no different. They have a sermonic response to your grandmother and everybody else, and they continue to vote for that person every single time because that's the name that they know, and he probably showed up it gave a good talk at the anniversary

or other graduation. At the anniversary. At the graduation, man, I got talked by them how to move at funerals. Like literally, hey, man, whether it live is you stand by,

you wait till the car come up. You go in with the family so everybody see you walk around to the casket, and then you could just circle straight out to church like the like they rock people to sleep all the time, and I'm like, yo, like this is a science to them, just like preachers with preachers say, oh, you ain't preached unless you kill them and brought them back, you know what I'm saying Like this, like like I think it's a thing where our people sometimes, you know,

we look for somebody who just gives us the nostylia of leadership and then we just lock in with them. We lock in with him. So I mean, I don't get me wrong, I have on this shirt, especially in the absence of my brother who wanted to be here, Larry Jr. But I'll clean up, you know, And I even put my flower on to remind myself to be

a gentleman in this whole you know, conceptual framework. But these people really like end up being like that, and the younger people doesn't, like, they don't have faith in this system, you know. And so I go out of my way to let people to make it look good too, you know, to other people. And I've engaged and I've inspired a lot of people, and I could tell like

they've jumped in and they're ready. They're ready to do it, and they're ready to do it different like going to bed beat because we really outserving, you know, like the sceniors in my district. I had a situation where I was going to their houses, you know, like saying, hey, I'm coming, don't shoot me. It's eleven and we still out here. We're bringing y'all the n nine to five mass,

you know what I'm and and we're feeding. Every time Umar came just out forward and we were feeding people, he was like reasons I got pictures with him and this, you know, still got his boat own putting we yeah, man, more than that, like we're putting boxes in it. I mean, shout out to feeding families Georgia, you know. Uh, like we do this stuff and were true servants. And I think that people are able to see through it, but not enough of them go for reloaded podcasts right back

after this week. Are you getting a lot of help from the hip hop constituency? Uh? And the and the artists themselves? Mm hmm, not really, not really. Uh. I do appreciate, uh what Tip did shout out to Tip, you know, and and some connectivity of course through Big U and Big L. Shout out Big L, but not a lot. Mike. Mike is good, Mike lives in the city, you know. Uh, and uh, he's he's he's been helpful. But you only have I mean, I mean it's the same people doing the same work over over again. Like

everybody's calling on T I and Mike, you know. Uh, it seemed like they're the ones who who are who are mostly out on the front line. And I could be missing some people, but it just seems like it's always t I and Killer Mike. But you know what, they get busy though. You know, it's like like, for example, I have a developer, you know, Uh. I started our city's development authorities about four years ago, and I had a developer, Jeff Butler. He came from the Bay Area,

fifty some year old man. Uh wanted to buy the land back in South Forton where his ancestors were once enslaved. Beautiful story. We ended up taking them showing them, you know, you know, the areas of Southward then because we found out he was a developer. Now we have Manson part of course, you know what that's named for, Manson Mousa.

So we have Manson Part coming and like several twenty I believe twelve twenty five story buildings right on Old National Hilton O Hyatt Waldorf Astoria and like jobs guaranteed over ten thousand jobs minimum to this one particular site that we started all together. And the first people are tagged in were the people in that area who get busy.

So we have a text We had a text look with Killer, Mike and Ti and you know, a vetting process and a re establishment of making sure that people who are typically excluded have a seated at the table, you know. And so that's that's still my look. I didn't grow up on Old National, but this is their home. So I reach to the people and make sure that they have a seat at the table. And you know, they've been really, really helpful, and uh, it should be

a gate coming up. I think in June. I talked to the developer yesterday, so I mean right across from World Changes. Actually, so pretty excited about that because that's one of my one of my my main things outside of legislation for growth and development of this city. Now, what's what's the complexion of the people that's doing the construction.

