- 1 week ago
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CreativityTranscript
00:00We're going to let you guys introduce yourself, and we will start with you, Madam.
00:03Yep. Good morning, everybody. I am Tanika Griggs.
00:06I am the Director of External Affairs for the Michigan Black Business Alliance.
00:10All right. Good morning.
00:11Tanika Griggs.
00:12Yes. Thanks for having me. I'm DeJuan Dandridge. I'm the CEO at Black Leaders Detroit.
00:17All right. Tosh, we'll start with you.
00:20Tell people how you got involved initially into the Black Business Alliance.
00:28Of course. So, I was previously the Deputy Director of the City of Detroit Civil Rights Inclusion Opportunity Department.
00:35In that role, or in that department, Charity actually led that department maybe about six years ago, and I had
00:40just started there.
00:41Wow.
00:42Yep. So, she was a big advocate for me as I went on to my journey to become an attorney.
00:47So, she actually sponsored or supported me in being motioned in by Mike Duggan to practice law in the state
00:53of Michigan.
00:53And then, once Duggan's administration was over, I kind of transitioned into the Michigan Black Business Alliance with Charity.
00:59And it's been how many years for you now?
01:02I've been with Michigan Black Business Alliance since March.
01:04Since March.
01:05Yeah. So, fairly. Still kind of new.
01:07That's excellent. Well, congratulations.
01:09Yep.
01:09You start to embark on, you're halfway there, right?
01:13To the one-year anniversary.
01:15Yeah.
01:15Tell people what you do.
01:17So, yeah.
01:18At Black Business Detroit, pretty much what we do is we provide access to capital to entrepreneurs of African descent
01:24working in the city of Detroit.
01:25So, we service the nonprofit and for-profit sector, and we do that primarily through grants and no-interest loans.
01:32So, the way charity used to describe MBBA is like they were the connector, the plug.
01:41And I would say we're the pot, right?
01:43Wow.
01:43So, if we are the pot of money, we've deployed close to $8 million so far to entrepreneurs of African
01:49descent since we started.
01:50What happens to the windfall when there's money left over at the end of the year for a nonprofit?
01:56What happens to that capital?
01:57You put it towards operations for the following year oftentimes, right?
02:02Like you're gearing up for the next year.
02:04And, you know, if nonprofits are running successfully, we like to have three to six months of operations capital, like
02:12on hand at a time.
02:14We deploy money, and I like to tell people we don't sit on money.
02:18When we get it in the door, we try to get it out the door in the hands of the
02:21entrepreneurs because we know they need it.
02:23But, you know, to make sure that we're able to be okay and continue to function, and, you know, one
02:28of my primary roles is to raise money for the organization.
02:32Really?
02:33Oh, gosh, that's the hardest.
02:35Oh, my gosh.
02:36That takes a special kind of person.
02:38I just want to know, why?
02:40Why did you choose to do this?
02:42So that's a good question.
02:44I think, like many black nonprofit leaders, at least in Detroit that I know, we're often practitioners, right?
02:52Like we survived something, we overcame something, and we're trying to create something that we wish was there when we
02:58needed it, right?
02:59Right.
02:59So I've run a couple small businesses myself.
03:02I also led an off-the-grid social impact initiative in my younger days that I funded out of my
03:10own pocket, which many small nonprofits in the city still do.
03:13The leaders believe in the cause so much that they're funding it out of their pocket.
03:18And when it was time for me to scale my business, and when I ran out of my own money
03:22to run the social impact initiative, there was no pot that I had access to, right?
03:27We're still seeing black for-profit businesses still struggle to gain equal access to capital in the city as black
03:37as Detroit.
03:38So instead of crying and saying, hey, somebody fix this, we figured, you know, like if we really believe in
03:45it, why don't we fix it ourselves?
03:46And why don't we create the thing that we wish was there?
03:50And, you know, this week is like what we, our biggest event annually is to talk about fundraising, Mason.
03:57One of the things we've done, this is like year six for us, is we put on a bike ride.
04:02In previous years, that bike ride was from Detroit to Mackinac, a seven-day ride.
04:08Well, if you think that's something, last year I rolled from Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Wall Street
04:12in New York, right?
04:13No kidding!
