(excerpted from the November 2009 issue of Sister 2 Sister magazine)
 
I met Greg Mathis years ago before he started his court TV show. We were in some Mexican country for a Black film festival. We went dancing one night with Gus Blackmon, the man who brought us Greg’s TV show. The two of them made the mistake of trying to out-dance me! What?! That ain’t gonna happen. I have hung on the floor with M.C. Hammer. Trust! 

 
Greg sprang his ankle that night fooling with me on that dance floor and there was a bond between me, him and his ankle ever since. He has come a long way since then. He’s going into his eleventh year on the air, taking no prisoners as he deals with those defendants and plaintiffs.
 
I visited Greg in his new, gorgeous, spacious California home where his neighbors are Paris Hilton and Babyface’s wife Tracey Edmonds, among others. From Greg’s poor and dangerous beginnings as a street hustler to  becoming a well-respected, rich and  powerful judge is a story worth reading over and over. Wow, does crime pay? No, he says, but changing your life does! How he came out of prison on a drug and gun conviction eventually to a television icon is here in this article, and I wish we had room for more of his brilliant thinking and amazing life story. Being with Greg and taking heed of his wisdom is a great way to celebrate our 21st anniversary here at Sister 2 Sister magazine.

***

Jamie: What’s missing with our boys, Greg? What do you think that we need?
Greg: A sense of real fatherhood. For the most part, our young men are taught that fatherhood is based on the number of women that you conquer, [and] is based on your ability to dominate your environment. And I think that’s a direct contradiction with what they’re showing in their lives because you can’t get any respect from anybody if you’re destroying yourself and your community. 


 
Jamie: You were like that when you were a child. The person that had the biggest impact in your life was your mother on her dying bed. Correct me if I’m wrong. 

Greg: No, you’re right. I was still in jail when she came and told me she had cancer and asked me to turn my life around before she dies. 


 
Jamie: Now, why were you in jail? 

Greg: It was a gun and some dope. 


 
Jamie: She must have made this plea to you earlier on. What made you not listen?

Greg: It’s a mindset that calls for you to fit into the culture that is around you. If you’re living in the culture of poverty, drugs, a failed education system, violence and weapons—if you’re not the predator, you’re going to be prey. So after they take your gym shoes and your coat a couple of times, at some point you say, “Well, I have to be down with this.”


 
Jamie: All right. You came out of jail. Your mom was sick at that time, right?
Greg: And I had to take care of her. 


 
Jamie: Does Mom have social security money coming in the house?

Greg: Oh, yes. And I took care of her with the little money I was making from McDonald’s.


 
Jamie: But wait a minute: Okay, “Man, my image here. I’m going to go work for McDonald’s?” Because a lot of men don’t want [to do that].

Greg: All my boys came in and ridiculed me. “Yeah, you’re supposed to be the man. Look at Scoey” That was my street name, Scoey. “He’s lame. He’s a square.” So I had to take all of that because I didn’t want to go back to jail.


 
Jamie: Tell me, if I’m put in that position, how should I respond, Greg? 

Greg: “You’re going to be working in here a minute or you’re going to be in the prison or in the cemetery.” 


 
Jamie: That’s what you said to them?

Greg: Yes. And I said, “You’re all talking about where I work now and you’re going to be coming to me for a job at one point.” And they did.


 
Jamie: Did they ever ask you to slip them an extra bag of fries or something like that?
Greg: “Get out of here.” Some extra fries? You want to know if I had changed from a thief to a productive citizen? Yes. But there was a transformation price.
 
Jamie: I’m saying these are the kind of pressures that kids come under and we have to give them words and reasoning so that they don’t get sucked back in.
Greg: And we have to get them to develop a high sense of self-worth. For example, if you’re working at McDonald’s, and if you have a high sense of yourself, you’re not going to risk your future for a bag of French fries. Now, you might get out on the street and hustle for economic reasons for the most part, which is the reason I believe most of our brothers engage in drug dealing, and thereby risk your life and risk prison. But something as small as a bag of French fries, I think that if we educate our young people to have a higher sense of self, then they’ll understand that there’s not much that is worth risking your future for, unless it is out of a true sense of survival. If you have a survival mentality, then you’re going to take risks.



 
Jamie: Tell me the name of your book and what you can share with us in the book?

Greg: Yes, Street Judge is a novel. My first book was biographical, Inner City Miracle. This is a novel intended to give some insight into how the justice system works, for both the privileged and the poor and the behind-the-scenes corruption that goes on—and the sexual and financial maneuvering that really determines who gets what. 



 
Jamie: What is that? 

Greg: For example, when I was running for judge in Detroit, I couldn’t get the support of the mayor because I didn’t contribute much to his campaign. The governor, who makes the appointments, was a Republican, [so the governor] wouldn’t appoint me. 



 
Jamie: So you wanted to talk to the mayor.
Greg: Correct. To lobby the governor on my behalf. So I say that to say all those dynamics are involved in how far you go in politics and in how you’re treated in the justice system. It’s not about the letter of the law in its entirety. A lot of it is political. A lot of it is social. And so the book exposes all of that. As you know, there are scenes in the book that portray a White prosecutor, a female, who was angry with me because she lost in the election. That is somewhat true; and this same woman was the mayor’s mistress.

Pick up the November 2009 issue of Sister 2 Sister to see how being a hustler helped Judge Mathis advance his law career and find a wife.