0:03

Hey, this is DeRay and welcome to Boss Day with the People. In this

0:06

episode, it's me, Miles, Kaya, and D.R.

0:08

talking about the news that you don't know with regard

0:10

to race, justice, and equity from the past

0:12

week. The news that went underreported but is

0:15

still really important. We talk about the

0:17

recent racist attack in Jacksonville.

0:20

We talk about healthcare negligence, so much stuff

0:22

I didn't even know about. And we talk

0:24

about Texas's ongoing violence against

0:27

trans youth. We will be dark

0:29

next week, but more interviews are

0:31

coming for you in September. Let's

0:33

go!

0:40

Family, welcome to another episode

0:42

of Pods Save the People. I am D.R.

0:45

Ballinger. You can find me on Instagram

0:46

at D.R. Ballinger. My name is Miles E. Johnson.

0:49

You can find me on Instagram, Twitter,

0:52

and TikTok at Pharoah Rapture.

0:54

I'm Kaya Henderson at HendersonKaya

0:57

on Twitter. This

0:59

is DeRay at D.R. A.Y. on Twitter. Well

1:03

we want to dig into the shooting that happened in Jacksonville,

1:06

but before we do, we're

1:08

going to have our favorite sports expert

1:11

on the pod lead us through a celebration

1:16

of Black excellence via

1:20

all kinds of sports because,

1:23

you know, Kaya, I

1:25

mean... So the

1:28

simple fact that I am the Black sports

1:30

expert, the sports expert on

1:32

this podcast is laughable

1:35

at best, but this was

1:37

an amazing weekend in Black

1:40

sports-ishness, Black

1:42

excellence, Black all the things. You

1:45

had the World Track and Field

1:47

Championships. I'm not even going to be able to... I need to

1:49

Google ESPN and see what the official

1:52

thing is, but I'm going to tell you the Kaya Henderson

1:53

version of the thing. At the World

1:55

Track and Field Championships,

1:59

first of all, the American... just

2:01

killed it, Noah Lyle, Shikari Richardson.

2:03

First of all, Shikari, right? Like a

2:06

year ago, people were, you know,

2:08

writing her off completely. She had

2:11

the tested positive for marijuana,

2:13

which she was taking to self-medicate after

2:16

losing her mom and people

2:18

called her all kinds of things and

2:20

you know, whatever, whatever. And that

2:23

young lady came through

2:25

blazing. She won in

2:27

the 100s. She won and she

2:29

like set a whole new world record, I think, or something. I

2:31

might be making that up, but whatever it was, she

2:33

did the whole entire thing, the relay,

2:36

like the Americans, American women

2:38

dominated and sent the

2:41

Jamaicans on their heels.

2:43

But the camaraderie between these women

2:45

was just a beautiful thing to behold.

2:48

Then you had Noah Lyle's and all of the other

2:50

black men on the

2:53

men's team whose names I don't know, but they're

2:55

spectacular too. And they want

2:57

Noah won the 100 to 200. They

2:59

won the relay. Like it was

3:02

blackness, black excellence, black sports

3:04

excellence. Oh, and then Simone

3:06

Biles, who is back after a

3:08

two year mental health hiatus and

3:11

a recent wedding and looking all

3:13

amazing and whatnot after battling

3:15

the twisties and whenever the last go

3:17

round was two years ago

3:18

is back better than ever. Won

3:21

all around at whatever that

3:23

thing was that I watched all last night. And

3:26

in fact, on that podium, number

3:29

one and number two were black women,

3:31

Simone Wiles. And I think the other lady's

3:33

name is Jordan somebody. Somebody is actually the

3:35

look this up a friend, but I didn't know I

3:37

was gonna be the sports expert. And so

3:39

it was a black girl, a black girl and an Asian

3:42

girl who were like the top three. And

3:45

of course people recognize

3:48

our sports prowess, but I think that

3:50

what this sort

3:51

of reminds people, what

3:53

these this generation of athletes

3:56

who are prioritizing mental health, who

3:58

are having different conversations. about

4:00

what it means to be an elite athlete, I think

4:03

is pushing us all to appreciate

4:05

them in a completely different way. The

4:07

examples that these people are setting

4:10

for folks about how to run their own

4:12

careers, how to do their own things, how

4:15

to do this thing, how to do this thing

4:17

on their own terms is exhilarating.

4:20

And the best thing that I saw was,

4:23

they were talking to Shikari and they were like, you know, do

4:26

you think that it's like that people are now

4:29

finally putting some

4:29

respect on your name? And she was like,

4:32

the most important thing is I put some respect

4:34

on my name. I came to be better,

4:36

do better, and that's all that's important.

4:39

And I thought that was fantastic.

4:40

I always love this

4:42

news because I don't know, I love

4:46

moments of black excellent and achievement, but

4:48

especially in this category of running has

4:50

always been my, the most fascinating

4:53

one with me as to my who just does not care about sports

4:56

that the tennis and the running conversations

4:59

are always interesting because of, you know,

5:01

I think a little too much, but because of black

5:03

people's relationship with running, I remember when

5:06

I used to

5:07

teach a few years ago, I

5:12

remember I used to like make like little prompts, like,

5:14

you know, old school prompts. And

5:16

one of the prompts I made was what do

5:19

you, I remember just one of the, talking

5:21

about Flojo and blah, blah, blah, and

5:23

one of the prompts were, what do you think that black

5:25

winners who win are thinking about to motivate them

5:27

to run? Do you think they're

5:29

thinking about their favorite songs? Do you think they're thinking about their

5:31

fears? And what do you think that's what's going through their minds when

5:34

they're running? Or I think I just said

5:36

runners in general, and I always think about that. And

5:38

I think when I think about black women, I

5:41

wonder what is going

5:43

through their minds and what they're telling

5:45

themselves to push through. Are

5:49

they metabolizing fears that they might have that

5:52

make them run faster? Are they thinking

5:54

about goals and dreams? I don't know. Something

5:57

so

5:58

amazing about looking at it. that those

6:01

women just fly with their

6:04

feet, like little black

6:07

Apollo's. I've

6:12

been reading Greek mythology.

