This 35-minute anthem from CM White addresses his scandals, his vision for the community, and his personal philosophy. It includes many happy interruptions from his supporters. Overall, I can relate and agree to a lot of his content, but there are few concerns that remain for me:
-Although it’s good to not give into those who incessantly demand apologies, I’m not convinced his apologies were authentic, since he left the Museum tour early and his sympathies to NOI remain.
-His deferral to God for those who have issues with him and his claim to be a Christian brings about more questions about his personal life. Is he living as a Christian in regards to the Bible’s commands for marriage (Exodus 20), submission to authority/law enforcement (Romans 13), his care for God’s chosen people (Psalm 105), and his identity as an attacked figure (Romans 8).
The text is from the YouTube transcript, with edits from me.
good morning
uh it’s saturday uh april the 21st uh 2018.
for those who may not know me my name is treyon white i’m the councilmember representing the great ward 8.
i want to address some few things this morning has been going on in the media in the news
because i know i’m on a constant attack
it’s not a big deal because what I signed up for but i want to give some clarity to a few situations
uh one is that uh
i made some comments uh on social media about the weather and about this whole
theory around resilient cities uh involving the rockefeller foundation uh misconstrued with the rothschilds at the time i didn’t know saying anything is relates to the rothschilds meant all jews and so this has definitely been a learning experience for me
but i’ve saved my apologies and i’m done with that i’m done apologizing about that
you know and that was sincere in which I never want to offend nobody uh uh i wanna
i’ve always spent my time and energy helping people not hurting people healing people and
not harming people and that’s the real story of who i am and i i’m gonna say this on the record
i work for the lord so any issues you want to take up check it out with my maker you get what i’m saying and then and i’ve been you know quiet as relates to a lot of attacks but historically this is not new you know um
one of those guys that come from the community come from the streets come from nothing and God has blessed me to be in a level of leadership and all the attacks have been designed to just discredit my character uh you’ve never heard of me harming anyone committing any violent acts being malicious to anybody um and so today i just want to speak on that because the constant attacks which will increase more because it comes with the territory
um i’ve seen it done over over the time in history
so i visited the holocaust museum to learn more about you know uh the jewish history as it relates to uh some of the plights they went through and i saw a lot of correlations between uh what the jews uh jews went through and and what africans went through and their in their plight uh to survive and to live
so we are a strong people have a lot of correlations and our people still suffering every day you know
i serve one of the communities with one of the highest poverty rates per capita in the country uh we’re struggling financially we’re struggling educationally we’re struggling um economically we’re struggling and health issues and so i’ve been on the front line fighting for some of those social justice issues in fact some of my jewish counterparts uh specifically jews united for justice
watch him get him yeah
jews united for justice uh supported me in those efforts and so I want to thank them and in their community you know
i ran in a race well my opponent raised about 550 000 and i raised um i think 30 40 50 000 at the most and so the people really got behind me so we ran to keep people’s campaign and i’ve always been a man of integrity and about the people um and so i i went to uh the holocaust museum and
i actually been there before as a younger man as a as a as a boy as a child on the school trip and just to see that man was really heart wrenching and uh perplexing and trying to understand you know uh some of the things they went through through the oppression through the the murders through the disgrace um through the remove to through being in the camps and just being slaughtered and it had me to reflect on that on how blessed i am as a young man growing up in southeast washington d.c
but my chances of getting uh killed is highly likely my chance is not making this highly likely uh i was blessed to graduate from Ballou semior high school go to college graduating the top 10 of my university at the university of maryland eastern shore magna cum laude with a culmative 3.7 gpa
but i say all that to say in my in my visit let’s address this real quick
because what the media won’t tell you that they said i left early was a lie you know the media take a part of the truth and add some lies in there and try to act like it’s the whole truth
when it’s really not so I actually stayed the entire visit the visit was from uh one o’clock p.m to three o’clock p.m i left the museum about 3 15.
