So if our, I don't even know what our total gross domestic a hundred trillion or whatever it is, maybe it's more than that, but 17 percent is going to healthcare. When we've tried, oh, we, we, we, it makes no sense that this country supposed to be the greatest country on the planet cannot come up with a plan to have healthcare or their citizens. They always talk about immigration. They always talk about they're coming over here for socialism case may be, but we can't come up with a plan for healthcare and it's the 17 percent of our GDP.

The award winning a black executive perspective podcast presents pull up speak up more meaningful conversations drive progress and every voice makes a difference. So what's on the table for discussion today?

It's time to show up, speak up and get real. Welcome to pull up, speak up a new series podcast. Your safe space for raw. Unfiltered and honest discussions that people tend to shy away from. I'm your host, Tony Tidbit. So very excited to be here with you today. We have a fine panelist and dive into some deep issues, but before we get started, I want everyone to remember to check out our partners at CODE M Magazine, whose mission is to save the black family by first saving the black man, check them out at CODE M Magazine. com. That is CODE M. Magazine. com. So today our round table, we'll dive into several different types of topics. Number one, corporate values, clashing with political power, the rollback of DEI initiatives. The tragic assassination of a health care leader, birthright citizenship debate, and they're going to provide their bold predictions for 2025. So, let me introduce everyone to our fine roundtable, right? So, first, we're Les Frye, a dynamic leader and creative force known for her work in film, television and corporate America. Les Frye. Welcome to pull up speak up. Glad to be here. Always. That was awesome. Next is Lauren Burke, a strategic marketing leader and the founder and CEO of LJS advisory. Lauren Burke. Welcome to pull up speak up.

Thanks for having me.

I'm glad you're here And then rounding out and not that he's last because he's the man right is my good friend Wayne Edwards the experienced television production professional and distinguished professor at the University of New Haven Wayne Edwards, welcome to Pull Up Speak Up, my brother. Hey,

thanks, Tony. Looking forward to the conversation.

So great. Number one, I'm excited. We got a lot of stuff to talk about today. So first question, just so everybody knows you, I'd like to know a little bit about where you're currently living and a little bit about your family. We'll start with you first, Lauren.

I live in Fairfield, Connecticut, not far from where we're sitting right now. I live with my husband and my two young boys, ages eight and five. And as Tony, uh, so nicely mentioned, I, um, am founder of my own marketing consulting company called LJS advisory. Um, but I grew up in the digital advertising world, uh, with Tony actually.

Well, welcome. Very excited. Les Frye. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

So I'm originally from the Midwest, uh, Florissant, Missouri. I'm currently living in Newark, New Jersey. Um, I have six children. Uh, they are all four legged, uh, cats. And, uh, and I am the executive producer of Cliff Dive Productions, which is a production company that takes on all types of productions, streaming, podcasting, and now, uh, plays, Broadway plays. So very excited about that. Uh, I met Tony, as he said before, Tony and I worked in the corporate world through digital advertising. I'm still in digital advertising as a day job, and I'm just really happy to be here and have a great conversation, uh, Tony and I know we always, uh, debate, so this is going to be really good.

Now you're already giving them all the secrets, all right, that's all right, well, I'm glad you're here too, my friend. And then obviously Wayne, tell us a little bit about you, where are you living and tell us a little bit about your family.

So, yeah, I live in Southington, Connecticut with my wife and two kids. Uh, I have a daughter that's 17 and my son is 12. Right now, I'm a distinguished lecturer at the University of New Haven, teaching production, teaching journalism, also developed a course called Race, Gender, Class in the Media, and I'm also the owner of my own consulting company, Wayne Edwards Strategic Consulting, if I can get that out right, Wayne Edwards Strategic Consulting, in which I help small and large businesses grow and thrive. With their media.

It's awesome. Awesome. Well, number one, thank you for coming. The other question I have real quick before we dive into the topics, you guys are all busy. You got a lot, you know, you own a production company. You're this professor. You have your own marketing company. You guys have families. So the question I have for each with you, I'm going to start with you, Wayne, on this one. What inspired you to join the Pull Up Speak Up Roundtable to talk about these topics?

Well, it's about the topics, right? And these topics are, for lack of a better term, hard hitting topics. And we're at a time now in our society where it's kind of apprehensive to talk. about things that we're about to talk about because it may offend people. Right. So having that space, that civic space is refreshing. And I look forward to that. Awesome. Les,

you know, one of the reasons why I joined us, of course, you know, I love having conversation with you and getting into debates with you, but mostly for education. I just recently spoke to someone who is a Gen Z er. Um, and I felt like a lot of the education of the things that we're talking about diversity and inclusion. It's something that's not impressed upon them anymore. They're confronted with it now in the society that we're in, but they don't know the history behind it. So having conversations like this authentically, uh, speaking at it from a perspective who is actually of a person who's actually dealt with these type of, uh, the dichotomy of the, of the whole DNI space and working, I felt like this was really important for me to come here and have a very open and honest conversations. Um, and I'm going to be as candid as I possibly can. So, well, that

is great. Looking forward to chatting and debating.

And then Lauren, I'm here because I believe really strongly in what you're doing here with a black executive perspective, as well as pull up, speak up, because you are touching on topics that sort of bubble under the surface of society. And then they tend to kind of explode. Right. And I think the more that we can all feel comfortable talking about them collectively. The easier it will be just to like bent, right? So we don't have these big, you know, explosions for lack of a better word. So, um, I'm excited, you know, to be here and kind of articulating my thoughts and on some of these topics and, um, educating myself as well.

Well, that is great. And number one, I'm excited for you, all you guys to be here. So now, obviously our format is we are going to talk about a lot of topics that they, they're probably going to elicit a response, a disagreement, which is fine, although all that being said, we do have a, what we call our ground rule, but I'm going to go over the ground rules right now. And then after I go through them, I love to get a thumbs up from each person saying that you agree with the ground rules and we'll get started. All right. So number one, respect all voices, right? At the end of the day, it's a person, human being that you're seeing who's giving their opinion, listen to their opinion, it's okay. Listen actively, that's ground rule number two, right? Listen to understand, not to defend. Number three, no personal attacks. Alright, I know Lauren you just got finished saying, I'm glad we can talk about this so things don't bubble up. Yeah, true. So no personal attacks as a human being, right? Avoid interrupting, it will get passionate, but do your best part not to interrupt. You're the person 100 percent and then provide your feedback. Stay open minded. You walked into today's studio thinking a certain level of things about your beliefs, right? But there's an old saying, the mind is like an umbrella. It only works when it's open. So make sure you stay open minded and maybe we all can learn something from one another. Speak from your own experience. We all have our own lived experience just because this didn't happen to me. Doesn't mean that it didn't happen to somebody else. Stay on topic. We got a ton of stuff. So let's don't, you know, digress or go sideways. This point follow time limits limits. We can't have soliloquies stuff to that nature, right? Make sure you stay tight, say what you got to say, and then let somebody else challenge ideas, not people. All right, which is very important. You disagree with that idea, but you're not disagreeing in person. And then the last one, number 10, no buts, right? When we use the word, but we just erase what that person just said. I love you. But what you're basically saying, you don't love me. I see your point of view, Wayne, but what you're really saying, I don't see your point of view. All right. So no, but so I need to get a thumbs up from everybody that you agree with the ground rules. Okay. Now this is a safe space. So you guys ready to talk about it? Well, let's talk about it. All right. Let's talk about it. So let me start kick off here. Today is January 5th. Okay. I want you guys to rethink about this. Tomorrow is January six, four years to the day that supporters of Donald Trump attacked the U S Capitol and tried to halt the 2020 election. Tomorrow, four years to the day. Congress will usher in a new Trump era on Monday when it gathers the count of each state electoral votes and officially declare him the winner of last year's, was just a few months ago, presidential election. Well, I love to hear your thoughts. I'm gonna start with you, Lauren. What's your thoughts? Four years ago, we saw a bunch of people run into the Capitol, attack it, fight the Capitol Police. People died. Every person that saw it, no matter what political platform, you know, said this is abhorrent. This is terrible. He needs, he did this. Everybody spoke out about it, right? Four years later, He's being certified for the new president. What's your thoughts on that?

