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. Thank you for tuning into need to know with Dr. Nsenga Burton. I am your host, Nsenga Burton. Today, we're going to be talking about Janet Jackson, Ms. Jackson, if you're nasty, uh, who has been in the middle of a firestorm of criticism because during an interview with the Guardian publication, When asked about our current vice president, Kamala Harris, his historic run for the White House, she said, or repeated some misinformation. I would call it disinformation, but misinformation has been circulating about vice president Kamala Harris. And that is that her father is white, which we all know is incorrect. He is Jamaican and there are white Jamaicans. He's just not 1 of them. And so. She has been caught up in a firestorm. Uh, 1 of her colleagues, he was not authorized to make a statement on her behalf, but he made a statement probably trying to save what is probably going to be a lot of money gone or lost for a show that he's executive producing for her in Vegas made a statement. That was a mistake. She had received misinformation. Didn't mean to make the comment and. You know, for all intents and purposes, you know, it was a mea culpa. Well, um, Miss Jackson and team, and she's managed by her brother, Randy, uh, refuted that they made the apology and then fired said person, colleague, uh, for making the statement because they weren't authorized to do so. So, of course, now there's even more hysteria and foolishness surrounding what is a very singularly. Terrible event in one's life. So some people, including her friends, like whoopi Goldberg have been like, just give her grace. Others have been like, Oh, she's been living in London for the last eight years and all of these things. So I wanted to talk about it from a professional perspective because Janet Jackson is an industry. She's an icon. She's a business. And, you know, whether she's lived in London for 8 years, whether she's a Jehovah's witness, practicing or non practicing or whatever, all that she's raised as a Jehovah's witness, whether or not she's bereaved because her older brother Tito passed away last week. None of that is acceptable in terms of the statement that she made and it is misinformation and she should just simply apologize. Sometimes as leaders, particularly in our corporations and in our workplaces, we make mistakes. You know, um, and in the same way that we have to apologize, people have to be able, or we willing to receive them, but we make mistakes. We do things that we shouldn't do sometimes say things that we shouldn't say we misspeak. Sometimes you have incorrect information. Sometimes you don't know the whole story and you're speaking from a point of authority and you misrepresent someone's intentions. Or their contribution, sometimes we overlook people's contributions because we're not sure, or we're not aware of the extent to which they have contributed to a project or to something that turned into something fabulous. And so you're thinking 1 person or 2 people, and it's really 8 people behind it. You know, these things happen, but in this case, it's more significant because Miss Jackson is an icon. She is a legend and she is a role model. And she is an industry and she part of her image has always been, uh, someone who is accessible, you know, someone who, um, is, you know, taking control of her life, right? She's empowered, even with the Super Bowl debacle. Um, she recovered from that. It took a long time, but she recovered from that. And people empathize with her because, you know, we believed it was a mistake. And even if it wasn't a mistake, it did not warrant the kind of backlash that she got from it. And, you know, the. The, uh, attacks and, um, really the labeling and the hate, you know, from, uh, the former CBS president, Les Moonves, who, you know, worked for years to keep her out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So, you know, we understand that Miss Jackson has been through things, you know, she's a woman. She's African American woman. She's an icon and a star. But there are certain things that you have to know as the leader and as the leader of a group of people, she is the leader of corporation. She has many, many people on her team. She does many, many different types of things. You know, she's an entertainer and she's supposed to have a Vegas residency that I would say is probably in jeopardy. Although it's Vegas. So, you know, you know, whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but you know, some things that could be in jeopardy for her based on this one mishap. Um, so I would say, stop with the excuses. You know, she's lived in California most of her life and Kamala Harris has been making history, uh, in California her entire life. So she should actually know who Kamala Harris is and know enough about her. To know that she is a black identified woman, you know, she's biracial multiracial. Many people are sometimes people refer themselves as biracial and multiracial. Other times people choose 1 of the categories. Right? But that's up to them. We all have the right to identify. However, we want to identify and to present ourselves in the way that we want to. So, Kamala Harris has chosen to identify as a black woman. For most of her life, you know, she's never denied her Indian heritage. She's never denied her mother. If you've read any of her books, she has to, you should read them. Um, you know, that she's very proud of her Indian heritage. So, um, that doesn't mean that she doesn't that she isn't black. That just means that she is multiracial, like most people in the United States. So, um, yeah, I say to miss Jackson, um, you know, you should know that it doesn't matter. And not only to miss Jackson, but to everybody, it doesn't matter what your religious practices are. You don't have to vote, you know, as part of your religious practice, but you really should know who your representatives are in your own state. You should know who's running for president, and you should know something about them, even if it's not your candidate, you know, um. You know, even if you're not voting for Kamala Harris, you should know who she is, like, legitimately, you know, if you're not voting for Donald Trump, you should know who he is legitimately if you're going to be silly enough to not participate in the voting process. That's that's your decision. That's your prerogative. But you should know who the candidates are, what their platforms are as a business leader as someone who pays other people has someone who other people look up to. You should at least have the basic information and being part of a religion. Not living in California for the last eight years. Um, and, you know, somebody telling you, which I mean, Janice older than me, somebody told me the wrong information is not good enough. That's not going to get it. So, this leads me to the final point, which is integrity. Integrity is knowing the difference between what is right and wrong. And choosing what is right, most of the time, and if you choose something, choose to do the wrong thing, you know, intentionally or inadvertently accidentally, it's apologizing and meaning it and try not to do it again. That is called integrity. And so I think the backlash has nothing to do necessarily with her having being misinformed. I mean, we live in a world of misinformation and disinformation. It is our norm, but it's the unwillingness to have integrity and to say, listen, I made a mistake. I shouldn't have said that I shouldn't have said it because I didn't know what I was talking about. And I understand that that has hurt a lot of people who love me and I don't want to do that. So I apologize. I will do better. Right? That's integrity. I will do better. I will not do it again. And I look forward to repairing my image and being the person that you have known me to be most of my career. That is not hard to do at all at all. So, the fact that that has not happened. Uh, since, you know, this debacle, uh, means that it is going to affect her, uh, bottom line, uh, wholesale. It's just going to affect your bottom line. Like, that's just what it is. So my advice and my need to know today is to try to stay away again. We already had this episode from this information and disinformation. Try to stay away. And if you do say something that you didn't intend to say, if you do pass on misinformation, if you do make a mistake, just have the integrity and the decency to admit that you made a mistake and to say that you will try to do better and not do it again and then actually do that. That's it. So thank you for joining me today on a black executive perspective podcast. Join me next week and I wish you a wonderful day. Stay focused, stay informed and definitely have some integrity. Like remember, integrity is number one when it comes to being a decent human being. All right. Have a great day.

A black executive perspective.