that’s the truth the reality reality is i wanted my staff to come to have this experience with me to learn
then i learned that a reporter was following me
i’m not here to be criticized uh or to beanalyzed i’m trying to learn and so once i found out a reporter was following me i stepped off from the group so i can see the rest of the uh museum by myself i was joined with one other person from my staff so we went out we went on our own path to view the museum trying to basically
wait until some of these noise go past
we right we are here live on mlk uh avenue southeast washington d.c intersecting with uh malcolm x avenue you can give up you can pan around real quick you can see we’re in the elementary right here um in the heart of washington dc not the downtown dc nothing not the not the uh the monument we’re right here with where some of the real people live that’s been experiencing some uh severe neglect and so i stand on the front line and in represent them those who who have been hurt
those who survived the crack epidemic in dc those who have been left out uh of the of the so-called economic boom in d.c where we say dc is flourishing when you look around here
you see the homelessness you see the hopelessness you see the laws and those who may not know they have a voice
that’s who i represent each and every day
i have to go visit the moms of the young men who have lost their life the homicide i have to go do the visuals I ought to have to help them find money for their funerals i have to do the mentoring groups on the weekends
i have to create legislation and fit our people i have to do that work because God called me to do it in the spirit of Marion Barry
can say what they want about Marion Barry what i call him mb but this man has has used his life his life blood he was shot in a wilson building you know suffering so many uh health health illnesses but kept fighting for our people so i stand in the spirit of murray and bury and i’m not Marion i’m a totally different person but I learned a lot from him and i learned that if you can win the people you can win the war there’s truly a war going on in in the community but the risks are getting richer by the poor are getting tickets
high blood pressure diabetes headaches uh just suppression you know and we
found that more and more people uh from all over the city are navigating east of anacostia river because it’s becoming too expensive to live in here
so let me get back to the museum real quick i went to the museum and i stayed the entire time that’s that’s that’s fact you could check the cameras whatever you want to do i stayed the entire time but what the media want to do is create a negative image
how you doing good
to say i didn’t say the whole time i left early because they want to send a message to people uh to the people that i represent to try to discourage meto try to create a negative perceptionof who Iam and and the like butit’s no big deal because i knowbrotherhood the facts
brother how you feelgood you’re goodman i’m staying strongit’s who we are that’s who we are yeah Ilove you manyou’re good yes sir
so i want to speakand give clarity to that because Istayed the whole timeand i didn’t have to go i voluntarilywentand i took my staff and i told them nocamerasno some people want to do cameras somepeople want to do media i told them nocameras no media because i’m not doingit
for that i’m doing out of the goodness in my heart to learn you know uh and i went on my own merit and so people can’t people don’t think i’m sincere or honest that’s up to them
i work for the lord so i’m here to please him and so i take at the end of the day life is sure and i’m gonna live my life how i want to live it and those who are not happy with that
that’s okay that’s okay because i have to give an answer to the 70-70,000 plus people who I represent and to the people of the district because some of the decisions i make affect them as well and so
i’ve been apologizing and for what I said and it’s gone too far i apologize it’s over i’m trying to move on
and then there’s some council members that’s calling uh for me to be censored
i’m gonna tell you right now i’m not going anywhere i’m not resigning i’m not stepping down
i’m not going to be quiet i’m just not and so
what’s up brother what’s up brother how are you good man you good you’re good yeah i’m good bro you’re good let me finish this out I appreciate you coming on let me finish this interview right here and i’m gonna get with you in a moment
so the love is always real because i don’t do this for title or for fashion i’ve been doing this for 17 years when no one knew my name when i was down there feeding people and Barry farms doing tutoring programs in congress park doing mentoring programs in Washington highlands coaching football are the number 11 boys and girls club creating avenues so people can be successful in this very same community
so attack on me is attack on the community that’s how i see it and let me say this
we have to stop letting the media create a negative perception of our leaders for far too long they’ve torn down our leaders and we’re allowed that this time is over for that there’s always going to be naysayers even in our own community because everybody may not agree with what i say and do and i can respect that
because i don’t agree with whatever i else say and do and the media is going to do his job so i’m not mad at the media because the media is going to be the media that’s the reality the media is going to do their job they’re going to take part of the story and flip it to create a negative perception especially of a young man that’s doing what’s right
i’m unbought and unbound i’m going to say it again i’m unbought and unbound