I mean, I'd like to say that I'm surprised, but, uh, not necessarily. Um, you know, I think with the Biden presidency, we were all hopeful, um, that, you know, things might move in a direction that we all felt a little bit more comfortable with, right. But then I think, you know, here we are and, um, you know, we have to deal with the reality. I think we all learned some lessons based on the, the election results. Um, That the country maybe wasn't as kind of progressive, maybe as we thought. Um, so I genuinely am, you know, surprised, but I am, you know, always hopeful that we are making moves, right. As a, as a country, as a society. Um, and you have to support our president.

Wayne, what's your thoughts?

Yeah, Tony, the first thing that I picked up on was middle America and looking at the electoral votes, right? Middle America is set in their ways, very set in their ways and more ways than one. Um, but it's a clear message that middle America is not ready for a female leader. Let alone a black female leader. So we look at the trends that's happening on social media, F around and find out these next four years, we're about to find out how this is going to unfold.

And Les, before I get your response, I just wanted, you know, Lauren, you know, said, Hey, she's not surprised. You know, uh, Wayne said, Hey, middle America, they're going to see exactly what they voted for. In other words, paraphrasing what you said. Um, but just in terms of four years ago, tomorrow, and you saw what happened, did you ever imagine that four years later he would be, he'll be going back to the same Congress and then re certified and then certifying. Him when they fought against it, right? There was election was stolen. He had a rally there. Okay. And then all these people stormed the capital capital. And to be fair, if some of the lawmakers was inside, they got out who knows what would have happened. So are you surprised that we are where we are today?

Not really. I feel like after the Obama administration and what went on, the antics that went on, uh, in the political arena there, we were in a decline, um, what I would consider to be the, the fabric of what we are, known for in politics here in America, the decorum of that has been in decline since then. So it doesn't surprise me that people got, you know, a pass to storm a Capitol, um, after so many years that it took us to be, you know, an established government. Um, and the respect of that office has been in decline. And I wanted to address what Wayne said. I don't feel that middle middle America is the culprit. Great. Here, I feel that it's just the mentality of America overall. There are a lot of men in this country that did not want to see a female, period. You know, it was, it was a double. Whammy that she was black, but they don't want to see that so they either did not vote or they decided to vote for Donald Trump because of his bombastic politics and the way that he said something, things, um, and despite the fact that what this man comes out of his mouth, they, they, you know, revere him because he speaks his mind. And that's what they see. They don't they don't see what his politics are. They don't see what his ethics are, but they admire the fact that he's able to speak his mind. And so this is why he was both voted in,

got it, got it, got it. Go ahead. Yeah,

the things that he does say very broad stroke,

right?

A kind of a theory that I have is, you know, you say these things, but do you actually know the details that are involved in it, right? A lot of people don't ask that question. You say you're gonna do this stuff. You say you're gonna have mass deportation. Oh, yeah, okay. The details involved in that, it's not gonna be as easy as you think. Right. So I just wanted to add on to that. Like they believe what they're, what he's saying, they

believe what he, they believe,

but you really need to look underneath the surface to see if that can really

look to what actually got accomplished during his four year term. I mean, these changes don't happen overnight, right? So is it going to be possible in another four year term?

Right. I mean, people are easily impressed by social media today, TikTok and Instagram and stuff like that. They don't care. It's just, if it shows a good production, And that's what he did.

Well, here's the thing, though. So, uh, unfortunately, or fortunately, depending if you voted for him, right? The bottom line is a lot of America voted for him. So we, uh, so, you know, and that's something I always, I'm still trying to wrap my head around and figure out. But it wasn't just, uh, the voters, um, that voted for Donald Trump that did a 180. Okay. At that same time, um, you had a lot of companies that, you know, basically ripped them a new one and said that they wouldn't back them. And, um, they were totally against them. Um, but let's, let's listen about how they flipped for years. Uh, from that, I mean, four years ago,

Toyota joining other major auto companies like Ford and General Motors and making 1 million donation to President Elect Trump's inaugural fund. Wall Street Journal framed this as saying that all the big business people from Silicon Valley to Wall Street and beyond our shores are coming to kiss the ring, bend the knee and cut the check. Toyota being the latest. Look at the list of companies though. You can see from Toyota, Ford, General Motors, but it's also Amazon, Meta, OpenAI, Uber, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America. The list goes on and on, many of them making million dollar or more donations. Why do you think that so many business folks are coming to try and curry favor really is what it looks like with President elect Trump? So to his question.

Why do you think these companies, unless I'll kick you off here, why do you think these companies did a one 80, um, in terms of now, as, as Walt, the wall street journal said there, they have come into favor curry and they're kissing the ring.

Um, we do live in a big business society. So big business champions big business. And I believe that probably what happened here is that they're getting some kind of a political payout as a result of that. Um, in a political payout I mean some, you know, dispensation of things that they needed. For the fiscal year coming, you know, um, let's say that they needed more production in India. You know, that's kind of funny saying that considering that he wants to be everything here in the United States, but they're getting something as a result of that. And that's what happens. I mean, unless you move into those worlds or you live in those worlds, you wouldn't understand why they all of a sudden kowtow and so called kiss the ring, right? It's big mafia business,

right? Right. So, so. I want to hear your thoughts on this, Lauren, but let's just, so four years ago, they said that they would never back somebody, their values, their moral value was higher than that. Right now they're not only they're backing them, they're kissing a ring, but they're putting money towards this inauguration. Okay. So what's your thoughts on that? Do you take what Les is saying that just big business or what else do you agree with that? Or is it something else as well?

