A Black Executive Perspective. Now presents need to know with the award-winning hyphenated Dr. Nsenga Burton, Dr. Burton. What do we need to know?

Good afternoon and welcome to Need To Know with Dr. Nsenga Burton. I am she. And today we are going to be talking about, um, that person whose name, uh, we don't say so we're just gonna say the number 45 or 47 and all of the things that have happened or transpired as it relates, um, to. This kind of x xenophobia, xenophobia that he has around people who are not white. So, um, one of the things, um, that just recently happened is that, um, the weather service, and we know we've been doing a whole bunch of stuff that's gonna negatively impact the weather service anyway, but in this case, I wanna talk about the weather service, no longer giving out information in languages other than English. So we have a nation. Um, English is not the official language of the United States. We don't have an official language because the idea behind the United States is that we have one country made up of many different types of people, uh, before 45 and 47. And I would argue, um, even with the founding fathers, if that's the term you wanna use, are people who are, uh, now our ancestors. Were in play. This country was founded for people, um, who wanted to have a greater idea, um, who wanted to realize democracy, right? They wanted to have certain freedoms that were not afforded to them in other countries. They were able to come here and practice their own, um, you know, whatever religious they had, um, whatever, uh, belief system they have. Um, whatever languages they speak and whatever culture they have, as long as it did not infringe on the rights of others. So, uh, we did that very well. You know, even with all of the segregation, Jim Crow, all the other things, um, there were cities, um, especially in cities, and I would say like if you look at places like, uh, Louisiana. North Carolina and so forth and so on, even in the rural areas where you have a lot of, uh, cultural mixing, um, during those time periods where people coexisted peacefully, they intermarried, they did all things, um, and were able to really just be who they were. So there was no, uh. Reason to have an official language. Uh, and there still isn't. I mean, like if you look at a country like South Africa, they have 11 official languages. Uh, well, a country that size with the number of people that they have, that might make sense. They have cultural practices. They're very, very different in many particular ways. Um, so that might make sense. Um, and even if we had an official language here in the United States, it probably would be Spanish or it should be, um. English and Spanish. Um, and depending on which part of the, the country you live in, it could be other languages too. Um, so my point is in raising this issue is that this whole. Attempt and, and they're pretty effective in certain ways of this administration to erase people of color. Um, in general, I would say black people specifically, 'cause that's what I'm watching most clo closely, but people in gen, people of color in general, um, in this particular phase. And by saying, no, we're not gonna give you information that can save your life. Your native tongue or in a language that you may be able to speak or better decipher so that you have a better chance of survival. It's just, uh, another form of violence, uh, that this administration, uh, has put forth. And so the Trump administration is being lambasted for a lot of things right now, but they are also trumpeted, ha ha ha, pun intended. Um, because they inflict pain. On people. Right? It's a, it's a, it's a kind of a trauma porn type of experience. We had it in 45, you know, at at 45 in 2016. We saw this already. We've experienced this already. How much pain can we inflict on people? You know, we're like, oh my gosh, can you believe they're just ripping people out of cars and taking them in and not even seeing if they're even citizens. And if they're citizens and they're deported, is sent somewhere else and they find other citizens and they're not even bringing them back. Can you believe that? Well, of course we can believe that. 'cause they had children in cages. In 2016, 2017. But you know, our memories are really short. We forgot about that. Oh, can you believe that? You know, more children are dying of measles than ever before. It had been completely eradicated, but since we've had this anti-vax movement that these poor little kids are sick and they're dying. Yeah, we had over a million people die with Covid. It was preventable. It was preventable. People forget that part about Covid. Oh, we had no choice. There was nothing we could do about it. Oh, there's plenty we could do about it. It never had to get here. It never had to be here. Um. And so when you think, I don't know why people keep waiting for the best possible scenario to happen, it's just not going to happen under 47. Part of their mission, part of their goal, part of their identity is inflicting pain, right? It's a very violent approach to leadership. It's like, how much violence can we inflict on people? And you know, just because they're not shooting people down the streets yet. I'm sure that will come because it looks like that's where we're headed. But just, you know, a lot of people think about physical, physical violence, but I'm talking about emotional violence, right? Or policies that you do, um, that you enact, like. You can no longer do the National Weather Service announcements in any L language other than English, even though we have large populations of people that live in the United States where English is not their first language, and so they will not know what is going on. Um. If they don't have their, uh, closed captions on, if they don't have a television, let's say they're listening to the radio, what if they're hearing impaired? Like, there's a lot of like scenarios. So instead of doing the least amount that you can do, IE, we're only gonna do them in English. You should do the most right to make sure you reach the largest number of people so that you know people now who are surviving floods, dying in floods. You know, people are, are surviving, some of them people who are dying in these tornadoes. Um, for some reason those people are not getting the information. Some people, you know, we see those people on the news. They're like, I'm just gonna board it up and pray, or Good for you, or whatever. But if that's what you wanna do. But if you are someone who wants to, uh, comply and to get out of these poor weather situations and they're coming so much more frequently, so why would you do less? It's because you're a violent person. You, you're violent in nature. A violent person wants to remove Harriet Tubman from a website. Um, when you're talking about the history of the United States of America, every Harriet Tubman should be everybody's hero. Everybody, regardless of race, class, gender, sexual identity, all things Harriet Tubman should be celebrated. So why you would remove her and then have to be beaten down to put her back is beyond me. But I'm gonna stay on fo uh, on track. I want you to know what you need to know is that the people who are in charge and that you sometimes, um, give your vote to willingly and then those of us who don't, and then have to live with the consequences. There are real consequences to what you are doing and what you are not doing and what is happening with this administration. And it goes beyond what you're seeing in the headlines. You know, there's so much stuff going on, um, and. You know, you could call it chaos theory, depending on what, what theory you wanna, uh, use, um, where there's so much going on, you don't know what to pay attention to. But do believe that any and all opportunities they have to subjugate, oppress, demean, or cause pain to immigrant groups, to people of color, they are doing it and they, they're now using the weather service to do it. So I need you to know that this is happening. So if you have someone in your life, let's say maybe you are raised in a household where you are the first English speaker in the household, please make sure that you're in contact with your relatives, friends, family members, colleagues, or whatever, um, so that you can help them be safe during these perilous times. I mean, to do this. Especially during the tumultuous time between the fires and California, the flooding all over the country. Uh, it's just, there's no reason to do this other than to inflict pain and harm, which is part of this administration's motto, right? Their mission, their their, uh, modus operandi. That is what they do. They inflict pain and torture, so. I need you to know that there's going to be more types of violence coming, whether it's physical violence, whether it's emotional violence, um, whether it's psychological violence. Uh, there's lots of different types of violence, but violence is the word of the day and is the order of this administration in any way, shape or form. So you have to stay abreast. You cannot tune out, you cannot turn off, you don't have to march in the streets, but you do have to pay attention and you have to make sure. Um, that you are staying abreast of all of the changes that are coming that will affect you and those you love. And those of us who have empathy, we may not know you, but we would like for you to be okay in these types of weather circumstances. So tune in next Thursday to another Need to know with Dr. NNsenga Burton. And of course you have to tune into another. The award-winning a Black Executive Perspective podcast with Tony Franklin, who was amazing. Um, and learn some more information that you need to know in order to help you have a better life. I will see you next week. Bye. Thank you.

A Black Executive Perspective.