i work for the people as in the words of shirley chisholm i’m on board and unbought so i’m totally happy with decisions i made
I make mistakes i stumble uh i fall i get back up but i’m only human and I don’t say that for excuses i’m not a person who believe in a lot of excuses i believe in results and moving forward
so we fought uh we had one grocery store serving 75,000 plus people before with other council members and the mayor to get two new grocery stores in this world we got two new grocery stores coming
we got one hospital that’s doing very bad in our community now we got 300 million dollars in the budget thanks to councilmembers like uh uh councilmember gray mayor Bowser in the budget to get a new hospital to put in our war and so we’ve closed down out rec has been closed
or rec been closed uh Ballou recreation has been closed and Anacostia recreation to close or had a rec at Kramer had rec should have been closed number 11 boys and girls club has been closed
so it’s been divestment on this side of town so let’s stay the truth and so i’ve been in office for years and changed we got a wreck coming to Anacostia we have a rec coming to congress heights we got a new senior wellness center coming to war they be about to extend the congress heights senior wellness center avenue and we’re struggling
and if you believe in the mission that i’m about to join me we might not always agree but we’re stronger together and i’ve and i’ve been trying to be an ally with whoever wants to help
let me speak to the issue of the check man giving to the nation of islam real quick:
i work in a community where we experience a lot of heartache pain hurt dissension homicides a lot of heartbreak andi know that when i have to go to these homicide scenes some of the only brothers that show up is a group called the brothers huddle a lot of them are from the nation of islam you got a global transcenders you got j and j Morrison uh brother jihad abraham you got a lot of these brothers who are showing up uh some brothers from union temple that show up and support me because heavy is the head that wears the crown so this is not no easy task leading uh leading our people
and so when people saw an issue with the Nation Of Islam i i didn’t know what’s going to Chicago whatever they said i I do i had to figure that out but when they called me actually support them i said yeah support them and so when we supported them with a 500 dollar check they supported me
we do fish fries in the neighborhood every Friday for the last two and a half years right then woodland tourism anger plays you can see the pictures on my social media out there in the trenches trying to get the young men off the street to doing something positive they’re feeding people working in the trenches and so when the brothers from the brothers huddle and some of them are from the nation of Islam so i’m not going to denounce these brothers that help me that’s in the in the community doing good work that’s over to jail helping these brothers get their life back on track
i’m a Christian but i love all people. i love all people regardless of where they come from regardless of what their beliefs are and do i agree with what what what things that everybody is saying? no. do i agree with everything at Farrakhan says? no. do i do people agree with everything i say? no. but it’s about finding out our common energy our synergy what can we without commonalities we know we have differences what are some of the things we can work on and i’ve done that with pretty much everybody over the years
from the homeless to the gays to to to those who in the lgbtq community to those who uh who don’t have a voice to the mental health to those who suffer from substance abuse because
God has called me to represent all people and so i’m at a place right now where i’m calling the people to unite with me because the harvest is plentiful but the labor is our few it’s a lot of need it’s a lot of hurt you can look
you can scan the avenue scan the avenue with the camera this can up Alabama avenue you can see the people all out and about early in the morning
what’s up what’s good what’s up with you baby how you feeling i’m good man keeping a good fight going you know how it is struggling continues
you gotta be shocked with them so i’m going for those just joining this this video i’m on Martin Luther King avenue talking about uh what’s been happening with me in the community um and being constant attacked by the media that don’t phase me in another thing hold on one second brother hold on one second that don’t phase me because i survive a lot of situations i survived the streets of southeast washington dc and i’m still surviving anything can happen to me any given moment
because i lay my life down in the trenches to serve God’s people and when you’re on the front line like I am every day you’re gonna take shots so i can’t be I don’t complain
or i don’t look sad i don’t get depressed when the media say this like they said for example that uh on the news that treyon white is riding around with Marion Barry tags
Marion Barry tags? Marion Barry passed away in 2014. i bought my car in 2017 they had council member tags and each council member get tags Marion was the council member awarded before but the media won’t tell you that they say oh the councilman was riding around with Marion Barry tags that don’t even sound right don’t look at the tags real quick scan the tagsreally look at that they say those up those are council member tags each council member get those tags
for whoever comes with the media won’t tell you that they’ll leave the perception uh that i’m riding around doing something illegal doing something fraud and i have my issues