I mean, I do think it is business at the end of the day. Um, but frankly, I think that companies are scared. He is a very vocal president. His policies are pretty radical. Um, especially on, you know, exporting goods to the U S from some of these countries where companies like Toyota are able to manufacture their products at scale, you know, inexpensively bringing that to the U S their profit margins are going to take a massive hit. Right. Um, You know, and preparing for the podcast, right? It is pretty common for companies to donate to, um, inaugural inauguration, right? Because these are lavish events, you know, part of me as a taxpayer, I'm like, great. Like, don't use my money to buy your Sean Don, like use, use the corporate dollar for that. But, um, You know, I think we're seeing unprecedented levels of donations for this inauguration, um, probably because they kind of want to, you know, hobnob with this guy who they're a little bit afraid of. And, um, you know, at the end of the day, companies do need to consider. How these actions impact, you know, all of their constituents, um, and kind of see the big picture in the longer term view, not just take the short, like view, the short term hit on the profits. Like, how is this going to impact your brand's perception with younger consumers? care about authenticity, who, you know, they buy from companies that they, that align with their values. Right. So I think, um, you know, companies need to look at the long game, uh, when it comes to these kinds of decisions.

Yeah. So, so Wayne, do you, so what I'm hearing is that. Fear is one of the major reasons that they're afraid this dude is uncouth he may attack them or from a dollar standpoint, you know, with tariffs and stuff to that nature. We use Toyota as Lauren Lauren said that, you know, they're so cars worldwide global probably do a lot of stuff in China. So these issues are the reason that they're flipping the 180. The question I have though, is that Did they sell the American people a bill of goods here? What is on other words? These, uh, at the end of the day, these companies words, their values that they say they belong to, right? We, you watch a commercial, or you go to Lulu Lemon. When you go to any place and they tell you about how they're this and that and this and that. Were they selling the American people a bill of goods when it came that they really wasn't going to back president Trump at that time and moving forward.

I mean, Tony, I, I mean, I don't see businesses come coming out, no matter who the president is coming out and saying whether they back this or back that or not. Um, but I do want to just touch upon what Lauren was talking about before, in which this isn't new that companies donate to inaugurations, right? And this is the part where I'm talking about where you got to go beneath the surface on things, right? And Fox is very interesting. They always. Catch my attention with the words that they use, right? Uh, quote unquote has framed this. The wall street journal has framed this as well. It's not kiss to the, well,

you see who's doing the framing, right? But

here's some facts to throw you away. Okay. Bank of America and Uber. They've also donated to Biden. On his inauguration. Here's

the thing though. Just again, I want to hear your facts. Yeah. But here's the thing though.

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They didn't say. Four years earlier that they wasn't going to do nothing with bod, right? That's the difference. I get it. That is always been something where you got Facebook, Washington post, you had a bunch of companies that said that they wasn't going to do matter of fact, if you even look at the list, some of those companies didn't before they did it before with other presidents, but they didn't do it. The year that Trump got elected right now, all of a sudden they're, they're switching. Hold on less. I want him to finish this thought, but I just wanted to add that color to that.

Right, right. Well, listen, money, right? Money is your biggest value, right? And to get that money, you need to market to your, you need to market to an audience. Right now, if this audience now is saying. That this is the guy that we want, then I got to make my money.

I mean, I think seeing all the red on the map, right? Yeah. On election day was probably a little scary.

So that was a wake up call. Yeah. I think

they're like, I, I didn't see this coming. Damn. Yeah.

Maybe them values. Wasn't okay. What's your thoughts?

My thoughts are this as an age old practice of all of these companies supporting other, you know, political, um, uh, political people, you know, Obama, the, that administration or anybody else previously like that, why all of a sudden now decide to drop that information to everyone. This is strategic. It was Fox strategy to basically unveil the fact that this stuff has been going on, but the way that they presented it. Made it sound as if everyone was running to kowtow to This has been going on forever. Just to

be fair though the Fox This was an article written in a Wall Street Journal and then they

even even whilst even Wall Street Journal has They know also they know also that this is this is politics by play. This is how they've always done it They decide it right now. This is why you have to be very Um, perceptive and wise about media today, this practice has been going on forever. We are a, we are a country that is run by big business. Let's, let's get this

clear here. Unless, I'm sorry to interrupt, but. The president elects set the donation values,

donation values. Exactly. So now here you are, you know, as Lauren said, a lot of people play into, you know, the political arena because they want their name to be out there. I mean, it's the way that we all rub shoulders with one another. And so now they're like, all of these companies are doing that. But here's the important caveat here. Black people are the biggest consumers. The LGBTQ communities are the biggest consumers of a lot of these products. They have to consider this. Because we have such strong buying power that even though now this has been out there, this is detrimental to some of these companies to be exposed this way if that person or this individual, this group of people is not aware of how this media is being produced to them and how they're listening to all this stuff. Usually we don't care. But now you're revealing all of this, but I just saw something recently where black people are now boycotting a business because they're like, don't buy it. All we have to do is write it on social media and no longer we're not buying that product. And now they're going to have to now they're going to have to look at it from that perspective and say, okay, these are the biggest consumers of our product. Uh, if it was a Nike or, uh, let's say Target right now. Target, who did not fall, um, to, to this concept of, uh, of obeying politics as it is. They're fighting against that because they're biggest people right now. They just, um, they just have, um, uh, they just introduced, um, clothing line by black businesses. They're like, uh, we're not doing that. And what's happening? Everybody's going to buy target. They're leaving Walmart, who championed, you know, Donald Trump, and they're now going to target. And we have the power to do that. So this is just, this is just basically how politics is played in the media.

Well, and, and so to that point though, and, and Lauren talked about fear and stuff to that nature. Is, are, will there be, and you're saying that Target and black, uh, Americans are starting to push back. Will they, will there be a pushback, right? Well, people will start boycotting Meta or Amazon, Toyota, or some of these kinds, or is it like, yeah, they'll do that for the first month or two and then they change their mind. I

mean, I think it depends because if you look at the whole Amazon situation, so I think Bezos was anti Trump in the past. Trump was anti Amazon and also anti Washington post. And now he's done a one 80 Bezos as well. Right. And I think Amazon made a hefty donation, but it's like, you'd be hard pressed to find like people that are like, I can't do prime anymore. You know what I mean? Like that's I'm saying it's wrapped around the world. It's so central to how we buy nowadays that that would be a really big decision. Well, when

it comes to meta though, there is really no option. Let's say that it is Toyota. I'll just go buy a Hyundai. You know, there are other options for me, but with meta, it is what it is. I mean, social media,

no young folks are on Facebook anymore anyway. So, so, but, but Instagram and WhatsApp are still scamming. Um, anyway, a couple of things, right? Look beneath the surface, right? Amazon, you know, according to my notes, Obama's administration in 2013, Amazon was a contributor. To the inauguration, right?

I'm giving

the fact that I'm giving the point that don't think that these companies just do it to just one political person or political party. They're in it for the business. So that, and then plus, if you really want the list a few months after a couple of months after this inauguration, they have to file Trump's folks have to file with the federal election commission. And so you'll know who exactly donated to that inauguration.

Got it. Well, listen, so that's one thing, right? But four years ago, also we had the pandemic and we also had the, the murder of George Floyd. And when the murder of George Floyd happened, a lot of these companies said, Hey, We need to do something to make sure that, uh, we diversify our ranks, right? We finally see that what people of color have gone through. And then, so you had a whole number of initiatives that came out, which basically D E I now D E I has been around for years, but it really, Came to the forefront after the George Floyd, uh, murder. And then, so at the same time, you had a lot of companies jump in and say, we're going to do this. We're going to do that. We don't believe we believe in diversity. They did all different types of diversity trainings. They brought on a role in their organization called the DEI, uh, C, uh, C suite person, right? And so at the end of the day, all these things happen, but now four years later. Let's hear about how those things are changing.