6:15

I love it, black Apollo's,

6:17

yes. I

6:21

will say, what was really cool

6:23

is something that we all have

6:26

known growing up raised and loved by black

6:28

people is that we always

6:30

have each other and we always know

6:32

that you don't always see it though. Like that's

6:35

not what gets represented. And with

6:37

this track moment, you saw women in

6:41

heated competition hug afterwards and

6:43

take selfies. If, I don't know

6:46

if you saw the way those men were there

6:48

when the women's relay ended and like

6:51

jumped on Shikari, Shikari

6:53

closed it, but it was a team effort. Shikari

6:55

was just, she closed it. They toppled

6:58

her over with the flag. They're all jumping

7:00

up and hugging her. And like Shikari

7:02

is just on it when they ask her like,

7:05

what's up? She's like,

7:07

now everybody wants to talk about the fact that we friends,

7:09

but before people wanted to talk

7:12

about it. Like she just has

7:14

it

7:15

in terms of like her own growth. And I will say,

7:17

I was one of the people that before it was like Shikari,

7:20

it was clear that she got swept in the moment and it happens

7:22

to the best of us, right? It was like, she

7:24

went from, we had never heard of her outside. Like

7:26

the people on track knew her, but we didn't know her. And

7:28

then she's at the SPs and the da da da da.

7:31

She's like going all the blogs. And

7:33

then the marijuana thing happens. People turn

7:35

on her. She starts losing races and

7:38

da da da. And I'm so happy

7:40

that she processed what happened. It's like,

7:42

yeah, Shikari, if you do this

7:44

for those people, you will

7:45

never, like they will love you today, hate

7:47

you tomorrow. That's the way the game goes. And

7:49

it has been cool to see her like

7:52

understand and get it. And that one race, I don't know if

7:54

you saw it, she came out of the far

7:57

lane. And what

7:58

a day. You're like, come on, girl. She did.

8:00

The Americans are back in track

8:02

and field. It was spectacular. And

8:05

I think the one comment I will make

8:09

and that I love about Shikari is how she

8:12

always pushes back against

8:14

reporters. And keep in mind, this is the same child

8:16

who learned of her mother's death through a reporter. So

8:20

I think even in the characterizations of

8:22

her, whether it's flamboyant

8:25

or she scolds reporters, she's

8:27

really just telling the truth oftentimes.

8:31

Say my name correctly. Or,

8:35

yes, I'm running this race for the respect of others,

8:37

but really it starts with myself. And so I

8:39

just find it interesting how sports is

8:41

still one place where reporters,

8:44

white reporters, can talk as crazy,

8:47

as wildly as they want. And

8:50

there's been no collective

8:53

accountability around it. Just thinking of what

8:56

Serena and Venus have been asked. Thinking about

8:59

what happens in press conferences,

9:01

even with some NBA players. So

9:04

I will say, I think what is still shocking

9:06

around all of this, and even as I'm writing, even

9:10

as I'm reading

9:10

what's written about Shikari

9:13

is still very much from the perspective

9:15

of just otherizing her in

9:17

a way that she wins despite

9:20

her character, essentially. To

9:23

that point, did you see that moment where

9:25

she bypassed all the traditional

9:28

media, the mainstream media, and only went to

9:30

the Black reporters DR, and pissed

9:32

off everybody? They were hot.

9:36

And she did it with class. She was just like, no, no. And

9:40

he was like, yes, right? Because they did her

9:42

dirty. They did her dirty.

9:46

And the Black Excellence

9:48

in Sports continues because tonight

9:50

starts the US Open, baby. Oh,

9:53

Coco Gough is on the scene.

9:56

She about to kill it tonight coming off

9:58

of a city open win here in Washington. Tennessee

10:00

that jerk was hot. Francis Tiafoe,

10:03

if you don't know him, Google him, that dude is a

10:05

beast. And Chris

10:07

Eubanks, who in Wimbledon,

10:10

like came out of nowhere, nobody was expecting

10:12

him, made it to the quarterfinals. He didn't

10:14

win, but now he's ranked 28th and

10:17

he's coming to the US Open for the first time,

10:20

seated in the Grand Slam. And

10:22

yeah, it's gonna be a little

10:25

bit more black sports magic this

10:27

week.

10:29

I'm not even a sports freak

10:31

like that. I can't believe y'all got me out here being

10:33

a sports person. I will say that

10:36

the only thing I'll say,

10:38

kind of follow up on Simone, is what I love about Simone

10:40

is that Simone took a break cause she got the twisties

10:44

and got married, like did her

10:46

thing.

10:47

And what I love about her coming back and winning

10:49

is that she is just such a great example that you

10:51

can do your best and take care of yourself. And

10:54

she just is a living example of that. She

10:57

came back and performed as

10:59

well as she has ever done. She

11:02

is the most decorated

11:04

world champion gymnast of any

11:07

gender ever in America.

11:09

I mean, come on! And

11:12

she took a break cause she needed to take care

11:14

of herself and like, I love

11:16

it.

11:17

Hey, you're listening to Pod Save The People.

11:19

Stay tuned, there's more to come. And

11:25

then

11:25

y'all on a heavier note, you know, we

11:32

do want to talk about the shooting in Jacksonville.

11:34

Three

11:35

black folks were killed at

11:38

a dollar general and

11:41

this white man with

11:43

swastikas evidently all over his AK, I

11:45

think it was, or AR-15, first

11:50

attempted to go to an HBU, Edward

11:52

Waters

11:53

University. He

11:55

wasn't able to get

11:57

in thanks to the security guards there and then...

12:00

turned his sights towards this Dollar General store

12:02

where he caught some folks coming

12:05

out. You know, there's

12:07

been a lot happening in Florida in particular.

12:10

I think the thing that I'm

12:13

working on processing and finding

12:15

language around is, you

12:18

know, I

12:23

guess it just, it baffles me how someone

12:25

like Aron DeSantis who showed

12:27

up at a vigil to

12:30

a vigil to remember and

12:32

recognize the victims and their Angela

12:34

Michelle Carr, Analt Joseph Le

12:36

Guerre and Heral Deshaun

12:39

Gallon, ages 52, 19 and 29.