So I'm glad you asked that. In the contract, you know, it is stated that individuals again who are typically excluded, which is the wordplay that we have to use for legal rights. But it's our HT Holmes Hamilton E. Holmes, which is a major street, you know, exit off Our twenty is in the city of Atlanta. His son is

working with us. I think we have Russell, you know, who helped Maynel Jackson build the air rest in Peace to Bunny Jackson, Mainer's wife who was one of my mentors and made sure that that was something that we had a part of that project, you know, I said with her a lot, and you know, she helped me a lot with that and talked about how you have to be feelss and how Maine it was feeless, and you know he didn't care, even though he ruffled a

lot of feathers. You know, but at some point we got to do that in order to make sure that we have seen at the table, especially when it's our table. Why hasn't some of the other mayors that came after him just basically just taking that same blueprint and said, this is what it is, take it or leave it. You want Atlanta, you got it. You gotta deal with us. You got the you know, like, and why do why do these even when we do have the numbers, Why do we feel compelled to give the business to somebody

else who is not a part of the community. I can't speak on that because I ain't never been that guy, and even back then, I wasn't political. You know, I just literally jumped into this thing at the buzzer and you know, so I had no expectations in no real direction. But I can say that ain't nothing different, you know, from with our people. You know, throughout history, you have a situation where people actually feel like other people's ice

are it's colder. Yeah, you know that is right there. Yeah, and again I think it's also fear though. I think a lot of it is feared. Ooh, if I don't get mass, some work gonna come and take my position from me. Y'all got five it's five candidates running for office for State Rep to represent district at sixty eight. What do you have in your in your heart if you believe it's different than the other four candidates? Okay, I just met her. That that will, that will that

the people of Georgia can benefit from. I feel like I just met three of them, I think, you know recently. They seemed like good people. And one of them I knew he was a state Rep before and after six years, I don't I can't tell you one piece of legislation that he's passed, you know, and so I do know that I said in a debate with him, and you know, he avoided every single question about what he's done. And so it's kind of like the somonic thing that you

can do. You know. I kiss my wife every morning when I get up, and you know, paint this thing, you know, and it's like stop, you know, everybody listen anyway, Paul that Nah, no, you're lying, you know, so I think that that's part of it, you know, And then I could just say the difference is if you look at my work. You know, I didn't name all of the stuff, but I banned the box on applications for

those convicted feelings. Of course, I ended on knock once with the Breonna Taylor abolish Columbus Day made fifteen dollars a minimum wage, which you know is now we need a livable wage. You know, of course twenty dollars should be that now. But you know I did this. I passed the Central Park five legislation with a shout out to Raymond Santana and use of salaam. They're part of the Exonerated five, those brothers from New York. Two of

them live in our metro area. It's just one of those things when you're a juvenile and you saw what happened through Averduren ads. When they see us the movie that portrayed what happened to the Central Park five, you know, it's just to ensure that those things don't happen to our young men. Of course, like making sure they're filmed. Things of that nature. Properly and you know, no interrogating them. This rules around interrogating juveniles, you know, uh, so to speak.

But I was able to pass that, you know, with their help and all. And that's a first in Georgia. But it's a lot of legislation that I've passed, including George's first reparations legislation, and that is something that nobody did before. This was years ago. Shout out again Odie Donald who helped me with that. Uh he was the city manager at the time. We had a brave news reporter who did a short story on it, and then it was hushed, you know. But now you're seeing task

for us coming about in California. We have one in Fulton County.

about something. I'm like, Okay, I find out it's a light, I get a LIGHTE fix. For example, I would share with them that if you call me at two or three in the morning about a light in your neighborhood that need to be fixed, I'm gonna get it fixed. But I'm gonna call you back at two o'clock the next morning and let you know, Hey, wake up. I just wanted to let you know I got this fixed because I know my people, and I know how to

deal with my people. I'm literally from them, you know, and I'm willing to step out and be unapologetic for them because if it all fails, you know, I know, but it's like to lose and I can never lose like I've lost in the past, and I just go back to being me. I'm a land on my two I just want to make sure my people do the same. So I think that's what separates me. Bro. That's dope. With black people being the most marninalized group in this country,

how do you ride for black people? How do you make sure that black people have fair and equal treatment, but also let those constituents out there that are not black know that you're going to also represent them. That's a great question. I think that it's a lot that comes along with understanding. Man and I had held in a council meeting to say, this is ninety percent African American city black a city in America. They're calling it. They're saying it accord to the National League of Cities.