I mean, let's not pretend that that corporate America doesn't have a problem with race, doesn't have a problem with diversity. They do, but I think the color they care the most about is green. And so the first thing that happened with DEI was you had the George Floyd protest. You had a lot of pressure, both nationally and internationally for companies to really commit to doing something about what was happening with race and racism. And now you have the blowback from that. That always happens. Uh, we see it historically that whenever there are advances, uh, where race and, and other matters of diversity of concern, there always blow back. And so they're looking at the money. That's all they care about.

So as you guys heard, You know, our esteemed colleagues said, Hey, they're looking at the money, right? He talked about how, Hey, they were a hundred percent in, but there's always, and we've seen this in history. There's always been a blow back when stuff has been, I don't want to say catered, but when things have come up to try to even the playing field, it goes for a little bit. And then all of a sudden there's pushback. Let me hear your thoughts on this less. So DEI now, four years ago, same thing, January 6th, four years ago. All right. And then now four years later, everybody's trying to eradicate it. Right. It's the worst thing on the planet. All right. And so I love to hear your thoughts as, as our friend on CNN just talked about. Now you got blow back and companies care more about money than anything else.

Honestly, I feel like a lot of the blow back is because we are such a country of extremes. We don't have a middle ground here, here. So when George Floyd happened, everybody was running to champion the situation, but it became to people who were not. Um, let's cook and not identify that that it was a method of cramming it down our throats. It was so overt. Uh, it was just too much at 1 time. And so now you're seeing people like, hey, we need to pull it back. We need to pull this back. You know, even if our country was investing in us being educated at this time. What corporate America did was they would, they, they built these little silos of diversity and inclusion so that we could talk about these things more. But then they also put people that were not of color over that conversation. Um, and then. Every five seconds, you're getting something about, you know, D and I, this D and I, that I mean, even me as a black person, I was like, okay, this is a little just too much. Um, we don't need to discuss this portion of it. You know, be a little bit responsible about the discussion here. So I feel like this is what has happened. I've actually had leaders tell me that they're okay with pulling back D and I, because they just think it's too much. It's they're done with it. Most people are like, okay, we're done with this now. Are we, can we move on? You know, it happened. And so can we move on? And quite honestly, we only see it as something that is necessary when something tragic happens. It is not a conversation that is being had every day, either subtle, subtly or whatever. So that we're talking about or educating people. We're just getting bombarded with a lot of DNI stuff, but no educational responsibility attached to it.

So Lauren, what's your thoughts on that? Because I'm hearing what I'm hearing is now when, when this first happened, it was about evening, evening the playing field. Okay. It seemed like a lot of companies were unprepared to do that and these were just stop gaps that they put in place to appease people. Lauren?

Yeah. I mean, I think George Floyd's death was the catalyst to a lot of changes, you know, generally for the positive as it pertains to DE& I. I think there were kind of two, two groups of companies, the ones that always cared about it to some degree, right? They had. You know, maybe internal groups and certain roles around it. And then there's sort of the more copycat companies that were like, Oh, Oh, everyone's talking about this now. I like, I better, I better do the same. Right. And I'm, and I'm sure the intentions were positive. Right. So I think what we're seeing now is probably that group number two, those companies that maybe they weren't all in to begin with, they're kind of pairing it back because they're not seeing the ROI quote unquote. But, um, I have strong opinions on ROI measurement as a marketing person, right? I think there's a lot of ways that you can measure the impact and it's not necessarily just dollars and cents, right? Like. You know, you can measure consumer sentiment. You can look at your audience breakdown, right? Have you attracted more Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers? Um, you know, again, people that are tend to care more about these type of issues. So, um, you know, I would challenge executives that are pairing back on these initiatives, like, You know, to, to think about the general kind of good, right. The, the good, not only the impact as pertains to dollars and cents, but the good karma that you're generating, right. That will impact you in the long run.

Right. Well, you know, one of the things that the, uh, CNN comment commentator spoke about, he said, blow back. Right now, at the end of the day, the companies didn't, there was no blow back from the company that initiated, initiated. Their program, the blow back came from the employees who felt that the, uh, the diverse, the people of color employees were getting, uh, preferential treatment. Okay. What about me? You haven't done anything for me. Right? And so one of the things when he said blow back, let's back up a little bit because I want to make sure we're clear. Okay. In 1962, 63, 64. All right, is when affirmative action was initiated. Lyndon Johnson said, Hey, listen, it makes sense for a group of people. You want to make even the playing field. You they've been behind for 300 years, right? So at the end of the day, the only way things can be equal is by instituting certain programs so that you can bring them up. They can have fair opportunities, not to give them anything for free, right? Just fair opportunities, right? What happened? If you look at the history, uh, immediately, immediately, it was attacked. Okay, immediately. All right. And then, so then there was a blowback and then for years they were trying to get rid of it. Okay. And then, uh, last year, Supreme Court struck it down for school admissions. All right. So is this note is the D. I. Attack. Is that no different than affirmative action? Because that's what our CNN commentator was saying. There's always been blow back in history shows that Wayne, what's your thoughts on that?

Anytime there's change that benefits the quote unquote minority of people, there's always gonna be a blow back. which is unfortunate. Uh, I'm happy to say that I am a professor at a university that is very diverse, um, not only in race, but also in gender, uh, as well. Um, cramming, cramming of DEI. I just wanted to go back to what was mentioned before. Yeah, and I look at the course that I teach at the university, race, gender, class, and the media. I specifically said I do not want this to be a requirement. It should be an elective that if you want to learn about it, here is your choice to learn about it. And I think, and it's my opinion, that the blowback that we get is for people who are like, why are we forcing this? I have a friend that works, uh, in Washington, um, as law enforcement. And that was, that was a big complaint of his. I was like, and I was like, I was like, listen, that's valid. That, that is your experience, right? They're trying to force you to learn something in which maybe you're setting your ways. But at least start by the choice, give people the choice,

right? Les, final word on this.

I wanted to actually address that too. I think that it would probably be a lot more received, received well, if we weren't indoctrinated in a type of history that we're taught. If true history was taught, then everybody would be getting Everybody would be saying, I'm in for it, right? Because then they'll

say, Oh, I understand.