12:41

So

12:44

he shows up at this vigil and he's

12:46

booed once he gets there. But it's

12:48

just for me such a disconnect around

12:51

the hate that he is constantly cultivating,

12:55

perpetuating and institutionalizing

12:58

in the state and then not understanding

13:01

how this incident

13:03

is part of that ecosystem. So

13:06

DeSantis gets

13:07

there at this vigil. He talks about how he's going

13:09

to increase spending to protect

13:11

HBCUs. Again, a huge

13:13

disconnect between, you

13:16

know, the perpetuation, the psychology

13:19

of hate with these, you

13:22

know, sort of quick fixes

13:24

that really don't address a systemic issue. But

13:26

this was definitely a hard one in, you know,

13:29

thinking of the victims and their families. I'm

13:31

absolutely enraged

13:33

that he even had

13:35

the gall or

13:37

whatever you have to call that to show

13:40

foot at those people's individuals. And

13:43

because he was been, and the thing about it is

13:45

not all evil in white supremacy is

13:48

bad.

13:50

We're in the clown era

13:52

of white supremacy. So it's

13:54

even worse because you're a buffoon

13:57

and you're doing things like a reality television

13:59

star because that is your gold marker

14:01

and you go and you act like a clown on

14:05

stage and you don't even have any piece of decorum

14:07

going on, going on with you on stage. And then you

14:09

come to this very serious visual

14:12

event that happened because you helped

14:14

it happen and you helped motivate it and normalize

14:16

it and helped and helped make it seem

14:19

like there is a huge war

14:21

of race happening to these

14:24

white men and they must go out and do something. Then

14:26

you have nerve to step your

14:28

clown shoes

14:29

in this very serious event. I think it's

14:32

so disrespectful. I think it's so,

14:34

so, so, so, so disrespectful. I can't

14:36

really remember. There's been

14:38

racist clowns before and always,

14:41

but I can't remember Ann Coulter

14:44

doing something like that. I can't remember

14:46

certain people who

14:48

were the clowns of my

14:50

teenage years crossing

14:53

that line and going where your

14:55

words actually caused death, going

14:57

where you helped

15:00

facilitate terror through your

15:02

words and actions. And this is all my opinion

15:04

and allegedly and blah, blah, blah. And

15:07

I'm theorizing, but it's

15:09

for me as a thinker, it's so

15:11

hard not to connect DeSantis

15:14

with that shooting. And it's imperative

15:17

that people start taking the internet seriously. The

15:20

Incel community, the Manosphere community is real.

15:25

I talk about it when it comes to black people

15:27

and comes to black men because it's real

15:30

and growing with black men and it's extremely

15:32

real for white men. And they are on

15:34

the internet

15:35

preparing and discussing

15:40

these events. And just

15:43

the last thing that I'll say, they're on these chat

15:45

rooms, most of them are these chat rooms and they see the

15:48

fact that they have not done an event like

15:50

this, the white men who have not done an event

15:52

like this, they see that

15:54

as a personal failure. So they

15:56

have reorganized their lives. So

16:01

One day they see having

16:04

the courage to do a shooting like this as a goal, essentially.

16:07

So they see their not

16:09

have done it as a failure and

16:11

they see the people who have done it as these heroes. And

16:13

that is a culture that's happening, that's a discussion that's happening.

16:15

It's scary. I've seen

16:18

the page,

16:19

the dark web screenshots

16:22

and all this other stuff. It's a whole culture where

16:24

it's like, oh, this is our goal. Not this job,

16:26

not this wife.

16:28

For

16:31

us to be a soldier in this fight to make America

16:34

white again. And it's just disgusting that DeSantis

16:36

has helped to create propaganda for that community

16:39

and stepped foot on those people's vigils.

16:43

First of all,

16:45

I can't imagine, I was

16:47

watching some video

16:49

of the shooting. This lady was sitting in her

16:52

car minding her business in the parking

16:54

lot of the dollar store. And

16:57

the dude just walked up on her and shot her through the windshield

16:59

like,

17:00

just living every

17:03

day being black, we talk about it all the time,

17:05

right? Is

17:07

perilous in these times.

17:10

One of the things that they pointed out is

17:12

that the killer got his guns legally

17:14

and we cannot separate

17:17

the whole gun rights

17:21

and

17:22

our permissiveness around guns

17:25

from these terrorists. They're not

17:27

selling weapons for personal protection.

17:31

And we've talked about this on the pod before

17:33

there, you know, they have military grade weapons

17:35

that you don't need if you hunt and then

17:38

just defending your

17:39

little house. These people are strapping up for the race war. And,

17:42

and, you know, I think it's interesting that

17:44

the police are trying to get the guns

17:47

out of the car. And they're trying to get the guns

17:49

out of the car.

17:51

And they're trying to get the guns out of the

17:53

car. And, you

17:55

know, I think it's interesting to watch

17:58

how DeSantis has been.

17:59

has sort of figured in this.

18:02

I think history, this is my prediction.

18:05

I think history is going to

18:06

see Ron DeSantis as one of

18:09

an incredibly tragic figure because while

18:11

he is enabling a lot of this white

18:15

supremacist stuff

18:18

to happen, I actually feel like we're

18:20

watching him spiral. He

18:23

can't get traction

18:23

with voters in Iowa.

18:27

His poll numbers are dropping precipitously.

18:30

There's all of this stuff. And so I think that's going to be an interesting

18:34

character profile to watch.

18:36

But what is most sort

18:38

of galling to me is like, we're not

18:40

treating this like it is an epidemic and

18:43

it is an epidemic. It's an epidemic

18:45

of young white men who

18:48

have access to a ton of

18:51

hate information and hate

18:53

communication

18:53

and who act on

18:56

it. And you can tell that it's going to happen. You

18:58

know who is going to do it. And

19:01

we're talking about

19:03

Pittsburgh and we're talking about Buffalo.

19:06

We're also talking about Charleston. We're talking about

19:09

lots of this stuff. And the

19:11

psychologists have told us we can see when it's

19:13

coming. We know who it's going to be. And

19:16

we refuse to treat it like

19:18

the scourge that it is because the victims

19:20

are people of color

19:21

or Jewish people or

19:24

LGBTQ people or Muslims

19:26

or non-white people. And

19:28

I think that that is, I think I

19:30

was reading somewhere that the federal government

19:33

came out with a study maybe two years ago talking

19:35

about how epic,

19:38

how this is one of our America's greatest threats.