So that mean contracts ninety percent of the resources shouldn't be people, right, and so to me, that's a common sense statement. It makes sense. A lot of people was afraid that he said that and never repeated again. My thing is you got to serve the people. And like we passed something, you know, a welcoming ordinance that really made my stomach hurt, and I didn't want nobody to

feel excluded about it. But it was just, you know, it's not that I didn't support it, it's just the mental framework that we have to deal with when we are at the table. We have to feel like we gotta you know, black people are the most accepting people

on the planet. You know, Sandy Springs in different parts of the Metro Atlanta area that's predominantly white, they're not passing welcoming ordinances, you know, but because we are saying now and the mayor shut out may Collie he jumped out the window with myself of course, telling everybody once we found out, y know, we're the blackest city in America. Like people need to know that, you know, Like what's up Stacey Abrams coming, we need to go ahead and

name old National Obama National Parkway. And when they come stump with Stacy, we could have you know, the grand you know, the sign revealed. Like people are like, man, we don't want people to think they were black like that. But I think that you know, the right you have to deal with you have to deal with that concept. But like I tell people, you know, of course, my whole thing is Mark Baker for the culture. You know your cousin, and I tell people, you know, your cousin,

not like the cousin's cousin, but family cousin. You know, you're my relative. Like doing the trans Atlantic slave trade, a lot of people didn't realize that when they it took us. They stopped at these Caribbean islands, for example, and this was what they call the seasoning process. During the seasoning process, they would take and separate the families. Right, So if I had a wife, she would be sold

on the island. If the woman next to me had a husband, he would be sold there to intentionally separate the families, to break us, you know. And now I know her trauma, she knows my trauma, and we move forward to America with the shared trauma. My shared trauma comes from the West side of Chicago, right, and black people is funny because we probably the only people that actually had cousins. How many white people you know talk about their cousins. We know they have them, but damnybody,

that's crazy. I never hear that. You damn everybody ever thought about that. Everybody that's black gotta play cousin wow, or somebody that they grew up with. Who mama can whoop you? That we share the same experience. So if we were to lead a block and make it and go out of town somewhere, we know we not related by blood, but that's my cousin. You follow me, and we're cousins with family because of the shared experience. And my shared experience comes from understanding that where I come from.

Of course, no farther in the picture. I love the man right now shout out bishamb London, my dad, but he didn't raise me. You know, I understood by watching my mom struggle and then getting old and learning the work of doctor Claude Anderson that black people are systematically trapped in the real in the lowest level of a real life monopoly game. And these are my cousins and we're trapped together. Think about it, systematically trapped in the

lowest level of a real life monopoly game. Bro Like, if you're looking at it like that, you start off monopoly, you get two hundreds, two five hundreds, whatever it is, two fifties, six twenties, five fives, five tens, and five ones, and you all are set on go. You pick your little whatever you're gonna do to march around this board, and when you shake the dice, you go and you accumulate property. You accumulate wealth to the point where somebody laying on that wealth and they have to pay you,

and you end up winning. You picking cars, and life gets good and you're building. You're building houses, you building hotels. Can you imagine what it's like to be systematically trapped in the lowest level of a real life monopoly game? Where you don't start out with that currency, you don't start out with any of that. But every day you gotta shake the dice, you and your cousins, and you got to move around this board and figure out how stuff is gonna work out for you. But everywhere you laying,

you gotta pay, and you get to go. You probably get that lit two hundred, but you still hit once you get down the block. Soon as you get to two hundred, you got to give it back to somebody else got to give it back too. And so it's like, I know what it's like to be in the hole. My mom worked three jobs, you know, like three jobs, and when I got old enough, she saw me get

you know, what was happening around me. Of course, what happened to all of my cousins, all of them of course, you know, affiliated a certain way and doing things, trying to teach us better, but still ending up, you know, jammed up. She was like, you're going as far away as possible. And really I wasn't the most brightest kid, you know, I played a little basketball. I had you know,

some interest and opportunities to go somewhere. But it's like, at what point are we gonna be able to not wrap and not hoop or play football and make it out. You know. Doctor Kawanza Juwanza Konjufu says that you know that did you do most? Or be that did you do best? At some point we have to start investing our kids in science, engineering, math and things other than