Yeah, I understand. But because Uh, our history and even now the politics of today is getting rid of books, specific books that tell about that history. These are things that we're going to always fight because America has never dealt with the past 400 years. We would not be in this situation. If it wasn't for them actually addressing the atrocities of this country initially, not to mention, you know, it took LBJ and it took Martin Luther King to say, this is a problem for us. We will always be at a disadvantage as black people here. I'm sorry, but this is the, this is the case. We don't know anything about historical wealth or our generational wealth. We don't know about that. We were never put at an advantage, no matter how many jobs you give us. You know, what percentage of us go into college or whatever we have never dealt with that. And we've been lied to about how we were going to be able to be put on an equal playing field of the white people of this country. So, what I'm saying is. A lot of this is a form of indoctrination where people are saying, well, I've learned it this way and this is how I'm going to learn it. And they're feeling like all of a sudden now you're cramming all this history down their throat. They don't want to hear it because now they're feeling guilty about it. You know, um, which they shouldn't. We, we call that, you know, the white privilege burden. And basically, the thing is that we need to start at a playing field where we're being honest in this country about what happened here, and then giving clear advantages to people of color and people that have come in under this influence of racial tension here, giving them that advantage so that they can be on equal playing ground as everybody else. Right? Understand that when we succeed here in this country of anybody that has come from a diverse background here is because we had to work extra hard. Even when we get enrolled in a college, we know that we're going for a percentage. I stated this to you recently. I was an NFL cheerleader and I, we would have, uh, auditions every year. 500, 600 girls would come in there and I was vying for four spots. So understand that this is something that I had to face. So I had to make myself extra good.

There's no question

extra stand out.

I, so some might, may not know my mother is from Cuba. So I have, you know, half Latina, half immigrant. And, you know, it was sort of right into me as a child, like, you're going to have to work harder, right? And like, you don't have a silver spoon, and that's okay, you know?

Here's the thing though, is that, back to your point about the, uh, not learning history. A lot of white people don't believe that. They believe that black people don't work hard. They believe that black people, they've given stuff to black people. They, you know, I've seen a clip that says if I see a black pilot, I hate to say this, I hope he's qualified. Okay, so these are the things that people don't believe that because they don't know the history, right? They look at their own life and then they don't back to our one of our ground rules about lived experience They don't want to learn about other people's lived. I worked hard. We privilege. What are you talking about? I came from nothing and blah blah blah blah blah Right. And then so then how could you, how could I have privilege over you when I lived in a trailer and I didn't come up with anything and we had to fight our way up, blah, blah, blah. Right? And to be fair, that person's story is true, right? All right. It doesn't erase, it comes down to race and experience. It doesn't erase their experience. You did have to jump over a hoop. You did come with nothing, but that doesn't mean that you still don't have a privilege.

Wayne, go ahead. The foundation of all that is, is through the class that I teach. And you get that through media, right? How do you get the point where I didn't see no black pilot before, right? Because we don't, we don't normally see it on the surface when it comes to media, right? And so then those biases start to formulate, and then those biases germinate, and those biases carry through generations. And it takes mere generations just to try to erase that. of what it actually is.

When we talk about generations though, you know, one of the things, um, you know, you talked about college, we talked about affirmative action. Um, we discussed how last year it was struck down from a, uh, uh, a minister, uh, a mission standpoint at colleges. Numbers now show that, um, Uh, that people of color, the numbers have decreased substantially, okay, from a mission standpoint. But this is the one thing that nobody talks about. I was just reading

a headline from the New York Times today about a lawsuit against a bunch of elite schools, Georgetown, Penn, and MIT. And guess what the preferences are? For people whose mommies and daddies have a lot of money. And they just got a ticket into the school. I just don't get, where's the outrage about that? That's been going on in this country for hundreds of years. Where's the outrage? Why are we only focused on race when this is affirmative action?

And we're going to go to the new

Haven green and we're going to fight. I'm outraged. Just hearing that. So, so, so, so think about that for a second, struck down affirmative action from an admission standpoint. Because it's unfair that people of color are, are, are looked at first in terms of going into university, but for centuries, century alum, but white alum has been able to get their kids in who dominate from a mission standpoint. But that's okay. Where is the out? Like she said, like Abby Phillips said, where is the outrage to that? Let me hear

your

thoughts.

The legacy admission is there, uh, as you mentioned. Um, not to mention that this whole case was brought about, not, wasn't by, by white students, but by Asian students. And now if I'm not mistaken, uh, I need to, I need to check it, but those part of that number is part of the decline. The numbers of Asian students has declined any shade, any shade is declined.

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Once again, it comes down to educating people that come here and how media portrays these kind of things. Because if that Asian student was educated on the fact that the only reason why he is being admitted is because of the civil rights movement, and because of all of the things, the affirmative action, then maybe he would be a little bit more tolerant of seeing that. He himself, from what I understand, wasn't doing very well in school. So this is why he decided to use this as a case model for why you

think when you think that somebody pitted him to do That I don't think he just came up off his nose. It was

a perfect opportunity Opportunity for conservatives to jump onto it. Yeah,

somebody told him to do I don't think he might have been

coached to say that, but you know, here's the thing, how we are portrayed, uh, you know, uh, to the community, um, how we are pitted against each other racially is something that has always been the case here in this country. And so, you know, um, I just watched an article, I watched a, um, A clip the other day where an Asian gentleman who is an educator was talking about the fact that if we united, uh, as people of color, what, what could we do in this country because unified is the fact that we share the same type of issues. We are still trying to struggle against. A community that doesn't want us to succeed, and what it has done is this against each other to say that you are a model minority. As an Asian person, and so you're better than the black people or the Hispanic people of this country, when in all reality, it was black people that fought for you to have those rights. And it was black people who are always going to be in the same position as you are in when the day is ended, because now I don't see that many Asian faces and leadership. You know, I don't see many of you there, so you have to look at this and you have to say, don't listen to the, the, the, the media or what this country is saying about the racial situation here in America. Look for at yourself, look, open your eyes and see. You know, know your own history as an Asian individual here about how you were treated when you came over here,

right? You know, you know right now we're in a um, I can't we have a lot of issues. Okay, you know You know, we talked about the inauguration. We talked about the rollback of DEI But there's so many things that's going on right now that we're struggling with right And one of them has to do with healthcare.

In Florida, a woman has been charged with threatening her health insurance provider during a phone conversation that took place on Tuesday. She allegedly uttered the same words that police say were found on the bullet casings used in Thompson's killing. Delay, deny, and possibly depose.

So, as you guys know, you know, a few weeks ago, um, Brian Thompson, who's the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was assassinated in New York City going to a conference. Thanks And since that time frame, there's been a ton of when we talk about blowback, right? A ton of blowback against the healthcare, uh, industry. To the point where there's people who don't even have empathy. But Brian Thompson and his family and his kids, because they feel that he ran an organization that actually ended up killing a lot of people because they denied a lot of health claims. So as you hear in this clip, you know, a woman's in, uh, uh, and, and, uh, last week is basically threatening somebody and then use the same words that the, the perpetrator, uh, the, the words that supposedly he put on the bullets denied the polls and whatever the case may be. So just real quick, Lauren, what's your thoughts on somebody being murdered? And at the same time, understanding that the, the company that he was leading. Um, was in an industry that is deplorable. Let's be fair. Let's call it like what it is. Right. However, at the same time, what's your thoughts on the, the citizens now, uh, saying that the murderer, Louie, Luigi, whatever his last name, Luigi Mangione, Luigi Mangione, all right, is a hero.

