Jesse Lee Peterson appeared on several panels at Politicon—an annual political convention held in Pasadena, Calif., July 29 and 30th.
The first panel was on “Fatherhood, Community, and Our Cities” and it featured poet Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib, Jesse Lee Peterson, Dr. Alveda King, CNN political commentator Shermichael Singleton, and former Sean Hannity radio producer Elisha Krauss. Producer and talk show host Deborah Flora was the moderator.
During the discussion, Jesse said that the worst thing you can do to human beings is to give them free stuff. It corrupts them, makes them lazy. Jesse grew up in Alabama working, picking cotton on the plantation even as a school-age boy.
Jesse also said that if we’re giving welfare, we have to stop spoiling women and rewarding them for having more kids. Make them work and earn for themselves. The less government in your life, the better off you are. The reason urban areas fall apart is because of the lack of good men (who are more hated than Satan today).
A black woman with braids got up during Q&A and loudly disagreed with Jesse. She said it's about race, most of Los Angeles homeless population is black, and we put people behind bars like they're animals, and she blamed racism.
When the woman wouldn’t be quiet, Jesse said that's an example of the type of anger that is destroying black children in the homes, and causing them to go out-of-control with violence, crime, and sex.
Black panelist Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib said it's “whack” that Jesse would say her passion is causing the problem. Jesse said there's no love in her anger, although Hanif thinks there is.
Some young people in the Q & A session challenged the notion of the "nuclear family" or the need for kids to have fathers, being raised by single mothers, and still turning out well with a good education.
Jesse said education doesn't mean you're a good person — look at how corrupt Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Maxine Waters are — and they're educated!
Shermichael Singleton, who was fired as Deputy Chief of Staff at the Department of Housing and Urban Development by President Donald Trump, said that we can't chalk all the problems to just one thing without relying on government data about how well people are doing. Jesse said material things should not define success; success is treating your neighbor the way you'd like to be treated, being a free person of character. Parents build that in children when the man is the head of his wife, and they love the children in the right way. Unfortunately the government and most of society think that materialism is success.
Stay tuned for additional videos from other panels in the coming days.