what’s up with you i’m good man how are you yes sir the propaganda don’t let him appreciate that bro we don’t live facebook right now man talking about the propaganda and what they’ve done historically to black leaders let’s just tell the truth this is not nothing new a lot of wrong
well i’m sorry yeah a lot of people get them come on and we got a lot of people in our community suffering with a lot of issues man you know and we got to help our people and dc has a 13.5-14.5 billion dollar budget that we can use to deal with this not we passed the
conversation talking about equality we’re talking about equity and
i’ll be honest some of my Jewish friends have come to our aid to support us that’s why i don’t have any issues with Jewish people i don’t but
the media gonna lead the perception that i do because they’re trying to create division because a house divided against itself will never stain and so
i’m here today as a human being stating that yes i mess up i fall short but i’m gonna be committed not just to the community but to God because i live for him he spared my life on so many different situations where i could have well I faced death and missed mister say what time leave me alone but we gonna send the message we don’t live on
facebook right now
sending the message that we got we we gonna stand up we not let we not gonna let the media or whoever tear me down or try to distract me because it’s too much i got to do i got i got a lot I only have a uh 24 hours in a day 100 energy i must use that energy trying to uplift and liberate God’s people and all types of people and
so i understand the attacks i understand you know the uh the the people coming to my house in my backyard i understand i’m going through my trash tapping my phone
i understand them uh now they were doing a four-year request for all my text messages the other day doing a four-year request on my emails man go for it go for it but until i die i continue to stand flat-footed
what’s up baby what’s up woody how you feeling now you good it’s all up i’ll move right there in a minute all
right ima stand flat-footedand stand up for for what’s right will I make mistakes just i will but it’s on the community to correct me love on me support me and give me some direction not to tear me down because far too long we allow the media to create a perception about our leaders it’s been the federal government spent40 million dollars trying to indict murder 40 million
why –am i on cnn, msnbc, fox 5, bbc news all across the world for comment
it’s an agenda and should i make a comment no but am i gonna keep taking the heat forward
hey what’s up come here
am i gonna keep taking the heat forward
what’s up what’s going on how are you got to you got to stay healthy health is wealth man health is life
and so i’m going to struggle my life right now and it’s not about the media i’m not worried about that i knew that was going to happen and it’s going to get turned up even more that’s this is the beginning the more i come forward and because we was protesting some construction sites and um trying to help people in the community get jobs and get access to the millions of dollars within our community that the people in the community not benefiting from and i’m going to stand up and stand in front of that every time
so if you don’t come for me you might as well come and take me out because i’m not bowing down i’m not laying down and i want to thank those colleagues and mines who support me you know uh because i am new to the council but those who are calling for me to resign and to step down and be censored i’m not backing down and i’m not going to be arrogant about it i’m not going to be disrespectful to anyone be very respectful but i’m be flat-footed i’ll be standing fast
i’m be focused because 25 000 people in the last election voted for me and one day that may not be the case but i’ma still live my life every day serving God’s people because i know that i’m only here by the grace of God to do his will his way
i don’t mean nobody no harm i don’t desire to hurt anyone i have all the answers but to say i left the holocaust museum early is a lie that was it in the entire time you can ask the george right by glacier did I stay the entire time yes i stepped away from the group because there’s a reporter there that was trying to take notes and use his platform which is the washington post to defame my character and and that’s gonna happen so i stepped off i told him i didn’t want any reporters there
i didn’t want any uh media there because it wasn’t about that for me when i did this did the seder uh celebrate the uh jewish holiday i asked for no media to be there so i’ma stand flat-footed man i love you all i want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for those who’ve been supportive of me who did the post i stand with trayon white i know uh some of my good friends like oh jimmy black my family members uh put up those posts to support me I need your support because as they get to go down this road it gets worse and worse and they’re trying to remove me out of the way so they can build up this this community and we get pushed out and we get justified and people know with honest beyond the shadow of a doubt that i’m not gonna let that happen without doing something
so who much is given much is required and so today on saturday april the 21st 2018 i come humble saying thank you all for supporting me i will not be resigning i will not be backing down and i have a meeting with my colleagues to figure out what they think and how they feel but i will never let anybody silence my voice because it’s the voice that God gave me
what’s up fellas tony what’s up man
what’s up what’s up fellas how are you all good that’s all good how are you doing man how are you all right what’s up greg