19:41

And we're like, yeah,

19:42

no, a few bad apples. And

19:44

that to

19:45

me is the most problematic

19:47

part of this. The

19:51

only thing I'll add is reminding that T'Challa's

19:53

point is

19:56

that while they are gearing up and

19:58

ready and Tamal's point,

19:59

about this is like part of their

20:02

identity as white men, for

20:06

sure, is to engage in this way. They

20:09

want the attention. So

20:11

the

20:13

newspaper's reported that he left his

20:15

parents' house around 1139,

20:17

headed to Jacksonville. At 118,

20:22

he texted his father to

20:24

ask him to check his computer. The

20:26

government had written several manifestos

20:29

that were racist, and in

20:31

between 118

20:33

and the time when his parents

20:36

called the sheriff's office, they did

20:38

not call until 153.

20:42

That 35 minutes was a big time. It

20:44

was in that time that he

20:47

committed murder and

20:49

suicide. And it's like, he

20:53

even tipped people off and his parents didn't take

20:55

it serious enough to call the police. And I just say that

20:57

as a reminder that like, there

21:00

are often times when people can intervene. They

21:03

just gotta step up. And this was not

21:05

one of those times that happened. And like you said, Kai, sitting

21:07

in a car, you know? And thank God

21:09

for the security guard at the HBCU, who was

21:11

like, hey, you gotta get off campus. Like this ain't

21:13

it right now, who did

21:16

likely save lives.

21:18

My news this week comes

21:20

out of California, where

21:22

a company called Flannery Associates

21:25

has purchased $800 million worth of agricultural and

21:31

empty land in Solano

21:33

County. Solano County is about 60 miles

21:36

northeast of San Francisco. They've

21:38

bought this land, Flannery Associates, bought

21:41

this land from farmers at several

21:43

times more than its market value

21:45

over the past five years. And

21:48

they are now the biggest landowners

21:50

in Solano County. Solano County has

21:52

about 120,000 residents. It

21:56

contains the Travis Air Force Base. It

21:59

contains the Air Force Base.

21:59

Heiser Bush Brewery and

22:02

the Jelly Belly Jellybean Factory.

22:05

And the plan is

22:07

to build a new city

22:09

with tens of thousands of new homes,

22:12

a large solar energy farm, orchards

22:15

with over a million new trees, and

22:18

over 10,000 acres of new

22:20

parks and open spaces.

22:23

And all of that sounds very interesting,

22:25

but what was most interesting to me is

22:27

that for the last five years Flannery

22:30

Associates has been purchasing this

22:32

land and nobody knew who they

22:34

were

22:35

until recently. And it

22:37

turns out that

22:40

there are humongous

22:44

backers of Flannery Associates

22:47

or investors in Flannery Associates,

22:49

and they are the Silicon Valley elite.

22:53

So this whole thing is being spearheaded

22:55

by a guy named Jan

22:57

Sremmik, who

22:59

is a 36 year old

23:01

former Goldman Sachs investor.

23:04

And he has taken

23:06

this $800 million from

23:08

a bunch of people

23:11

to build this new metropolis. They

23:13

include Michael Moritz, who is a billionaire

23:16

venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.

23:19

Reid Hoffman, who is the co-founder

23:22

of LinkedIn. He's a venture capitalist

23:25

and a democratic donor. Mark

23:27

Andresen and Chris Dixon, who

23:30

are investors at the Andresen

23:32

Horowitz Venture Capital Firm. Patrick

23:35

and John Collison, the sibling co-founders

23:38

of Stripe, the payments company. Larim

23:41

Howell Jobs,

23:43

who is the founder of the Emerson Collective and Steve

23:45

Jobs' ex-wife. And Nat

23:47

Friedman and Daniel Gross, who are entrepreneurs,

23:50

turned investors. So

23:53

this is all happening and they

23:56

say that this new metropolis will

23:58

relieve some of the Silicon Valley.

23:59

Silicon Valley pressures like rising home

24:02

prices and homelessness and

24:04

congestion. And that

24:06

all sounds wonderful. Let's build us a

24:09

whole new city

24:09

with park space and

24:12

housing and all of the things.

24:15

And I have to pray to the sweet

24:17

baby Jesus to help

24:20

me be gracious and

24:22

to recognize that people do have

24:24

altruistic motivations.

24:28

But I find it really hard to believe that

24:30

a whole bunch of super-duper

24:32

rich people in Silicon

24:34

Valley have spent $800 million to

24:39

build a

24:41

new city that's gonna be

24:43

for regular people. See,

24:45

when I think about this, I think about the people

24:48

who are trying to make Mars work. I'm thinking

24:50

about the people who are trying to find a place

24:53

to go when the world falls apart

24:55

because of climate change or the race war or

24:57

the droughts in California or whatever,

25:00

whatever. And so this is why I need you saints

25:02

to pray for me because I cannot

25:05

help but think about ulterior motivations even

25:11

in how they are moving in the world, right?

25:14

You buy up $800 million worth of, first

25:17

of all, what black 36 year old do

25:20

you think could get $800 million to

25:22

hatch a plan to build a new metropolis?

25:25

None, but Jan

25:27

is doing something. And I just,

25:30

I really deeply wonder who

25:32

this is for, who

25:34

it will serve, how

25:37

it will help humanity and how

25:39

it will not

25:39

be a bubble

25:41

for the rich in Silicon Valley

25:43

to go when the rest of the world starts

25:46

falling apart. And I'm sure that none of you

25:48

have ever thought anything like that. And that's

25:50

why I'm coming to the pod to say, help

25:53

a sister out. Cause I've been

25:55

black and American for far

25:57

too long to think anything but conspiracy.

26:00

So tell me if you think something different. I

26:02

do not think something different. I

26:06

cannot do that to you, Auntie Kaya. No, but

26:09

when I first heard about the story, this gave

26:11

me Jetsons. I remember the

26:14

idea that everybody lived in the air, and there's no

26:16

Black people in Jetsons, so the theory is

26:19

all the Black people were below

26:21

still living on the earth, where that

26:24

was ruined so much so that

26:26

the affluent people had to live in the air. And

26:29

there's so many stories, and

26:31

I, you know, smoke so much

26:33

legal marijuana to like remember super

26:36

details about Otobi Butler and

26:38

Ardolani's arcs,

26:41

but there's a lot of arcs in Black science

26:43

fiction. And even when I read

26:46

Bradbury, I forgot the name of the story, but he

26:48

has like a dome story where

26:50

only the elite can get into this dome

26:52

and be safe from apocalypses, and

26:54

that's a reoccurring theme, and I think that's what's

26:56

happening. Even Metropolis itself, that

26:59

name is a part of a...