04:15Yes, yes, yes.
04:16Oh, my gosh!
04:17Oh, my gosh!
04:18Oh, my goodness!
04:19On a bike or a bike?
04:20On a bicycle.
04:21A bike that you pedal.
04:22Yes, yes.
04:23When you wear the bell, I got to find the bell, hit the bell, hit the bell.
04:28Lord!
04:30He gives, wait a minute, he gives, doggone you, Angie.
04:35What?
04:37I mean, how many days was that?
04:40So the ride across country, it was 40 days.
04:42So we rode 35 of those 40 because we would ride six days straight.
04:45Not six days nonstop.
04:47We would ride about 60 miles on average.
04:50And we'd, you know, camp out in the hotel, eat a good breakfast and take off the following morning.
04:55But there was 35 days of riding, 40 days in total.
04:59Oh, oh!
05:00Yeah.
05:00How much money was raised?
05:02We raised a couple hundred thousand dollars.
05:04Okay.
05:04Right?
05:04A couple hundred thousand dollars.
05:05We have lofty goals, though.
05:07Like, you know, we need to raise more.
05:10But one of the things I wanted to talk about here today is that we have brought that whole ride
05:15and event to Detroit.
05:17So this is the first year it's going to be in Detroit, focused exclusively on Detroit.
05:21And, of course, all the proceeds go towards supporting black-owned businesses and black-led nonprofits.
05:27This is blackleavesdetroit.org.
05:29And there's a way to sign up.
05:30We have four days of events.
05:32The kickoff is going to be Thursday evening from 6 to 10.
05:36We're going to be at Roosevelt Park right outside the train station.
05:38And this is where people that don't ride seriously but want to get involved can come, right?
05:43If you want to do a slow-roll-style bike ride, Jason Hall from Detroit Slow Roll is going to
05:50lead that.
05:50The brothers from We Run 313 is going to be leading a 5K for people that want to run.
05:57And we have a black women-led walking group that's going to lead a one-mile walk.
06:04And if you want to just come and hang out and listen to some music and dance,
06:08you can come and do that.
06:09And we're going to cap the night off with a drone light show.
06:11We have activities for the kids, food trucks, a place where people can just come and celebrate with us
06:17and kick the weekend off.
06:19And then Friday, for those that are passionate about dispelling the myth that those that are perpetuating
06:26hatred and divisive messages are the majority, we're putting together a community conversation
06:30that's going to be at Huntington Place from 3 to 7 o'clock where we're inviting people
06:35from all different ethnic groups to come out and say, hey, like, we're going to ask
06:39and answer the question together.
06:40What does it mean and look like for us to be good neighbors to each other in spite of our
06:44differences,
06:45whatever they might be, right?
06:47And then Saturday and Sunday is where the people that are avid cyclists are going to come
06:50and hang out with us.
06:51We're going to do a 30-mile ride option.
06:54We also have a 70-mile ride option that's going to go through the city of Detroit,
06:58and we're going to hit some of the locations that are, you know, substantial and significant
07:05to black business past and present.
07:07Have you participated in any of these bike fundraising?
07:11I have not, but I do plan to come out Thursday.
07:14Thursday.
07:15All right, that's our day.
07:16She's bringing her boys.
07:18And I'll be bringing my boys.
07:20And how many sons do you have?
07:21I have two boys, 10 and 13.
07:23Oh, you're going to make them work?
07:25Yes.
07:25You were working and using your own money to fund a nonprofit, and then you hit a wall.
07:32You said there was no pot to go get more money from, so you created it.
07:37Yeah.
07:38How did you create something that you needed?
07:43It didn't exist.
07:45What was your plan to get it?
07:48Yeah, I would say, like, lots of prayer and preparation and lots of people that were willing to help.
07:54Um, I would, so, I really was wrestling with this question, like, how do some of the white-led
08:01nonprofits in Detroit raise so much damn money?
08:04Yes.
08:04Right?
08:05And momentum.
08:06And, um, and wanting to understand that, I went and worked for a white-led nonprofit for four years.
08:13Oh, wow.
08:13You took yourself to university.
08:15Yes, exactly.
08:16So I worked there for four years and got a great education, right?
08:19Um, I worked for an organization called Life Remodeled, who had many blind spots.
