and there but if she has a special give to this she empowers others but before we get started you know we do want to dr joye show we take it down with three deep breaths are you ready inhale are they you know i want to read a little bit of bacha shai williams my guest has served as a special victims unit detective with the camden county police department she is passionate and i really mean passionate about uplifting and empowering the urban community shai williams frames her community involvement around the concept of paying it forward so now tell me more about shai williams speaks and what made you start this for me is about educating empower and inspiring the urban mind to teach them that they can overcome their circumstances and to see beyond their skirt situation and it's all about perseverance like you can't get stuck at where you are you have to try to pull yourself in a honestly just not seeing a know of black illustrations and in having our youth be able to open a book to be able to really connect to it you know and that's why i like when you look to my my own books and you see able to contribute to that i want you to i know we have them on on a stand but that's fine i want you to actually hold one over and talk a little bit about this book so pro wanted to make sure that i i hone in on that so was telling a girl she's being bullied at school and being called darkness that's on that i was you know i don't say i was teased about but you know i was called darkness when i was in high school  you are beautiful and you're beautiful in your own unique way and to embrace who you are we're looking to mirror and love what you see despite what the stigmas are put on you despite what people are saying and also to understand that if someone is  poking fun of you or making fun of you that's not true you're for it well and something about if they're judging you that also is a reflection of their character as it is about that as well but is kids you know that kind of go out goes out the window because children can be quite mean they don't hit on as you're absolutely right but agitate me and was really for adult people that people actually know so what is the difference between proud black girl i know this is your first different than the cover of the problem girl because you know based off my experience of my exposure as a detective in a city of camden a lot of our boys don't really take you know i want to be we try to see our boys you know specially in urban community very so many there's so many organizations out there for the girls and i really wanted to just be able to do a little bit more for the boys as well for you know and this and this roman with this with this book so it's pretty much the same thing this is story line behind a father and son relationship now as well and what i tell clients that you know where they'll come to me and say oh well my son you know his followers not in this life right know my father wasn't always in my life either you know but however i had on call you know in my own call to this day like a father to me he's like a big brother also he's also my own cool you know and he wears multiple hats so it's not even a death father figure is not in the life you know you can find someone that they can connect with whether it's a bigger brother being older cousin that they can connect with so it's not just you know you can change the role in a male figure a male figure ok and it's also embrace in them to love themselves as well story lines about pretty much another bully he's moving from an urban area to suburban school and again that's me as well you know i moved from plainfield to north point for when i was in high school and you know they're asking me how do you get your with the kinky curls which is you know that's the stylus out right now or you're right i had the core roles where you want to have the locks we use when i have a low cut you know to just embrace being unique right and they be be the glorifying that you know you can interchange but also s to strive for educational excellence as well and so the workbook part of the book after the story actually allows them to connect with the story line but also with themselves so it immediately goes for instinct change or transformation ness with the part of the book was about so shiny ages of what your target audience for proud black boy and also proud black girl they're both fourteen it under but i always say this i always say this  book it's target for any audience because if as easy as a young girl and as a young boy if you develop self hate and you don't address it at a young age you turn into that teenager who turns into that that adult right so that's why i say it is a take away message for everyone because there's still you know there's many of us in our culture in american society that don't address their self hate and then it turns into the hate you give which is a movie that yes h to proud black girl proud black boy well i there's a way both sides yes i do see both sides and in honestly i walked away from law enforcement oh you did yes i walked away f law enforcement this year and because i didn't want to compromise myself any further because i want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem you know and i strongly feel as though you can be pro black and want to help the urban community and also be law enforcement you know i some point who you are so say that one more time you can't be pro black and be you read at the beginning paying it forward yeah no i don't want you know someone to tell me that you know this is what you can do this is what you cannot do when i am from a urban community are from a urban setting i have an idea of what urban youth systematic trap of just trapping them into a system and actually i want to help them to transform their thinking and to give them a way out so you used you found your creative genius then to step out of something that is that had those boundaries here to help others that's phenomenal yes that is phenomenal and do you think that other people in law enforcement feel that so they're still battling with that internal conflict that i was a young users least you're yes i mean i'm still dealing with it you know i miss my job tremendously i love what i love what i did i was a detective in special victims of domestic violence sexual assaults and then i also was a undercover narcotics detective that's a dangerous job which i love i love a close friend to that yes which really organized but i mean i'm you know they yes they do battle the army for those that i've spoken to because it is a struggle you know when you know especially like for a black officer like you know you know that you know there are traps out there and you know that you know you have a certain you filter certain way about it for did bother me so when it inspires you to continue speaking in writing because you're out the on instagram and and facebook and twitter so what keeps you going honestly just knowing me and i was hospitalized for about seven days and it really you know don to me that you know you have a purpose in life you have to look back to then to now i know that i have a purpose in life and i was speaking to one principle today  last week and you know i'm doing a speaking engagement with them on monday and you know we're discussing you know his youth in there and what's going on in their climate and he's like sure they don't value their education oh they don't take it seriously and where  speaking have you spoken and where and we'll talk about this about your calendar for the rest of the year into the twenty nineteen so that speak english is going to be a cream family school in camden ok and i'm going to be talking to the seventh and eighth graders about just value and their education you know so far like a lot of it is what keeps me going knowing that you know that is an issue as a highly high concern especially you know you're an urban setting and you don't see like the del success right and the things that you see on your daily functions a wife like some kids before they even stepped foot into school you know speaking of just camden you know they're walking paths panhandlers begging for money people who are strong on drugs prostitutes people at t only corner of the liquor store just waiting for the liquor store to open up you know in their passing