Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for coming out today on such a short notice, but
I believe it was imperative that the Legislative Black Caucus called this press conference
due to the urgency of us having over the past week, and I want to start off by remarks
marking that December 10, 2023 marked the 7th and 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
The document highlights that every person, regardless of race, color, religion, sex,
language, political beliefs, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status
is entitled to basic human rights.
I think it's appropriate to start off this press conference stating that it's because
somehow, ironically, our state is moving in the wrong way morally.
We already know that the UW Board of Regents will be taking a vote today that could potentially
flip the initial decision that happened Saturday, turning down the decision that would harm
efforts around diversity, equity, and inclusion.
So the question presents itself, why is there now a flip?
We have to state the truth.
The truth is what sets the path on the right way.
And though it hurts, it helps all of us to grow.
I'm sure that there are concerns about self-preservation, there have been threats by legislative Republicans
in the Senate and in the Assembly that some of the Regents may lose their seats.
And so let's be perfectly clear here.
This deal is part of a systematic racist deal, and it is discriminatory.
It's discriminatory towards students, faculty, and staff of color, because their experiences
should never have a price tag, and should ever be bought out on what inclusion looks
like on our campuses.
Or should never have any type of political pressures to change how our educational institutions
operate.
Our educational system should be a place where everyone should learn from everybody.
You know, there's diversity in our strength.
And it's when we learn from each other the differences that we have.
That's how we grow, that's how we mature, that's how we make our state better.
And that's how we better ourselves.
But what's very alarming is that people went to such great lengths to making sure that
this deal could potentially happen today.
And with that being said, I want to make sure that I give space for some of my other colleagues
to speak.
And at this time I'll bring up Representative Zamba, who was our Vice Chair of the Legislative
Black Caucus.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
My name is Sambo Balde.
I represent Assembly District 48, like the President said, we are gathered here today
to talk about DEI and what the region is about to do.
The United States of America is a unique country, like no other country in the world.
The reason why I am here as an immigrant is based off of the principle on the week this
country has been operating for the last 400 years.
And that includes diversity, inclusion, and making sure that everybody has the freedom
to live in this country without fear or fear.
DEI did not come about out of nowhere.
And it cannot disappear from our vocabulary because one set of apolotical poetry feels
like it should.
It is all our responsibility to make sure that this country does not lose its foundation.
The reality of slavery is real.
There was slavery.
The reality of being a gay person in this country is real.
The reality of being a minority person in this country is real.
So if we do not institute things that would help us all have an equal playing field,
then this country is going downhill.
And it is all our responsibility, whether we are politicians in the media, the public,
to make sure that the founding principle of this country remains.
We are losing our democracy in a way unimaginable.
The exact cultural war that has been happening around old-weight states, I would say, are
the exact cultures' fights that they are bringing to the state of Wisconsin.
We cannot let that happen.
The region must do what is right.
All of us must do what is right, and all of us must advocate for what is right.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion, tell me what is wrong with diversifying our workforce,
our institutions, how we just do things.
Tell me what is wrong with diversity.
Tell me what is wrong with equity.
Tell me what is wrong with inclusion.
Tell me, what is the fear, why is it that the Republicans are so fixated into getting
this out of our vocabulary and aware of life.
So it is all our responsibility, again, to make sure that DEI is part of our DNA.
We cannot get rid of it.
That is what America is about.
This is one country based off of immigrants and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
So thank you for being here.
And I think now I'll read one of my colleagues, Representative Madison, to say a few words.
No?
No, you can go.
Good afternoon everybody.
I'm Reverend Greg Lewis.
I'm the executive director of Souls to the Polls, Wisconsin.
I'm the chairman of the Board of Power to the Polls and founder and president of an
organization called Pastures United.
And we have a morality question here.
You know, we have a lot of people who have not gotten opportunities, have been underserved,
denied opportunities day after day after day.
And when we come up with solutions that could help a person or two, we look back because
of politics and eliminate them.
See, I could stand up here and I could talk about racism, bigotry, white supremacy, hate
all I want.
And nobody's going to listen to me because they'll say I play the race card.
That's why I need you, my white brothers and sisters, to stand up to these people and tell
them how wrong they are when they start to deny us rights that we certainly deserve.
If you have not walked in my shoes, you don't know how I feel about people taking things
away day after day after day, I'm a man and I want to be treated like a man.
If you have the opportunity to help somebody, you certainly ought to do it.
You shouldn't take the initiative to eliminate me out of your situation.
I deserve a chance just like anybody else.
I deserve to live like an American who has the joy of enjoying my country.
I shouldn't have to live uncomfortably all my life.
I shouldn't have to keep fighting the same battles.
And that's what's happening here right now.
Since 1619, my people have fought to be free, to be treated like equals, to be something
wrong, to do the right thing.
I want to live in polyester paradise too.
I want a white picket fence too.
I want my children to grow up and be representative of people who can help the development of
this country.
And we're only as strong as our weakest link, don't you realize that?
You can't keep putting me down and expect this country to be great.
So we've got to stop letting people do things to us, ladies and gentlemen.
And we need you to stand up for us, my white brothers and sisters.
I'm playing the race card.
You can have a conversation and you need to do that with these people who are making
bad decisions, putting us in places where we have to fight with our backs against the
wall.
Fight hard, you tell us that something's wrong with that.
I'm just going to leave that right there.
I have to warn you, never give a passion of life because I will start to preach.
And I'm going to say this, you need to treat people like you want to be treated.