08:23They were really good at some things, but they really didn't understand, at the time, how to engage in a
08:29respectful way with the black community,
08:32though they were working in a black community.
08:33So I was able to bring some education and how to, like, properly and respectfully move in the black community.
08:41At the same time, from the CEO, Chris Lambert, who's become a good friend of mine, I learned a lot
08:46about raising money and got a great education about, uh, nonprofit governance and business structure.
08:54Um, and took that and started Black Lives Detroit, right?
08:58And we created this thing, and, um, when it was time for us to figure out how to do a
09:03no-interest loan, because that's what we do, um, I had, I knew we were going to do it.
09:07I had no idea on how.
09:08Uh, I was fortunate enough to, to cross paths with a gentleman named David Contour.
09:14David Contour is the executive director of Hebrew Free Loan.
09:17Uh, so Hebrew Free Loan, they have these organizations all over the globe.
09:21The one in Michigan has been around for 130 years now, providing no-interest loans in the Jewish community.
09:26And when David found out that I was trying to create that for the black community, they became an open
09:32book for us.
09:32Wow.
09:33And shared all of their, like, you know, means and ways of operation.
09:38We took, um, what we learned from them, we tweaked it a little bit to make it a better fit
09:43for us.
09:43There were some things that they practiced, um, and the ways that they operate that just wouldn't have translated well
09:48for our community.
09:49So we, you know, tweaked that a bit, rolled it out, and so far we've, um, executed 255 no-interest
09:56loans to entrepreneurs of African descent, uh, since 2022.
10:00That's beautiful.
10:01I went to several high schools.
10:02I'm one of those guys.
10:04So I went to Redford, I went to Cody, I went to Denby.
10:07Um, left, left Detroit and went down to San Antonio, Texas and went to a school called Theodore Roosevelt there.
10:14And, you know, got kicked out of all San Antonio high schools.
10:18Really?
10:19Yeah.
10:19Were you in trouble still?
10:21Yeah, were you a bad kid?
10:22I was, I was a young black man that grew up in Brighton Moor in my teenage years.
10:26Okay.
10:26So what, and the reason, it's fascinating, you start talking money.
10:33Yeah, that's what I had to ask.
10:35Dealing with people of cross-sections at the, when you start doing that.
10:40That, you had to learn a discipline of patience.
10:46That's where I was going, yeah.
10:48And love on such a rocket level from where you came from.
10:55Yeah.
10:55Where it was easier to confront me and just threaten me.
10:59Yeah.
10:59You had to, to let all that go.
11:03Yeah.
11:04And re-approach me like you were coming from the deacon's office at church.
11:09Yeah, I mean, I've had an eclectic set of experiences, right?
11:12Like, I've been a UAW rep for Ford and worked on the assembly line at Ford, right?
11:18So, like, I learned negotiation at a high level and trying to represent, like, membership there, right?
11:23And I learned, I learned how to listen, like, very well.
11:27But, you know, I also, again, I'm, you know, a kid from Brightmoor at the end of the day.
11:32So I walk into any space like a very strong, proud black man.
11:37And I don't put that on the shelf to make my peers feel comfortable that I'm not black at any
11:42moment, right?
11:43But at the same time, I walk in with an openness that, you know, people are willing to share information.
11:50And often, like, you're bringing something to the table that might be of value to them as well.
11:55So there's, you know, fair exchange.
11:57And I think that, you know, you catch the 20-year-old DeJuan who was, like, you know, had X
12:04-Clan and Public Enemy on repeat.
12:06You know.
12:07Yeah.
12:08I probably would not have been, I would not have been open to, like, some of these relationships, right?
12:15That's, that's, that's what we're, yeah.
12:17I would say the thing that inspires me most is, like, my faith, right?
12:21So anything that I do that's worth talking about is rooted in birth from, you know, my faith, right?
12:27And I am a person that, that tries my best to follow Christ and love the Lord with all my
12:32heart, mind, soul, and strength and love my neighbors like I love myself.
12:35So I do it, I don't do a decent enough job, but I'm trying, right?
12:40So that's what inspires me for the most part.
12:43Okay.
12:43You keep your trying over there because you're knocking down walls, moving mountains.