So I think people are outraged. Right. And I think. You know, we have maybe spoken out over the last years a little bit more about certain issues that have played the country for years, you know, the whole George Floyd situation among others. Right? So people are outraged about a lot of things. Um, I think, you know, Luigi just took it to an extreme. That's, you know, frankly, not acceptable, right? Um, you know, it is an atrocity taking a life of somebody. Um, but I do think that it's an example of. People just being, you know, increasingly frustrated with corporate America and kind of the fabric of our society being for profit, for profit, for profit, right? So I think there's a lot of, uh, there's many ways that he could have handled it that didn't involve murder, and he probably should have pursued those avenues. And I hope that people that do feel as outraged as him realize that there are resources available to work through some of this stuff, right? But I hope that The action did bring to, you know, somebody's attention over there and health, health care, corporate America. That's something has to change.

Yeah. Yeah. So I don't think that's really, uh, happened thus far. Um, when you talk about something has to change, I think our leaders right now. Are still kicking the can down the road.

So in this op ed that witty wrote, uh, He said we know the health care system doesn't work as well as it should we understand people's frustrations with it Our mission is to help make it work better. What is being done?

Well, you know, this is really on policy makers Um, there's been this fight over years about whether to address coverage or whether to address address cost how to address costs Republicans mostly want more price transparency Democrats want Mostly more coverage. Neither side has really been willing to do what it takes to bring costs down. And every time they try to, the people who make money off the healthcare industry, which is now 17 percent of the nation's GDP, all yell and scream and complain. Um, so nothing really has been, has happened for many years now.

And nor will it change. I mean, Wall Street Journal's reporting that UnitedHealthcare revenue through September It was record breaking just under 300 billion of revenue. So the, as long as you're raking in that kind of money, things are going to change.

But do you think seeing, you know, appear right. The leaders of some of these companies seeing that happened to appear like, it's scary, you know what I mean? Right. So if it were me and I'm not a healthcare CEO, I would want to know what's happening at the lower levels, the lower echelons of the company, right? Like. I, I don't know that anyone is actually taking that action after this, but so

his job though, and the CEO's job is to make money,

right? They don't care. I

mean, let's just be fair here, right? At the end of the day, his job is to make money. Whoever's leading the company. So they're going to cut. They're going to do whatever they need to do because they got shareholders. That they need to, they need to answer to me when they make money, when they make money for the shareholders, they make money. That's why their, their packages are dividends, 20 million. So you have a chicken and egg thing here in an industry, which. And I hope you guys didn't miss the big number here, which is 17 percent of our gross domestic. So think about the, so if our, I don't even know what our total gross to me, a hundred trillion or whatever it is, maybe it's more than that, but 17 percent is going to healthcare. When we've tried over, we've, we, it makes no sense that this country supposed to be the greatest country on the planet. Can not come up with a plan to have health care for their citizens. They always talk about immigration. They always talk about they're coming over here to take this, whatever the case may be, but we can't come up with a plan for health care and it's the 17 percent of our GDP? Les, immediate thoughts.

So I'm going to, you know, I appreciate my, my, you know, co hosts, their opinion about all this, but I'm going to kind of, as somebody who worked in the health care system, I'm going to kind of explain it here. We will never get rid of this healthcare system because we are afraid of socialized medicine. We are afraid of, we are afraid of these kinds of things that would bring healthcare to everybody. This business of 17 percent of our GDP is never going to end. And so this is why you're going to always find this fighting. And as far as the case of, hold on, before you go

to Luigi, I just want to ask you a question, right? You just got finished saying that we'll never get rid of it.

Nope.

Right? And because of socialized medicine. Right? Because people don't want, they don't want, but hold on let me ask you this question then I'll let you finish. Right? You just got finished talking about both of you guys got finished talking about, um, history. People don't know, they don't know our history, don't know anything, right? When it comes to socialism, what do people know? Except what people have put in their minds. Exactly. In terms of what socialism is. And these people have never been out of the state lines. Yes. Alright, but somebody's telling them that you don't want socialism. The other countries are horrible, right? But here in the U. S. Which makes no sense, but I got to say, it's one thing to so and and and and the thing about it is. For a lot of, we have socialism, socialistic programs, social security, that's socialism, Medicare, that's socialism. If I told somebody right now that we would get rid of, uh, social security, but so they'll be like, Oh, you can't do that. I just had

this conversation with someone a couple of weeks

ago, but my point is they don't know what socialism is. And so you're pushing back and saying that we can't have. Uh, free health care because of socialism, but they don't have an idea of what that is. Go

ahead. I'm sorry, I was going to say, I think people kind of equate socialism with communism. That's exactly what it is. But they're not the same. They're not

the same. They're not the same. So as someone who's traveled outside of this country, I've seen socialized medicine work in Europe, in Mexico. Flat out. Canada. Yes. And it is not the same thing. People are taken care of. And no matter what you hear on this side of the, of the, of the ocean, the thing is that it is working there. And people are taken care of. They're taken care of when they're in their old age. They're, they're, you know, they don't have to worry about it. Now, yes. You do have to stand on a line to keep me seen, but isn't that what we do now? Because I'm waiting three or four months to see a doctor now. I try to get an eye

doctor appointment. All right. I can't go see him. I called the other day. I can't go see him to March 12th. All right. So it happens. It happens. I did live in

Europe for a time and there are certain, like, there are a lot of pluses to it and everyone has it. Right? So it's there. There are definitely drawbacks, right? Like, I think I was like, Oh, I need to get a checkup. I haven't had a checkup in a year. And they're like, you're calling me. Why do you know what I mean? There's, there's nothing wrong with you. No, you don't need to come to the doctor. Right. So I feel like the preventative care that we have in our system is a positive. Right. But the fact that people can't afford basic, basic health care is a huge. Problem.

Yeah, my sister who is a nurse practitioner told me that a gentleman who had an arterial and Thrombosis in his leg and he lives in a very rural community of Arkansas had to go all the way to Mississippi to get treated And this is what I'm talking about. As long as you can afford health care, then you're fine. And we all are privileged to have health care, thank God. But the problem is that this is who it's supposed to support. And policies can be written in where, where socialized medicine is concerned that you have a yearly checkup. These are all things that can be policy. A place put in place for policy.

Correct. You can do all that. You can do all of that.

So the thing is, because we're not taught about that. And because most Americans don't Americans don't travel outside of the United States to see how the other half lives that we're listening to this to the trash. That we're receiving from the media companies, and this is what's happening. Hold

on a second. It's not just the media companies. All right. Well, it's just everything is big business. You just the bottom line. They don't want you to want that because then it takes money out of their pocket. But that's where the information comes

in. The information that you are seeing is via media. It be it advertising or whatever. That is what you're seeing. You know, somebody can be a talking head in politics or, you know, the congressional floor talking about it. Yeah. But the thing is, it's what you are seeing and what you are consuming. You know, when you see something like we have the best healthcare policy here, you know, do this, all these wonderful heartfelt commercials that you're seeing are also that you will buy into this image of why it is so good to pay into an insurance company. Um, I wanted to address also the idea of Luigi Mangione killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare and I'm sorry, I'm not, you know, I'm maybe not supposed to say that word. I am a huge, uh, it might sound like I'm crazy, but I believe that you need to look deeper. Uh, at the risk of saying I'm a conspiracy theorist, I think it's very strange that this young man, the way that he looks, the way that he was captured, I mean, there are people that have done atrocities to anyone. We haven't even found these people. So why is it was so easy to find this person? This is such a wag the dog thing right now. You know, you have to look and say, what are we looking at? Um, and the news and what are is being hidden while we're looking at this. So,

so just so I'm clear here, I just wanna make sure I'm clear what I'm hearing. Is that, did somebody put him up to do this? Oh, absolutely. He looks too good. So he's a, he's an Oswald. He's a, he's a Patsy.