27:03

It's one of the

27:05

more famous science fiction stories

27:07

from the 1930s, I believe. So it

27:09

just feels like we're living in the

27:12

predicted future that science fiction

27:14

writers

27:16

were warning us about because

27:18

they were seeing how class... I

27:21

guess I want to say Black science fiction writers

27:23

were warnings about because they saw how class would

27:25

ultimately make rich people who had

27:28

access to technology

27:31

hide themselves, not

27:35

try to argue with us, not try

27:37

to play our

27:39

games, not really get on our television.

27:42

Most of the rich people television pursuits

27:44

are political and commercial, but

27:47

if their money is coming from... is quiet,

27:49

quiet luxury, they don't

27:52

need to talk to you, and they're going to create a big bubble, and

27:54

I'm

27:55

not going to be shocked if we hear...

27:57

if we do hear more bubble

27:59

stories. meaning I wouldn't be surprised

28:02

if there would be black hyper-capitalist

28:05

who got similar ideas and maybe

28:08

only accepted or allowed

28:11

people who weren't the most classed

28:14

people to get in if they were exceptional. Like

28:16

I can actually see a lot of that stuff happening, that

28:19

like your access to clean water, fresh air,

28:21

education, safety, really

28:24

is leading

28:27

on your network. I can actually... Is

28:29

that sad? Am I crazy? Am I a little... Like

28:31

I can see that happening. You've

28:33

been black and American for too long too.

28:42

You know what this reminded me of? And

28:44

maybe we talked about it, maybe we didn't.

28:47

But this reminds me

28:49

of Summit Powder

28:51

Mountain, which is a mountain that

28:54

was purchased primarily by these

28:56

four guys who started Summit Series. So Summit

28:59

Series is like

29:01

a multi-day conference where you have CEOs

29:04

and founders, etc. There's also a lot of

29:06

partying. I've never been before from

29:08

what I heard. But some

29:10

years ago, they ended up purchasing a mountain

29:13

in Utah for $40 million. And

29:16

the similar types of folks invested. So

29:19

one of the co-founders of PayPal,

29:23

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, Beth Comstock, former

29:25

vice chair in chief marketing at GE,

29:28

the founder of Tomshoes. So

29:31

all that to say, Kyle, like these, this

29:33

is probably

29:34

happening more than we know. And

29:37

it's fascinating. But you know, don't

29:40

get me wrong. I would do

29:42

this if I could. And

29:45

no, Miles, I would not discriminate. I

29:47

would try to take every... Well, first I start with getting busloads.

29:49

First of all, I'm taking bus...

29:52

First of all, all the black people in Minnesota, I'm

29:55

getting them out and starting there. And

29:57

then once I get that organized, I'm going to go on to the

29:59

next level. to the next. I

30:03

was like, you're going to get in trouble. No, I'm not. Those

30:05

people, they'd be the first ones to sign up. Y'all

30:12

DR is the one today and I'm here for it. You know, I think

30:15

I'm reminded that these people individually

30:17

and certainly as a whole

30:19

don't pay taxes, essentially. Like that

30:21

is, I just, every time I think about this

30:24

extreme wealth, I'm reminded that they are

30:26

not paying taxes. They essentially are not paying

30:28

taxes. We have like subsidized

30:31

their wealth to such an incredible degree

30:33

that they can pool it like this. So that is like

30:36

one thing.

30:37

The second thing is, you know, the

30:39

older I get, the more, as a kid,

30:41

wealth to me meant genius.

30:43

If you had a lot of money, you had something,

30:46

you're genius. You're like, and then the older

30:48

I get, I'm like, no, that ain't

30:51

right. Wealth just means wealth. That's all it means.

30:53

It don't mean smart. It don't mean, and

30:56

only white people could ever have companies

30:58

that are worth so much money that

31:00

are unprofitable.

31:02

Only like we don't, that is a luxury that

31:04

black people have never gotten.

31:06

And the third thing, and those of us, I think

31:08

everybody probably with Miles who's worked inside, people

31:11

take for granted what it means to

31:14

run anything in the government. People,

31:16

the arrogance of people on the outside

31:18

who just assume that it works. You're

31:21

like getting Kyanosis, getting

31:23

every kid fed every day is a feat.

31:27

The schools, like the fact that we do that

31:29

in this country at school is a logistical

31:32

brilliance that happens every single day. DR,

31:35

you know, like anything that the State Department

31:37

ever, it is, it

31:39

is skill and work. It is

31:41

not just people walking into the building and

31:44

magically the things happens. And I say that because what the

31:46

government has to do is operate at

31:48

scale.

31:49

These businesses are always sort

31:52

of add-ons, additions. They don't have to deal

31:54

with the poorest, the unmotivated,

31:57

the people who are motivated but don't have access.

31:59

Government has to do that. And

32:02

doing that at scale is hard. And

32:05

I can just see the arrogance of really wealthy

32:07

people being like, oh, I run a good business. It's like,

32:09

you don't even know how much work it

32:13

takes to do this well. And that's

32:15

always what shocks me. But

32:17

do you really think that like,

32:21

do you really think

32:23

it would be for people who

32:25

couldn't feed themselves? I

32:28

think that there's a point where like, you

32:30

know, we have the first planned community in the country is Columbia,

32:34

Maryland. Edward Norton's grandpa did

32:36

it. And,

32:38

you know, no matter what you intended to be

32:40

at a point, it's like the schools, like the neighborhood,

32:43

there'll have to be a school. Like I'm just saying the infrastructure

32:45

of building it is actually just like stop

32:48

signs, water. I

32:50

guess in my head, this is

32:53

just in my imagination. I'm

32:56

just like, I just keep on seeing the science

32:58

fiction dome and I'm like, oh,

33:00

order your Uber E tier. Do

33:03

whatever you have to do that you would

33:05

normally do, but we're gonna like keep the air clean.