so today is a good day for me God is good i’m on both of my feet today i’m in good health today
i’m in good spirits today so i want you all to thinking i’m down because the media that come with the territory like i said they spent 40 million dollars trying to try to take down Marion Barry
so this is nothing this is nothing this is not i’m built for this my grandmother jean ann roberts shout out to elaine carter, patricia roberts though my ancestors who came before me that bled and died so i can have the freedom to lead God’s people i owe them i owe them i ordered my life blood and my energy and so today is a great day you know i’m not going to get attacked how y’all doing am i going to get attacked yes but it’s
the media’s job that’s that’s what they do so what’s what’s the comment saying what what we got in the comment they’re saying they with you hey what me they say they with me just know that house divided against itself will never stand the whole goal is divide us against ourselves so we can fall apart we sit on some great land here in southeast washington d.c we are the last in world seven eight pastor five uh
we are the last ward that that still have indigenous people that’s been here for 20 30 50 years and the goal is to discredit me make me look bad so you can question yourself and question your leadership that you voted for that you cast the ballot for the powers to be was banking on me not getting in office but i’m in office and every day that God allows me to serve i’m gonna serve to the best of my ability and i’m gonna mess up and make mistakes but i’m going to regroup i’m going to regroup and i’m going to stand strong man i’m
i’m built what they say Ford tough i’m built ford tough built for this built for tough and my education makes it necessary you know in the book the mr education negro everything that i went through through my life over the past 33 years have prepared me for these moments you can look around and see the plight of our people in washington dc
what an early media income in dc is 110,000 a year the area median income in washington dc area is 110 000 a year yet in ward 8 the average media income in ward 8 is less than 30 000 a year and the poor are getting poorer you can see the results of the substance abuse and the mental health right here on this avenue man if you just scan up and scan around you can see the people these are poor they need us united they need us united they need us united united we can’t afford
we are in a place in history right now we cannot afford to be divided and you cannot agree with me you cannot agree with me you can disagree with me but at the end of the day we got to find out what can we agree on what can we work on what can we collaborate on together and that’s what i’m committed to i’m committed to serving God’s people his way
and so i wanted to make sure i speak to that this morning i want to make sure i speak to the the issue of me giving um money to save his day when brother karine and brother uh uh frank who work in the trenches with me
asked me to support them i support him now do i agree with everything that the minister uh louis Farrakhan said no i don’t but i don’t agree a lot with what my own brothers and sisters do but guess what that’s my brother that’s my sister that’s my mother that’s my uncle that’s my father see you can choose your friends my grandmother told me that you cannot choose your family and so
i ain’t gonna agree with everything everybody say but i’m not resigning i’m not backing down- i’m not discouraged i’m not depressed so run the media story is all you want cause my people won’t support me and those who don’t we’re gonna figure out away how we can work together
i got enemies i got haters what’s up how you doing i got haters but who don’t i’m not uh past the point where everybody just love trey on white is that’s not that’s not the reality and i don’t expect it to be and the more
i stand up to these development projects to say y’all gonna hire our people the more i say our small businesses we just issued a grant the other day to give ten thousand dollars to small businesses right here in ward eight and ward seven that’s what we should be doing with our money we spent thirty something million dollars on a parking lot yet when i made an issue about expanding homeless services uh homeless services it was a big issue the same day we spent 30 million dollars in a parking lot i raised the issue about expanding homeless services that got denied
so we gotta look at what’s going on you gotta check the people who you voting for and i know that uh some of my colleagues call for me to be sister we gonna have problems we’re gonna have probably gonna have major problems because the people are gonna start coming down to the wilson building standing up no longer we’re gonna be cow-towing and being silent about the things that matter bad things happen when good people do nothing
and the devil is busy the devil is busy but i got the spirit of God in me i got the spirit of God in me and i want to thank all those in all the communities to the anc’s to the to the grandmothers to the aunties to the aunts to my brothers on the avenue to some of my soldiers in the streets that’s trying to get their life together that to my returning citizens to my lgbtq community
uh to those who don’t even have a title that are human beings we all stand together we gotta stick together and the more divided we are the more we going forward so i want to thank you all this morning man i just i want to say this from the bottom of heart that i’m here to stay-
i’ve seen what we’ve done with mass incarceration in this community i think we’ve done uh locking up mass mass incarceration to millions of our african-american men and even ladies been incarcerated all across the united states