Listen, listen, and they're getting really good at it too. Cause some of these guys are, are a certain look, you know, like what foolish man would pull down his mask to talk to somebody? Y'all come on. I couldn't have written a better script here. You know, my writing skills are much better. Possible.

I got a lot of thoughts on. I mean, listen, there's some sometimes, all right, here's an example. The Ethan crumbly kid. Remember Mr. Member crumbly. Yeah. Michigan, right. Michigan shot parents. Right. When the media ran that story, what were the pictures that we saw of Ethan? My man praying, innocent looking, right. Until someone re and it was years ago until the media finally started showing pictures. Of this guy as a high schooler totally changed, right? So it could be anybody, right? Luigi, Luigi is an anomaly because it's, it's a person that you don't expect,

but that's a commitment to crime. That's my point. That's my point. There has not been any history of this guy and he comes out of nowhere. Same with the person that shot at Trump. No history. No decline in his family structure, things that would promote the image of this person that we're seeing. So what does that tell

us about our society now? What does that say? Like, I don't know, it's just an arbitrary question out there, right? Secret cell

individuals, because I can guarantee you that, uh, I don't hear about him being put in a modern prison. Like, where did he go? Where is he incarcerated right now? He's

in, he's in New York in which one of the news outlets were stationed or outside of the prison and the prison had the station on. In the prison and they would ask questions. The reporter is like, is Luigi being treated? Well, you can hear the crowd, you can hear the prison in the background answering those questions, which I thought was very strange, but that that's neither here nor there. Yeah. He's

not in modern population. I can guarantee

he would be, uh, yeah, he has to be sequestered. He would be in a dangerous situation. I just feel it's a very strange you all. So what, what I think is strange though, and we talked about history earlier, right? And one of the things that Trump got elected on was immigration. And then obviously he spoke about immigration, uh, over the last couple of weeks. And one of the things that he's talking about doing is getting rid of the birthright citizenship, um, um, uh, act, which is part of the 14th amendment. Okay. Which going back to what you said earlier is people can promise things, but can he actually do it? But on that net. Um, one of the things that people have been talking about because of you, you know, most people don't even know what the 14th amendment is. They don't know anything about the birthright citizenship and all the things that come with the 14th amendment. So let's, as we move forward, let's play this last clip or this last segment. The 14th amendment

officially becomes a part of the constitution.

If you are born here, you are born with all of the liberties. And the protections of us citizenship that overturns the Dred Scott decision, which said that black people could not be citizens no matter where they were born, even though they've been here for generations.

So as we, as I stated earlier, most people don't know anything about the 14th amendment. It was, it was enacted in 1868. Okay. And one of the main reasons I think it was John Bonham, who, who was the Congressman that was the writer of the law. Of the amendment. One of the main reasons that, uh, it was enacted is because you had four million black slave people who are now free, who could not be citizens. Matter of fact, you just heard in the clip when he talked about the Dred Scott decision, Dred Scott was a slave. Okay, who sued the United States and said that he should be free. Okay. And it went all the way to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court struck it down and said, he's not a citizen. So these rights that under the Constitution doesn't apply to him because he's not a citizen. Thus, that's where the 14th Amendment came out of. To ensure that people who are born here, Our citizens of the United States, so long question. I want to ask you real quickly based on Trump saying he's going to get rid of it because he feels, uh, the people who are coming over our border, they're manipulating the laws by having babies here, and then they automatically become citizenship. So we eliminate that. Then this way, we ain't got to worry about them being here. We don't have to worry about separating their families. We can just send them back and then we could be done with them. What's your thoughts on that?

I mean, I think it's totally on brand for him. I think it makes his, you know, his supporters, like, really amped up because it's like a concrete action that he can supposedly take against immigration. Now, to what you're saying very early on, I don't think that this is gonna be easy for him to accomplish. Right? So I don't know that we'll see this one actually happen. But, you know, just the thought of it, I think, is really, you know, It's unfair, right? Like you're, you're, you're punishing these kids potentially, um, for an action that their parents took, you know, trying to give them a better, better life. Right. Um, you know, I think there are a lot of. Averse implications to it.

Got it. Wayne. Yeah, you got to look deeper. You got to look deep into this, right? So the 14th amendment born here I mean I am on ancestry. com my friends trying to find another country so that my kids if I know that we have a Connection with another country they can play for that national team in soccer But anyway besides the point but in a more serious thing We need to we need to look at the common sense about what he is saying what donald is saying You need to ratify an amendment First of all, right. And that's three fourths of the state that you need to do that with. Um, the 14th amendment is also talking about his, first of all, let me go back his campaign. Any baby born would need to have at least one parent be a citizen or lawful permanent resident Okay, that's what his campaign is saying Uh for that then I looked at the 14th amendment and I see the word natural lot,

right?

And I think here's where he may have a little bit of wiggle room here You need to be 18. You need to be lawful permanent resident for five years If you're married three years, you need to read write speak basic english You Asterix there, right? You need to understand U. S. history and government. Now listen, if you're going to quiz part of this nation of citizens, how many are going to pass that?

Here's the thing though.

But let me just say one more thing. Good moral character, right? To be naturalized. As a citizen,

this is not happening, folks. Yeah, so number one, it's not happening. It ain't gonna happen. That's why it's an amendment. Right. Okay? If this was like a regular law or something, you can overturn law. Right. Okay? It's an amendment. Right. Okay? So you can't just overturn it. You can't just overturn it. I know you read the description, but think about it for a second. Somebody's born and they got to take a history test. Okay. At two months old. That makes no sense.

Well, no, but it's, it's 18 to be natural. It's part of the criteria when

you're born, if you're born, you're born, you're a US citizen. Yeah. Okay. So, so that's a naturalized citizen. You were born here though. That, that part where you would read,

you're a citizen,

you're a citizen, you're not naturalized, but

you're a citizen.

Part of you're talking about is if you want to come and request to be a citizen, correct. You have to do jump through these hoops, correct. But if you're born here, you're a citizen, you're a citizen. Okay. So, so he can't get over that. All right. That that's in the 14th amendment, but again, This is things that his people want to hear. Okay. To appease them, even if it doesn't get done. Okay. But it's a way again, separating and dividing people based on us versus them. Les, let me hear your thoughts.