33:08

Like, I don't know,

33:10

even through reading it and like getting

33:13

into like what they were saying, I don't

33:15

know, I just had a hard time believing that

33:17

that's actually what it's gonna end on. And the only thing

33:19

my imagination can end on is like a big

33:21

biodome bubble. Well,

33:25

Miles, and I'll go the other way, like taking

33:27

us back, like black folks were

33:29

brilliant at creating

33:31

all black towns and

33:33

cities. And there

33:35

were 50 across Oklahoma, just

33:37

Oklahoma, and they all got

33:40

Greenwood. Like, so

33:42

I think part of it is, you

33:45

know, I think there's something to both things.

33:47

I think there is, there's actually

33:49

been a history, like a planning

33:52

history around how towns

33:54

can exist and be inclusive and

33:56

be socialist and

33:59

folks thrive. I think what ends up

34:01

happening is, is once you have that capitalistic

34:03

mentality either in the founding

34:06

or in the operation, that's when

34:08

things go to shit. Okay,

34:10

so my news today is more of a reminder,

34:15

the bans on trans rights in Texas

34:17

begin in September. Um,

34:20

I think it's really important. I was up late last

34:22

night. Well, I had a

34:24

weird sleeping schedule this weekend, but I was up

34:26

late last night. And it's not

34:29

really something I'm... Why would I talk

34:31

about it all the time publicly? But I think it's important

34:33

to kind of contextualize the story to talk about publicly. But

34:36

I'm always having an internal conversation

34:38

around transition and around

34:41

medical transition. And that includes pills, estrogen, or

34:43

that includes facial

34:46

feminization surgery, that includes a...

34:49

a lieu of other trans medical things. I'm

34:51

always having a conversation around, okay,

34:54

as I get older, what would I want to do to still

34:56

be able to look in the mirror and feel like I'm looking

34:58

at myself, but also not feel like

35:00

I'm growing into something that just would

35:03

make my life miserable? And

35:06

it's a hard internal conversation. It's

35:09

a difficult thing to think about.

35:13

And as somebody who loves going to the

35:15

doctor and being big and the doctor being

35:17

like, oh, you're just of health. Like,

35:20

I don't want to do anything to disturb that. Um,

35:23

and that's a privilege because I don't feel entirely

35:26

dysphoric in the body that I was given.

35:28

And even I get just tortured

35:31

by these ideas and

35:34

it's a lot.

35:36

If you're a child and you're on the bridge

35:38

of... and you're on the cusp of

35:40

puberty, it's

35:44

essential if you have

35:47

made up your minds and if you know what's

35:49

going on for those

35:51

steps toward your body to

35:54

align with your gender to happen.

35:57

I might be a little dramatic

35:59

throughout the... this whole podcast, but I don't think it's because

36:02

we're dealing with a lot of drama

36:05

because I really want to say that

36:08

stopping trans kids from

36:11

getting the medicine that they

36:13

need and getting the medications they need and the tips

36:15

they need is requesting

36:19

suicides and depressions in

36:21

our community.

36:23

It's the most miserable place you can be. Even

36:26

the things I have done, even the things, steps

36:28

I have done

36:32

that are transition, quote unquote, steps, I

36:34

can't describe how much anxiety

36:37

and depression and suicide in

36:40

each has been relieved in the leaves.

36:43

It's huge. It's everything. There

36:45

were times I couldn't even think at work

36:47

because of it. And to think about

36:49

kids who have to go to high school, who have

36:51

to date, who have to start to operating

36:54

in the world and going to your first concerts to be in

36:56

the go to prom to have to do those things

37:00

and a costume that society

37:02

gave to you and you're being rejected

37:04

from actually expressing

37:07

your gender. It's disgusting.

37:10

And I

37:12

want people to know that this is happening because I feel like our

37:14

news cycle is so quick. And I think

37:16

that sometimes when things end up happening, it

37:18

can kind of

37:20

people can feel like, okay, we lost and move on.

37:22

I don't want any of those things to happen. And I want to

37:24

do my part to remind people that

37:26

this is happening. And it's a huge deal. And there

37:28

are nonprofits like the one I used to work

37:31

for called for the girls, the

37:33

girls in for the girls is spelled G W O

37:35

R L S. And

37:37

so many other nonprofits that actually help people

37:41

affirm their surgeries, affirm their get

37:43

affirmative surgeries, affirm that

37:45

from their gender, including getting medications like estrogen

37:47

and testosterone.

37:49

It's so important to help places like that

37:51

right now, specifically if this is really happening

37:54

in Texas and really happening with kids because

37:56

it's,

37:58

it's, it's, it's, it's dead.

37:59

this is going to be deadly.

38:02

And I keep on stuttering over my words

38:04

because I don't want to be more dramatic

38:06

than the news, but I can't imagine that.

38:09

And I'm 32, and it's been a struggle. And

38:12

I can't imagine being a

38:14

teenager, a pre-teen, and

38:17

having the bravery to know who you are, having

38:20

the bravery to, and having the intelligence to articulate

38:22

who you are to the people who need to help

38:24

you get there, doing all that internal

38:27

work, doing all that brave conversation,

38:29

and we still have

38:31

this

38:34

political block that's really just so people

38:36

can use you as propaganda and use you

38:38

as a political spawn to pawn to

38:42

assist their narrative. It's disgusting.

38:46

So I did want to get you all's opinion

38:48

on that too, but more importantly,

38:50

remind our listeners that this is happening.

38:54

You know, people talk about conspiracy

38:56

theory, and let me tell you,

38:59

there is no need for theory.

39:01

It's like we see it in real time. When

39:04

you look at the aggregate of all of the Republican

39:06

proposals around

39:08

culture for sure and the economy,

39:11

if it is not simply about

39:13

controlling people with less power

39:16

and less money, I don't know what it is. Like, that

39:18

really is, that's what it boils

39:20

down to. I was reading something the other day, and

39:22

as somebody who is not a woman, I will

39:25

never birth children.

39:27

I was reading these accounts of abortion

39:30

and

39:31

about why right-wing

39:34

women support

39:35

abortion and why some evangelical

39:37

black women support abortion, and it blew my mind,

39:40

and like, this is obviously my naivete about not being

39:42

a woman, but they were saying like, because

39:45

some of those women cannot have kids, they

39:48

feel like it should not be your

39:50

choice to not have a kid if God gives

39:52

you one.