And that's just the bottom line.
I just want to thank you for hearing me out.
I am so fed up with getting treated like less than a man.
I am so fed up with my opportunities being denied.
I am so fed up with building, helping to build this country and nobody wants to give
me credit.
I'm fed up.
That's it.
Thank you so much.
To have to follow that up, it's not an easy task.
But I wanted to really take the time to speak today to uplift the fights of our young people.
In this conversation that the regions will be voting on tomorrow and have been negotiating,
well, not the regions have been negotiating, but folks have been negotiating for over the
past few months, has never taken the opportunity to take this conversation to the students.
One of my core philosophies that I carry with me every day in this work is that those
who are closest to the problems are the closest to the solutions.
In this case, our faculty and our students are the closest to the solution here.
They haven't had the opportunity to voice their opinions and their thoughts in this
negotiation process.
We've seen Republicans in the Assembly and the Senate negotiate on the backs of black,
brown and indigenous communities for years.
And we've seen that tremendously happening this year as it relates to several conversations
we've had over major policies that radically affect this entire state.
But this time, they negotiate on the backs of our kids.
We all know, especially those of us who come from communities of color, know that our futures,
our ability to thrive, our freedom to thrive, hinges on the backs of our ability, hinges
on our ability to achieve successful outcomes in our educational institutions.
My mom at the very youngest age of my life, the earliest ages I can remember, when I was
two and a half, told me that a mine is a terrible thing to waste, and she told me that every
single day of my life, so when I showed up in my educational institutions, I fought hard
to ensure that I had the opportunity to achieve something great.
And that's what our students are trying to achieve right now, on our campuses, in the
UW system.
And what we're doing today, and what this deal does, is it says, no, right, we'll make it
a little bit harder for you to make to get here.
We'll make it harder for you to achieve your ability to achieve access to the freedom to
thrive, and that's this hardening.
It's infuriating for me and my colleagues, which is why most of the, if not every single
assembly Democrat stood against this, that stood against this deal, and we found out
about it last week, and we're standing against this deal right now, because we know what
our young people need.
They need support on our campuses, especially on the campus in this, in this, in the city,
or we know historically has abused and berated young people of color.
We've seen it this year, right?
We've seen it earlier last year, where we had young people, young people of color assaulted,
bid on, berated on our college campuses, and in this city.
We can't continue to allow folks to negotiate deals on our students' backs.
We can't continue to be silent when our young people access for help, so I'm asking the
regions to deny this deal, because when we negotiate for a better pay for our buildings
on the backs of our kids, we fail the future of this very state, and I refuse to allow the
future of this state to be a source of harm for my children, and for the folks that I
call my little cousins, right, when I'm walking through my neighborhood.
We need justice in this moment of now, and we need our regions to step up and to fight
for that justice, especially the ones that don't look like us, and that's all I have
to say.
I have words from Representative Stubbs, who is a member of the Legislative Black Caucus
and represents UW-Madison.
Under the University of the Board of Regents voted 9-8 to reject a Republican-brokered
proposal to trade cuts in diversity, equity, and inclusion programming and faculty positions
for engineering building and employee pay raise funds.
She wants to send a clear message to the UW Board of Regents.
We must fight for campuses where everyone is welcomed and feels they belong, words cannot
describe the relief she had, knowing that justice had prevailed when we sought the
vote Saturday.
However, she still remains deeply distraught and perplexed that this trade was ever on
the table to begin with.
Equity, equity, and inclusion will never be values that she is willing to compromise
on, and she would hope that the rest of the state of Wisconsin, a state that consistently
ranks highest in racial disparities in the nation across every aspect of a person's
life, would agree with her.
And so she encourages those to stay set fast and entrusting that the growth of our young
people are supported.
And as we wrap up today's press conference, a few final words, and maybe to dispel some
myths as well, there have been talks, comments, Twitter, X, whatever you call it nowadays,
what we're saying is bigoted, what we're saying is racist.
I find it hard to believe that if we still have, we're second to lowest and economic
opportunities for African-Americans, that we could be racist or bigoted, I find it hard
to believe that our children cannot read and write by third grade, and that's our African-American
children.
I find that hard to believe, and I find it extremely difficult to ever put a price tag
on someone's life.
I find it hard to believe that there had to be laws on the books to just ensure that
people that were disabled were able to get into buildings.
I find it hard to believe that being bigoted or racist means that women still don't have
the right to choose in their own state.
And with the issue that I had yesterday, I made very loud and clear that there was a
close meeting, there was called a question, if that was legal, and due to legislative memo,
that meeting that took place yesterday was legal.
There is not enough information about what was being deliberated in that meeting, and
so I am calling on the Dane of County DA and our Attorney General to investigate the matter.
But also a final message to our Board of Regents.
As the caucus, we recognize that you are put right in the middle of political grabs.
There have been abuse of power from legislative Republicans, and it's disgraceful.
But for those that voted against this deal Saturday, I ask that you take heart and you
hold on to courage.
It's because I can assure you doing the right thing will never be on the wrong.
It will always be paid tenfold for the things that we do for good, for those that are in
the least of these.
And so as civil approaches today, we do not know what the outcome of this deal would become.
We implored, and we asked the Board of Regents to stand on their vote that happened on Saturday.
And if that is not the case, rest assured, that the Wisconsin Legislative Black Caucus,
members, community members, students, faculty, and anyone that knows and values diversity
as our strength will be at every step of the way fighting against this.
Thank you for your time.