12:51That's amazing what you do.
12:54Attorney, you went to what high school?
12:56Cass Tech.
12:57Yeah.
12:57Really?
12:58Cass Technician.
12:59Did you always want to be a lawyer?
13:01I did not.
13:02Come a little closer there, Mike.
13:04I did not.
13:05What did you want to be?
13:06A police officer.
13:08Really?
13:08Yeah, I know.
13:10And as I kind of went through trials and tribulations, a lot of family members were getting locked up and
13:16things of that sort.
13:17And I said, you know what?
13:17I think I'm going to try this law school route because I want to become a criminal defense attorney.
13:23You then get into the Duggan administration working with Charity Dean.
13:29How did you approach that?
13:32So that was right after I graduated law school and I was looking for employment.
13:37And you went to law school where?
13:38I went to Cooley Law School.
13:40Okay.
13:40Yep.
13:40I went to Cooley Law School.
13:42Yep.
13:42So that's kind of how I got into the city, just looking for an opportunity while I waited to take
13:46the bar exam and pass the bar exam.
13:48And Charity gave me that opportunity.
13:49This is home for you?
13:50Yes.
13:51And you went to Cass Tech.
13:55What did you learn most from working in government, as we heard?
14:01What did you learn most from working with government that you bring to the Black Alliance?
14:08I think it's the understanding the policy and the processes that happen within government and what those opportunities look like
14:16and what's actually lacking for the Black community.
14:19For people who are actually trying to get opportunities and get contracts, I'm able to say these are the ordinance
14:24that exist.
14:24And this is the, these are the barriers that are there and this is what we need to do to
14:28fix those things.
14:29So I kind of come from a space of being able to know what's out there and how that's impacting
14:33us and what we need to do to be able to make that work.
14:35The two of you, I mean, you, you, you can't get caught.
14:39You, you can walk around talking all kinds of stuff.
14:41Yep.
14:42As long as they got you two, because y'all ain't going to let nothing slip through the cracks.
14:47Not because it's the right thing to do.
14:50It is the right thing to do, but you're both passionate about doing it.
14:54Yeah.
14:55And that's, that's, that's who you want as a team.
14:57Give me your closing thoughts.
14:58I'll start with you, Attorney.
14:59Well, I do want to thank you guys for having us here today.
15:01I do want to make sure that everybody comes out this weekend.
15:05I will be there Thursday.
15:07For a slow stroll.
15:07Yeah.
15:09Tell them where it is again.
15:10We're going to be at Roosevelt Park right outside of the train station.
15:16And for everyone that is listening, please make sure you follow our socials.
15:20Look at, check out our website, blackbizalliance.com.
15:23We have a couple of events coming up as well.
15:25We have an all member meeting that is the first Monday of every month.
15:29And we also are preparing for our annual holiday party, which this year is December 17th.
15:34And the theme is, um, black businesses are super fly.
15:38So it's a super fly thing.
15:39Wow.
15:39That's hot.
15:40Okay.
15:40Okay.
15:41You know, I tell my dog that every day.
15:45She wears this coat.
15:47I like, I know it's hot.
15:49You got that super fly coat on.
15:51I know you wish you could take it off.
15:54Oh, that's beautiful.
15:55That's beautiful.
15:56Give me your closing thoughts.
15:57So if anything that we said resonated, um, there's a way to plug in and tap in with us
16:02at Black Lives Detroit.
16:02Great.
16:03We, um, have done a decent job raising support from foundations and philanthropy, but, you
16:08know, our long-term dependence is on you, the listener, everyday people.
16:12We ask you to donate a dollar a week.
16:14Our goal is to get to a million people.
16:15How do you do that?
16:16How do you donate that?
16:18Yes.
16:18You go to, go to blackleadersdetroit.org.
16:20There's a donate button and the options will come up to donate a dollar a week, $4 a month
16:26or $52 a year.
16:28Um, we're trying to get everybody that believes in fairness to join us on that journey and
16:31creating it.
16:31Um, so we, we welcome and invite everybody and thank, uh, Metro Detroit Black Business
16:36Alliance for sharing spaces and, and, and giving us an opportunity to come and hang out
16:40with you all and y'all for sharing, uh, the space with us as well.
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