39:54

And I just had never even

39:57

thought of that. And there were all these women who were like,

39:59

yeah, it's such a, like. I can't do it. And God

40:01

gave you on how dare you do

40:04

something different with his gift and we should make

40:06

it illegal. And it is like just the

40:08

need to control other people's lives

40:10

that have no bearing on your well-being,

40:13

society's well-being. It just

40:16

is about power control and specifically people

40:18

have less access because again, there

40:20

were all rich people will get abortions. They will figure

40:22

it out.

40:24

It is the least, it is

40:26

the people with the least privilege and to your point

40:28

Miles, it is just

40:30

a reminder that like why does a trans person's

40:33

anything? Like why do you, what is

40:36

going on? They ain't nothing to God do with you.

40:38

You're not going to be around. Like you,

40:40

if not only for the

40:43

idea that you just need to control what other

40:45

people do and that is the Republican

40:47

platform. And to me, it actually is that simple.

40:50

Yeah, that's exactly where I was going to

40:53

say it. I was just thinking about, you

40:55

know, how the Republican party purports

40:58

to want to protect individual rights

41:01

and freedoms, right? If this

41:03

isn't an individual right and freedom

41:05

to choose what medical

41:08

procedures you want, how do you get to decide

41:10

that for me? How do you get to decide

41:13

what books my children read? You can decide what

41:15

books your children

41:17

should not read, but you can't

41:19

decide what's right for me in the same way

41:21

that there is no way that you can

41:23

imperil people's lives in this

41:26

way by making a decision that you actually

41:28

have no, you don't know anything about. You

41:30

don't know what these young people are going through. You

41:33

don't know about the depression, the anxiety,

41:35

the pain. You don't know what their parents are going

41:37

through when their parents make decisions to support,

41:42

to support these procedures

41:44

and it ain't none of your business. How

41:46

about that? Yeah, I think, you

41:48

know, to DeRay's point,

41:51

particularly for black folks, and we've talked about

41:53

this before, like, I

41:57

don't know where the. you

42:01

know, where the more, you know, people

42:03

feeling like they need to stand on this like supposed

42:06

moral high ground around LGBTQ

42:09

politics, around trans politics,

42:11

around trans

42:13

youth. But I have heard comments

42:17

from family members that

42:19

are wild comments.

42:25

And I don't know if it's the Facebook. I

42:28

don't know if it's even

42:31

not the Facebook. I don't know if

42:33

it's evangelicalism. I

42:35

don't know what it is that gets

42:37

a hold on our people because

42:40

our people are conservative people. That

42:43

is true. But

42:45

our people are not a hateful people. And

42:49

we have to and we're learning that we're

42:51

learning that and practicing that. And

42:54

so I feel like that's where I want to figure out the

42:56

work. It's just like

42:58

what is happening psychologically with

43:00

our folks that, yes, Miles, like

43:05

take us, take us, take us with

43:07

that, take us to a place. Well

43:10

the aura and I would, you know,

43:12

I love, I love black people to quote, to quote

43:14

now president

43:17

nominee. I don't love black people to be popular

43:19

with black people. I love black people because they are deserved

43:21

to be loved. Black people are not a hateful

43:23

people, but black people can be

43:26

a deeply patriarchal people. And

43:29

although I live in Brooklyn and

43:31

Brooklyn, a lot of Brooklyn has been hipster fight. I

43:33

live in a very Caribbean neighborhood and

43:38

comporting myself in

43:40

a way that affirms my gender and what I feel

43:42

on the inside and going on that journey and

43:45

a black community is not always the easiest

43:47

thing because of, because of the patriarchy.

43:50

And at the end of the day, for a lot

43:52

of people, this is not a moral

43:55

issue in the way that sometimes I hear people

43:57

who

43:58

are cis talk about. It's

44:01

a philosophical issue for

44:04

people. So me, I looked

44:06

very beautiful last night at the Brooklyn Museum

44:09

and I was in a skirt and I was oiled

44:12

and I was looking good and I felt good and I was

44:14

in my little heels. And me looking

44:16

like that is proof that

44:20

there was something in the American water.

44:23

There was something in the American milk because

44:25

look at how this black man looks.

44:27

So they put a picture of me next to

44:29

Malcolm X and

44:31

say, look what happened to

44:34

the black man and that's what's going on.

44:36

So it has nothing really to do with did you go

44:38

to jail or did you steal

44:40

something or anything else that I think

44:42

as black people, we actually understand how sometimes

44:44

we arrive at certain moments of desperation

44:47

or criminality or moral teeter tottering.

44:51

I think we kind

44:53

of, a lot of us intellectually understand that. This

44:56

is philosophical for a lot of people because

44:59

my

45:00

being who I am is proof that

45:02

there is an

45:04

internal deterioration of black

45:08

man-ness and humanity that's happening.

45:11

And my sentient heels are proof

45:13

that it's working. That upsets people.

45:16

Why does it have to be a deterioration?

45:19

I mean, this is a rhetorical question, right?

45:21

Like I think what I love about

45:23

the

45:24

young people, I think what I love

45:26

and have learned about what

45:30

I would call gender expansion, right?

45:32

Away from a cis paradigm

45:36

to more of a spectrum is

45:39

that like it just makes room for more people.

45:42

Like it is inclusive. It

45:45

invites more people to the party as

45:47

opposed to keeping people out.

45:50

And so I think one way

45:52

to, clearly one way to think about

45:54

it is the,

45:56

I don't

45:58

know what some D word degradation. or

46:00

the diminishment or something of black

46:02

men that you said, like

46:06

why can't we embrace the expansiveness

46:09

of what this new paradigm allows

46:11

for people?

46:12

I think one, I will

46:15

say, Miles, I completely agree, but

46:18

from what I've experienced and

46:21

from what I have processed, some

46:25

of this is people wanting to feel better than

46:27

other people. And

46:30

it may come from a place of patriarchy,

46:34

white supremacy, but to me, just

46:37

brass tacks around it, that's what I'm

46:39

seeing. And that's what I go

46:41

off on to the people and my family.

46:44

Don't go anywhere, more positive people's coming.

46:46

I know.

46:56

narratives. Let's

47:02

go check out these other series.

