For Montanans Mad About Minneapolis, Let’s Go “Walking in Memphis”

"Maybe It Was Memphis...Walking in Memphis." There's a couple good songs that come to mind when I heard Memphis brought up by one of our listeners a couple weeks ago.

Memphis. That's what we called him. He was one of the coolest guys in our freshmen dorm at Howard University back in the late 90s. "You [BLANKS] got set!" That's what he would shout out as he won the latest round of the card game Spades. (It's a lot like Whist for my Scandinavian friends here in Montana)

There's a lot of reasons Memphis comes to mind.

You guys might recall Memphis was in the news a while back because President Trump was surging federal law enforcement and National Guard troops into Memphis.

So why aren't we hearing about violence and chaos in the streets of Memphis like we are hearing about all the violence and chaos in the streets of Minneapolis? Maybe it's because Memphis doesn't have a Governor Walz and a Mayor Frey who are openly cheering on the violence and the attacks on federal law enforcement? That was the great point that was made by a caller- Mike in Missoula.

What a great point. And that got me thinking- I need to follow up with Reverend Kenneth Whalum, Jr. He's a prominent black pastor in Memphis who welcomed the law enforcement presence in Memphis that I had with me on the radio a while back.

So how is Memphis now?

Rev. Kenneth Whalum, Jr: "It is still a blessing to see the continued reduction in crime and violent crime, specifically, it is an amazing thing to see the positive results. I do say that it's a conundrum. I mean, this is a complex issue, but that's what real life is all about. But Memphis man is doing great since the task force has been here...Here's an anecdote. My wife and I were driving downtown at night the other day, which we wouldn't have been able to say a few months ago, and of course, the National Guard troops were patrolling the streets. I stopped, get the window down, and told them thank you, and they were all very appreciative of that. Memphis is doing fine man."

He says the black community is especially grateful for the additional security presence in Memphis. That got us joking about how in Dave Chappelle's latest Netflix comedy show, Dave actually talks about how excited he was to see that an anti-Trump protest was taking place in DC- a predominantly black city. But then he joked about the fact that it was basically just a bunch of angry, woke, white protesters that were there instead.

You gotta hear the part of the conversation where we talked about the Orange Mound neighborhood and how the woke, white folks never cared about the black neighborhood Orange Mound...until they came in to protest Trump...because- Orange Man Bad!

Full audio w/ Rev Kenneth Whalum, Jr. can be heard in the 2nd half of the podcast below.