directly sociology. Right, I can know a lot of stuff, but unless I really figure it out and I land the way that I landed, I'm here looking for that job, you know. But if we can encourage these fields and try to get our kids to do something else more often, you know, and and be best at it, then we can look out for ourselves and our cousins. You know. Yeah, as my boy Willow said, we own cool, right, we

own cool, but we have to so. And because we own cool, then we can actually make being a scientist, a doctor law you're cool. We can make being a city council and a state representative of a congress person cool. We can make being an entrepreneur cool. We can make being a bus driver cool. We can make being an entrepreneur cool. We can make having good grades cool. We can make not having a criminal record cool. It's all about what do you say? What you what you say,

what you are, what you do the most? You become? How do you do most? Will be what you do best. What you do most will be what you do best. That is that is a true statement. And I'm telling you something, bro, Uh, that statement was actually crafted for you because what you do most is help our people, and that's why you do it the best. Man, And I appreciate you for coming on the show man, thank

you so much for having me. So so, what do we have to do to make sure that you become Georgia's state representative for District sixty eight, the very next state representative to represent Georgia. Starting point is, uh, just get to the money man, come on, cause just don't okay, come on, Yeah, what they gotta do to h Banker for Georgia's baker for Georgia dot com. You got seventy four dollars put it up in there. Got to be a big deal. If you got less than that, I

take whatever you have. At this point, I'm mailing out you know soon and uh, this is real grassroots. So my volunteers are doing, you know, most of the work. I just got to be able to you know, make sure we had the materials to reach the people. And you know, I'm not looking for no big one person that just dump something because I ain't built like that, or one person got with it, come on with it. But know that you you're not going to govern me

based off of you know, the bread. You know I'm gonna do what's right for us, and you know you can hold me accountable for that. So visit you know, baker Ford Georgia dot com. Visit Counselman Mark that's my Instagram, And let's figure out the future. What's the most amount that a person can donate? What are the I think to max out in the race? Like this is three thousand, Okay, it's three thousand, But when I ask for a number like seventy four, it's like it's less than one hundred.

And why is seventy four significant? I mean growth and development? Seven letter, fourth letter? What's that? Growth and development? Okay, that's what I want to do. It's one of those things that you know, everything ain't negative when you think

about it. You know, it's the number I always ask for under one hundred dollars, and you know it's a number that I grew up and I've learned, you know, the transition for it, and we're just showing like even the vision of Larry Hoover wanted, you know, twenty first

century vote. You know, shout out to Gator Bradley, who was the first person from Growth for Development to actually run for public office in Chicago, you know, and the late nineties, and you know, twenty first century vote was something that he talked about changing and making sure that we had people on the ballot that understood the community and was trying to change the community. And of course Dan Boone, let's ship him off to a ADX super

max prison. Tupac same time. Ninety six, right, you know who was saying, I got I sold four million records. Snoop sold two million records. I see our own political party coming. You know, those record sales I look at like votes. I might not be the leader of it, but I'm sure I could spark it. Ninety six, Tupac gone. But the thing is, we got to keep popping up.

We got to be like Weed's bro. We got to keep popping up, and we got to really do whatever we need to do to make sure that the next generation. Stevie has a song. He says it best in Our the add Song at the end when he says, we all know sometimes life pains and troubles can make you wish you born in another time in place. But you can bet your lifetimes that and twice that double that God know exactly where he wanted you to be placed.

So make sure when you say you're in it but not of it, just make sure you're not helping the place, this place, helping him make this place called earth a place sometime called hell. Change your words and the truth, and then change that truth and the love. And maybe our children, grandchildren or their great grandchildren will tell man,

you just quoted Stevie. Man, we're gonna be alright. Me and you, we're gonna we're best friends for life because I tell you that Steve Stevie to me is the greatest, the greatest writer ever ever ever. No, ain't nobody close. And that says a lot. When you think about all of the great musicians that have come along, you know, they're lucky he wasn't rapping. They lucky. Rapping wasn't part of his stuff back then because he was a beast. But he was rapping. Like if you listen to some

of the stuff he was saying. You know, he was rapping one last thing that I wanted to cover this the notion of giving right. You know, freedom got a shotgun, but it also has a bank roll MM and people don't understand that. A lot of times our people think that, well, if you work for the people, then you wouldn't be have to ask for no money, if you didn't need no money, you wouldn't need no money. If if if you're doing it, you should just be doing it. They

