Councilman Braxton Winston on revealing the uncomfortable and his cameo in the Air Jordans doc trailer
The CharlotteFive Podcast team decided to try to take a look at the state of Charlotte, its recent transformative events and how the current political landscape is ready for change, so we brought on Braxton Winston, activist turned current city council member.
Please click and listen to the full interview with Winston right below. Farther down are some small excerpts of what was talked about on the podcast.
On not knowing about appearing in the trailer for the Air Jordan 1 documentary, “Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1“, that ran during the NBA All-Star dunk contest …
“Apparently Jordan brand before the All-Star game dunk contest, there was a commercial on the history of Air Jordan 1s and they flashed my image up. I started getting tweets and messages, it’s all crazy. I actually work for the Hornets, but I’ve never gotten a pair of Jordans that I didn’t pay for. That night when that picture was taken, I was actually wearing Jordans and those sneakers are actually in the Museum of the New South, so I don’t know if they found that out or something. Between Spike Lee, Michael Jordan and Russell Westbrook, they flashed my image, so I kind of bugged out.”
Winston’s appearance is at the 42 second mark:
What are some of the issues or challenges that you are most excited to address? Have we seen progress in any of them yet?
“I think the over-arching umbrella, if anything clear has come out of Sept. 2016 [Keith Lamont Scott shooting and following protests/demonstrations], is that we need to address the issues of upward economic mobility. That is a big umbrella. In order to do that, we have to attack systemic inequities and generational truths that are uncomfortable. At the top level, it’s a chicken versus the egg thing. Jobs or housing? Places for people to get wages or benefits and tools, i.e. money or capital, to support your family and/or a stable place to stay? We have too many people not being able to provide secure housing for themselves and their loved ones. It comes in all shapes and sizes. It is people that probably made some bad life choices and are trying to pick themselves up, but it is also … I have sanitation workers and bus drivers that live in their cars, right now. As we sit here at this window, we see that we are growing. We’re always growing out, but not enough people can grow up.”
On recent proposed state legislation regarding public education, including a bill that would split CMS …
“There are laws and legislation that are trying to go through right now that are aiming to fundamentally change how things get done, and I don’t think it’s always in a good way. I think we really do need to pay attention to what’s going on in terms of public schools here in North Carolina. The city council doesn’t have any direct purview on what happens in the schools, but I’m a product of the public school system. Charlotte and CMS have been kind of a crown jewel, especially when you look at approaching public education in the desegregated South. Very recently, there has been, what I think, an assault on public education in the state of North Carolina. I think some of the legislation that is potentially coming out of Raleigh continues that assault. I know this bill and a bill that allows localities, not even municipalities, to create their own school districts are very problematic and undo the progress that CMS kind of spearheaded after segregation ended.”
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The CharlotteFive Podcast — presented by The Charlotte Observer and powered by OrthoCarolina — is a weekly podcast that aims to get you Charlotte Smart, Fast with fun, interesting and useful news about the city. It’s co-hosted by Sean Clark-Weis and Sallie Funderburk and is a production of the Charlotte Observer and 2WAVES Media.
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Photos: Charlotte Observer file, David T. Foster III, Unbanned
This story was originally published February 20, 2018 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Councilman Braxton Winston on revealing the uncomfortable and his cameo in the Air Jordans doc trailer."