all these these things abandoned building property before a misstep one foot inside the shredded no nothing positive yet and then we don't even know what's going on inside their home exactly and i have empty refrigerator empty cupboards we don't know domestic violence in the house exactly the drugs we don't know exactly so is that's what keeps me motivated and keeps me pushing to to h am all about educating and empowering inspiring urban mind you know despiser your circumstances so i know about you stand on my shoulders project a little bit why don't you tell me more well if it's a campaign i would say so to stand on my shoulders project as me going around to different urban schools and in talking to the youth in explaining to them to value their their education and to intrigue their minds in that the know that knowledge is know for example like the big thing that i'm on right now is black history learning the black history learning the history of america because most of it is deleted and distorted in books and school settings so just intrigu their mind to learn and connecting certain things from not having adequate food selections in our in our neighborhoods but however you know you follow a main street and the urban setting and you travel that road into a suburban setting you know that you see the food selections chain oh absolutely you know so it's like just like the landscape yes so just little things like that just getting them to think where just going to wake up in a sense and to be aware of what's actually going on in your community so that's part of that's one part of the campaign oh stand on my shoulders i also had a black cultural journey bus tour that i'm just kicking off and that that tour is going to be happening in june  n williams with an s so this tour is like a phenomenal phenomenal experience for anyone who's intrigued or wants to learn about the history be able to go out and get their formation themselves so what we do in this tour seven days six nights and  duty and it's a phenomenal i did this i did this tour myself this year and i walked the edmund pettus bridge or in june thirteenth and my proud black girl was amazing now explain what juneteenth is because i be but i was same our greatest accomplishment is my books because it allowed really expands my legacy you know to be someone who is able to read a story and connect with it without even me having to you know meet with them face to face you know so i  of this statue from one of my mentors and she sent it to me and i'm saying oh this is amazing because you knew i was doing the tour and so i have to i didn't know it was there and i went there and it was amazing you know the first day i went there  there and we did that but then the following day it was really nice out that week and it was nice out and so that one is just talking about what happened when i when i took that picture and i saw it and i just said to myself you know regardless of regards to what you know guy has aligned with me i'm comfortable with where i am comfortable to walk away i'm comfortable to walk my own path and when i look at that image i think of the quote in which tubman says that she could have sleep that she could i saved more slaves had they known that they were slaves you know so i talk a lot about independency and knowing the history and knowledge is power and that do you know your knowledge and you know your history that makes you independent now allows you to think on your own and that's true we were mad so i'm you know despite you know what i've been through from our grandmother passing away to me walking away from my career i'm am i happy is  met true peace you know despite you know some difficulties but i'm not true peace and you know and that's when you know you're at your perch right so yes all about perseverance and just being able to walk in them our purpose right and trust believe in yourself yes that the higher power has got you yeah so how can view is get copies of your books you also have items there yet you want to hold them up yes so i have apparel for a problem girl that is such a nice witch and proud black boy as well on our website so this is some of the new stuff that we just launched so that's the one with the actual character or near the world which has just plowed speaks also at i am shy williams you actually i think you should connect with all of the superintendents in the urban communities pitch them what you've done and they need to bring you in you going to be a big is the only thing i tell you so is there anything else that you would like to share that you haven't discussed already just say you or anyone you know you know as i say or talk about my experience and walk away from our career you know failures are an option you know despise whatever's in front of you talk a little bit about that shy i want to go back and in pull forward because we have some time ok describe how long you were in talk about a little bit about what you did i know you were law enforcement how long you were there and and how you transitioned away from it ok so i was in law enforcement for five years i'm a detective relatively quickly working in camden i'm a detective with an eight once i had a came from a legal background and that was my that was my major justice studies i was looking to go to law school but however you know the path took me to law enforcement i loved it so use me so i was in law for five years i was attacked for camden special victims of sexual assaults and domestic violence and then i left camden  i went to another agency and i was undercover narcotics detective there and for me it was it was a different experience because it was leg going from a herb into a suburban completely different and as an undercover narcotics detective i was able to see from a different lens you know like literally i was able to in a sense i would describe it as from the balcony out you know looking out really in a sense to say  that i saw how things are different from urban to a suburban setting and that allowed me to identify and say to myself and recognize and acknowledge that ok i can see only what i work better and well and urban setting then and a suburban setting i want to mabel to really truly i love my job and also be true to be able to get back to the community and i also was able to see that there were social injustices just to be completely honest from the way in which cases were handled from a person of color to a white person and i would speak out about it and i sense do you think that that's what i do and i truly do because i transform the urban communities within that area and it was accepted but i you know and i don't think every every accomplishment or every every gift is truly a gift that's all right so in a sense like hey we're to give this to you but however you know your job comes first right and you know you put me in the family unit which is extremely busy but you told me that i could do this but you don't give over time what i want to be able to do this so i continue to speak out about it and i wasn't constructive i wasn't i wasn't calculating in my stead you know i wasn't sure it was me against an army and it was at the point where honestly i felt comfortable like i felt like a unicorn which i did i didn't care you felt like you have boundaries and you weren't in your purpose and i didn't fit in i can't i did you enough and i didn't fit in there i didn't fit in there and when you start to speak up about it it was like ok well who's this young girl ye she's educated you know she's diarrheal sed directorial student right i'm altering my requesting to alter my my schedule to go to class and you know my superiors don't even have you know half of what i have as far as academic why they don't come in and say ok well you know we're kind of behind the ball little bit like we need to me to change this we need to implement this but it was i thought was that was all for the betterment of the organization and then especially as me as an undercover narcotics detective you know where my life is on the line right now we need to have lights and sirens in a vehicle and we don't have any so if you have cars we have to wrap up one piece of advice for my viewers what  bundanoon success appreciated they ok failure is not an option one foot in front of the other until next time be blessed stay healthy