when i go into the schools like i went into anacostia and learned that majority of the population students are failing that’s what i’m trying to spend my energy on that’s what i’m working on when
we got one grocery store that’s serving poor food to our community wonder why we got some of the highest health disparities in the country
that’s what i’m spending my energy working on when we got a a hospital that’s that’s that’s falling apart and not creating all the avenues we need to provide quality health care in our community that’s what i’m working on quality healthcare service not just with a hospital but a total health care system that’s what i spend my energy working on
we got crime in our community i’m trying to put 3.5 million dollars in the community to address youth violence intervention
that’s what i’m working on trying to redirect some of these young men usually stand on the corner to go get a job to get some skills to get off droves to get out the streets that’s what I spend my life blood and energy working on every day
the proof is in the pudding you can ask about it a tree is recognized by its fruit and i just didn’t start doing this work i’ve been doing this work for for quite some time so this is not nothing new that i just started doing as a council member
i was doing this when i was running a non-profit when i was working with rev isaac when i was working in so many communities when i didn’t have a title i was just coach trey a football coach
so i’m committed to excellence and i’m working on self every day trying to improve my life trying to improve my mindset trying to learn i’m trying to learn i don’t have all the answers i didn’t grow up knowing uh about the jewish history or the jewish holocaust growing up we wasn’t taught that in school we was broadly barely taught our own history we only we not even taught our own history in school and the time i grew up with dc was predominantly african-american so to say
to say that i’m ignorant and I don’t understand what happened to you no i do no i do not i admit to that i didn’t know all that what happened to the jewish i don’t even i’m still understanding what’s happening to our people and the condition that we are in and so join me man hey what’s the last question you got any questions on it hey what’s up oh Ballou knights okay okay nice i remember you you came out to the western building yep you all came and that’s why some of
the Ballou students y’all want to say hello just say hello ricky get the planet
this summer our Ballou knight somehow scholars that Ballou where y’all coming from this morning oh we had a performance with the band we had a performance with every day every day counts it’s about attendance right and so we’re working on our tenants in our school that’s what
we need to be working on we’re trying to get our young ladies like this who are doing some positive things in our community to empower them to go to college to accomplish their dreams they come on a saturday morning coming from school they can be doing something doing anything in that community what’s our names francesca rakira and he’s some of the same ladies who came out to the Wilson building
uh what’s up what’s up with you
and it’s just we need to focus on energy and so showing that they have no excuse why they can’t go to college why they can’t get what they need we have a 14.5 billion dollar budget and we talk about cutting dc tag you know what i’m saying uh talking about our kids not graduating that’s the issue we need to be focused on how we can get more resources inside of our schools in anacostia
Ballou, Thurgood Marshall, uh Malcolm X uh Simon, Kramer, Johnson Hart because our schools need support
yes I want to thank you ladies i’m not gonna hold you up in the morning
something speaking of supporting schools we got a gateway dc thing now with our school hospitality crew she gonna be down there along with a bunch of other kids it’s gonna be fun we got what we got bubble soccer it’s bubble soccer human chess going to be a whole bunch of bands in neutral today and it was put together about all of the um the juniors in the hospitality group like it was run all by the students and all the teachers we got a budget put up and then we just put it all together and now we’re about to go so i can go hope uh run it yes after the street this dispels admit they say that our
kids are not learning in our community they’re doing something negative all right ladies thank you all they’re not learning in our community they’re always doing something negative we have some brilliant young people and this is unscripted
some brilliant young people in our community that are doing phenomenal things i’m on a saturday i want to shout out thomas penny um who started this who was part of the organizations who started the hospitality program inside of ballou we need more hospitality programs more i.t programs more security service programs more health service programs and our schools too help kids not just get jobs but get careers become business owners and these young ladies are just a small example of what we got to offer in our school systems and
so i want to say i’m gone y’all been i’ve been talking for quite some time i love you all i’m signing out don’t just stand and do something
www.trayonwhite8.com
go down and subscribe we got some community meetings coming up we in budget season we got uh we trying to get this new senior home coming to singer wellness center coming toward a get some more money to empower small businesses put some more money to combat violent crimes in the community and so we we’re working we’re working we’re working every day we’re using our energy to come together to work don’t just stand and do something
love you all
God bless