don't understand that the advertising costs money. You know, in order in order for you to compete against those people who they don't think is worthy to get them out. In order for you to compete to get in and do the work, you first have to be elected. You first, you first have to be seen in order to get a chance to be elected. You got to be seen

and heard. So you need money so that they can hear you on the radio and hear your message, so that your message message can get out, so they can see you on TV, so they can see you on internet. They can see the bill boards, they can see the rolling vehicles with your ads on it. They they don't understand a lot of people just don't understand that it takes money to get in here and get this work done. It ain't free. How do you express that to our people? How do you get the word out and to those

who don't know. I mean, a lot of us are catching on. We're getting it, We're starting to get it. We're embracing the idea that we have to in order to become an economic power, we're going to have to invest in each other. I think it's so like we know it already, Like it's so think about it. You have so many people who got their own businesses and starting up and they're like, man, you know what, I get more love from strangers on the internet than I

do my own people. Right, And it's like, you know, I'm here with you. You know, of course I appreciate you. I appreciate you, Prince, I appreciate Larry Jun everybody that helped bring me. You know that, you know these are the people and these are the folks that you know have embraced me. It's like, the way this works is that no problem is a problem until it's your problem. You understand what I'm saying, No problem is a problem

until it's your problem. What I mean is that when they start trying to tell you what to do with your body, you know as a woman, when they start trying to tell it. And these agendas have nothing to do with our community, right, nothing to do with our community because we constantly cut. Our numbers are large. But

we ain't got to get into that. But when things start to impact you and affect you, you look for it, right, and you have to start before we're at a traumatic point, you know what I'm saying, Like, you got to heal the trauma before it's spreads. You know, people who have out you know, all of these little pains and illnesses that actually spread throughout the body and by the time it get to the heart as a rap, Like, there's a trauma in our community, and yeah, you gotta you

gotta treat that. But at the same time, you got to stop it from spreading. And you gotta understand that, Yo, I'm your cousin. You know what happens to you, I'm next. So just because it happens to you, you can't just be like, ah man, I mean it happens to me. You can't just look at it like, oh man, that's messed up. It happened to him. You gotta feel that yourself, You gotta you gotta see your brother in everybody around you, and then you have to jump in and say, look,

this is my responsibility, Like it's my responsibility. They might be going down to drain now, but I'm circling and so the money, the money is nothing like it's not gonna be a big deal. And if that's why I try to start with stuff. That's what people can do who don't have an extra seventy four dollars, who don't have extra twenty five dollars that they can, you know, do something if they hear what I'm saying and understand, like, yo, I believe him. I believe that he'll do what he's

He's actually done it already. You know, I wouldn't have no reason why would not go and be the same way. I am a step to our beef on that level where we need it done because we're seeing that we needed like we're seeing that we're living it every day. Since nineteen eighty four, prescriptions drugs have been tax exempt because it's a necessity. People are broke and can't afford necessities. At what point are we going to make basic groceries, tax examp. At what point are we going to make

electric bills tax exempt? They'rect you said, diapers tax exemp. These are things that we all need as a community, sharing our common unity in going down this drain if we don't stop it. So I think that we gotta we gotta, we gotta hurry up and address issues before they become everybody's problems. See it happening to your neighbor and know that you're next, and let's figure out how do we do what I mean, how do we get involved? Last thing I want to say is that people feel

like so many other people. They not like me. They're not trying to change the laws. There some people just like to get in the suit and carry on. But at least register to vote. If you how many people you know have felt like they've been railroaded, are sent up by people who wasn't a jury of their PIDs. We complain about that all the time. But if you're not registered to vote, you're never gonna get called for

jeury duty. Like you could be the person that's called and now you're sitting on the stand that could actually understand better than the other people and vy for your brother or sister that's about to go get up, so we gotta be a part of it. It ain't no a that ain't for me. I don't have nothing to do with that. They'll never help me like you can't. You gotta shake that. You gotta shake that. Figure out how to infiltrate it and be great at it, because that's

what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to infiltrate it for us. Oh man, you ain't just trying, brother, You are doing it, man, and we appreciate you. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, Doctor Mark Baker, and I appreciate it. You. I won't talk.