I just want to address Wayne saying that he wants to see on ancestry because right now, uh, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, it's giving you a dual passport to get the heck out of America right now. So you might want to check into that. Um, Yeah, they are basically heavily promoting for us to return back to Africa. So, um, I agree with you. Uh, this is pandering to his constituents. Um, it is not going to happen, especially since his family benefited from this, uh, as Scottish immigrants. Uh, he's going to have a hard sell there. Um, yeah, he's been pandering a lot. And I think that a lot of his, you know, His constituency are getting, uh, you know, this new phrase right now, the leopard eating their faces, um, because they're finding out that he did all of that to get into office. But this is what this man does. This man is a showboat. If y'all really wanted to know who this man was, you should have asked a New Yorker. So, let me tell you, this is something that he does all the time. He, he sensationalizes everything, he gets to where he wants to go, and then he does a complete takeover. And he only promotes people because they are loyal to him. You know, You, the masses out there, you're loyal in getting him his votes, but he's basically going to do whatever he wants to do once he's in office, and he's going to have a hard time trying to promote this or to get this overturned within the United States.

His media partners will most likely find a way to frame something. Of why he can't. Yeah. Oh, yeah, exactly. That's just my exactly. They're going to write. Yeah, they're going to write a narrative to say, Oh, he tried, but he wasn't able to do it because, because, you know, through my observation, that base is not as educated in that area to look for themselves about this information. They'll take that as the face value. and run with it, which is which is unfortunate. I gotta be nice. So, so as

taking face, taking things at face value, I want to hear you guys's predictions for 2025 at face value. So what do you think? We're about to inaugurate a new president. Um, we have health care issues. There's always going to be, you know, I had somebody in New Orleans, you know, unfortunately ride down and murder, you know, 15 people in the name of Allah. Um, so there's always going to be a lot of turbulence here in the United States. So I love less. I'm going to start with you. What's your predictions for 2025? Keep it tight.

I would say you all, uh, prepare yourself in the green room with your makeup and everything like that because you are basically going to be a part of a Donald Trump documentary that's going to come out similar to, um, his TV shows that he often does. Uh, this is going to be a show you all for four years. And I think you need to gear yourself up for a lot of us are so fearful what's going to happen, but I'm telling you all, y'all are going to get a good show season two season two. Okay,

Wayne, um, some of the priorities that Donald has mentioned that he wanted to take care of in the first 100 days. I really don't see that happening. And only because. There's only one Republican vote is the difference between things happening. And if you rub some of the, we've already seen a bit of the infighting and kind of the turbulence within the party. Um, I don't see a lot of that stuff happening, especially with, when it comes to H1B visas, things of that, that's one example of that, in which you're not going to get all of your Republican backers with that, um, on a more, so for the other side of the party, the Democratic Party, I do see a leader emerging, it's going to have to happen, it needs to happen, um, especially while the infighting is still continuing in the Republican Party, um, And then on a more depressing note, I do fear that we are going to be seeing more politically motivated violence in this country. And that's sad,

Lauren.

Yeah. So, um, I do think that to talk about something non Donald Trump, well, related, so it's related, right. Um, the rise of AI, uh, with companies, I think, um, the valuation of chip making company, NVIDIA this year, like absolutely skyrocketing. You see big tech companies cozying up to Trump. Um, right. I think there will be new policies around that. I think certain industries may be deregulated, um, that weren't in the past. So, you know, hopefully there will lead to innovation, positive innovation, right? That impacts you and me, not only in our jobs, but maybe in our personal lives as well. Um, and maybe Elon Musk somewhere. In politics officially, officially,

I love those predictions. Those are great. So final thoughts, final thoughts. I want to get a quick final thought from each and each of you guys. So let's I'll start with you.

My final thought is that I don't feel like we need to have fear motivate us, uh, in this next political arena. Um, I do feel that the Democratic Party, when they are bringing in a contender, that it is somebody that is not basically battling the antics of Donald Trump, but basically coming in with some real policies of change. Um, and that's where we're going to succeed in our next election. Uh,

yeah. So I, you know, I think it does feel like we have taken a step back in a lot of ways, but I want to encourage everybody to. You know, don't ignore the small progress that we, we make year over year. Right. So while companies may be paring back DNI initiatives, we are seeing more diverse. Diversity in the C suite, right? And that's something that benefits everyone. Um, so I would say, um, acknowledge the small changes and, you know, we're all in it for the long haul. Like, let's, let's keep, let's keep going at it and see what we can accomplish.

And then you have the final word, Wayne.

Thanks, Tony. Um, listen, as a, as a professor in media, I implore people to what I call dig deeper. And that is when you, when you see and you hear information, take it upon yourself. To dig deeper and research it, research the facts. We do, we do an exercise in class called clear the fog. And that is when you see or read something, you're going to, you're going to extract the facts. You're going to extract the opinions and you're going to extract the generalizations in a story so that you are better equipped to make your own decision on whether a story that's being presented to you Is right or wrong in your, in your opinion. So dig deeper.

I love that fog facts, opinion, generalization, clear it out. I love it, buddy. And when more importantly, I love you guys for coming on, pull up, speak up, provide your perspectives. I really appreciate you guys have busy schedules. So thank you for joining. Stay right there because you guys are going to help us with our call to action. So I think it's now time for Tony's tidbit. And the tidbit today, building a better world starts with asking tough questions and boldly pursuing the right answers. Even when it invites criticism or discomfort. And you heard a lot of that throughout this episode, especially what our final thoughts from my panelists. And so we want to remind you that don't forget to check out this week's episode of need to know with Dr. Nsenga Burton on a black executive perspective podcast. Dr. Burton dives into all the timely and crucial topics shape our community and world. You don't want to miss it. You want to stay on top of these things. And more importantly, like Wayne was saying, you definitely want to clear the fog. So definitely check her out every Thursday on a black executive perspective podcast. You don't want to miss it. So now it's time for the BEP's call to action. Our goal is to eliminate all forms of discrimination. Right. And for us to do that, we have a call to action called less L E S S. And our panel is going to help us and help you help us go through less Lauren, kick us off.

The L stands for learn, educate yourself on racial and cultural nuances. Nobody knows it all, right? Um, and there are a lot of things, frankly, we haven't learned, uh, growing up. So I encourage everyone to kind of question everything and, uh, not make decisions based on fear, but based on facts.

The E is for empathy, and that's be open to understanding diverse views. When we learn about other people's experience, it combats bias. So be open minded.

The S stands for share. Share your insights to enlighten others. Don't be afraid to share. You might have a perception that someone else doesn't see, an insight that somebody else doesn't see. And by giving that perspective, you enlighten that other

person. Thank you lesson. The final S stands for stop. You want to stop discrimination as it walks in your path. So if you're at auntie Jenny's house for Sunday dinner and auntie Jenny says something that's inappropriate, you say auntie Jenny, we don't believe that. We don't say that. And you stop it right there. So if everyone can incorporate less L E S S will build a more fair, more understanding world. And more importantly, we'll all see the change that we want to see because less will become more. So again, we appreciate you tuning in another episode of a black executive perspective podcast. You can follow subscribe to our podcast on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. And you can follow us on our socials of LinkedIn X, YouTube, Instagram, Tik TOK, and Facebook at a black exec or our fabulous round table. The man, the man down here at the University of New Haven, Wayne Edwards, the legendary Les Fry and my girl with the LGS hat on, Lauren Furman. Thank you for participating. We talked about it. We learned about it. We even fought about it. But guess what? We still love you and we're out.

A Black Executive Perspective.