47:04

Well, we're on to the two. It's so

47:06

aircraft, so they were

47:08

Rock, but there was a huge

47:10

mix. So let's go ahead. matrix. Yeah,

47:13

it's awesome to see some really interesting stretches and

47:15

other health disparity that I've come across. But

47:17

I think it's so, so, so critical to continue

47:20

to share information like this, particularly

47:23

when it comes to black bodies. And so this

47:25

story begins with Danette Fogel,

47:27

who's a 65 year old retired school teacher in

47:29

New York. And it's this

47:31

story

47:32

is about her introduction to and her

47:34

overall experience with menopause.

47:37

And I wanted to talk about this because

47:40

I have learned that,

47:42

you know, the transition to menopause

47:44

for, for the

47:48

individuals that experience it is confounding. It's

47:51

hard. It's, there's not a lot of information

47:53

around it, but for women of

47:55

color, for these humans of color,

47:57

the transition can be even more complicated.

48:01

So research has found that duration, frequency,

48:04

and severity, and I'm sorry, even the

48:06

types of symptoms can look different

48:08

across races, but the most

48:10

negative consequences happen to

48:12

black humans.

48:14

So this goes

48:16

through, the article goes through Danette's experience.

48:19

At 34, she started to notice

48:21

changes with her menstrual cycles, which

48:24

kind of is a hallmark symptom of perimenopause.

48:27

So for those that don't know what perimenopause

48:29

is, it's the final years of a

48:33

woman's reproductive years that leads

48:35

up to menopause and last 10 years on average.

48:38

So most women though don't

48:41

go through perimenopause until their 40s,

48:43

but some studies have found that black women

48:45

tend to start the transition earlier

48:47

than people of other races. Ms.

48:50

Fogel started to experience night sweats for

48:52

the first time. Another clue that her hormones

48:54

were changing. She went to her gynecologist

48:57

and said, you know, these night sweats

48:59

are interrupting my sleep. What can I do?

49:01

I think I'm starting menopause. And her doctor

49:04

laughed at her and then called a nurse

49:06

into the room to laugh with

49:08

the doctor about her. So

49:10

that completely turned her off to,

49:14

you know, going to a doctor to get

49:16

help with her menopause. And

49:19

it's reflective of a lot of humans

49:21

that go through menopause, reflective of their experience.

49:24

And then

49:25

on top of that, physicians really aren't

49:27

fully equipped to help navigate this

49:30

transition. So it's something

49:32

like, you know, there was

49:34

a study done and something like 20% of new doctors

49:38

had actually learned about menopause,

49:41

which clearly is not a lot. When

49:44

humans of color who are going through menopause, perimenopause

49:47

see care, they often encounter physicians who

49:49

aren't aware of those differences and aren't fully equipped

49:51

to help them navigate the transition. And

49:53

so

49:54

what ends up happening is that unmanaged

49:56

menopause symptoms are associated

49:59

with

49:59

elevated risk of long-term chronic diseases

50:02

like coronary heart disease and

50:05

neurodegenerative diseases. It

50:08

can also translate into years of

50:10

discomfort that affect a person's mental

50:12

health and quality of life. This

50:16

means that women of color often go

50:19

without adequate care during menopause,

50:22

signaling to them that their suffering is insignificant.

50:25

And I wanted to just recognize

50:28

the word suffering because I feel

50:30

like so much of my health

50:33

journey when it comes to my reproductive

50:35

parts have been a suffering.

50:38

And a suffering that as black women

50:40

in particular, I feel like we've been,

50:42

you know, kind

50:45

of socialized to accept

50:47

suffering as just like a

50:49

way of being. So

50:54

hot flashes are a common symptom of menopause

50:57

and often disruptive and that goes for all

50:59

races. But

51:01

what this article shows us

51:03

is that if

51:04

you have intense and more frequent hot

51:07

flashes and those happen

51:08

over more years

51:10

than others, it can lead to dementia,

51:13

it can lead to

51:14

frequent and constant anxiety, depression,

51:17

panic attacks, and other diseases

51:19

get prompted by that, like stroke and

51:22

heart disease. So

51:25

I just wanted to bring this, I'm not going to, I can read

51:27

about menopause

51:28

and perimenopause and

51:30

hormones all day long. But

51:33

what I wanted everyone to get out of that is that

51:35

one, there's another disparity that impacts

51:38

black bodies that are going through menopause and perimenopause.

51:41

The lack of acknowledgement by doctors in the healthcare

51:44

system overall when it comes to folks

51:46

that are going through this, but most particularly

51:48

black folks. And

51:52

just for, you know, when we start to recognize

51:54

these symptoms, there are places

51:56

to go, there are organizations now that are

51:59

helping at least to create acknowledgement

52:01

in some care around this. And hormone

52:04

therapy has been believed

52:06

to help

52:07

many people through menopause and

52:09

perimenopause. And so, but

52:12

the first step is really knowing what's happening

52:14

with your body and recognizing

52:16

within yourself that your feelings and

52:18

your voice around your body are absolutely

52:20

real. And then finding the help

52:23

that you need and being

52:25

in community with others who are going through a

52:27

similar experience to help you move through that. So

52:29

I just wanted to bring that to the pod because, you

52:32

know, I'm 42, I am perimenopausal.

52:34

This is something that I'm

52:35

constantly thinking about and I'm constantly

52:38

feeling different in my own body

52:40

and trying to understand what that is. And also just trying

52:43

to be a black

52:45

woman who can exist and be an example

52:47

of living

52:51

in potential and

52:53

not being someone who lives

52:56

and gets comfortable in

52:57

a suffering. So thank you

53:00

for bringing this to the podcast. They are as somebody

53:02

who is extremely ignorant and on the subject.

53:05

And one thing since I joined

53:08

this podcast is I've seen so many racial

53:11

gaps in medicine and

53:15

specifically when it comes to black

53:18

women.

53:20

And I think the articles usually deal

53:23

with it. And I think most people just know about

53:25

it, but I think there has to be a focus on

53:27

all the things that are happening in this world.

53:30

I'm just flailing my

53:32

hands around everything burning

53:34

down and how it's affecting people. And

53:36

I think sometimes we can say statistics and

53:40

during the bay or some

53:43

oftentimes even in articles that just

53:46

seem random, but it's because

53:49

oftentimes black women and women

53:51

of color are dealing with

53:54

more stress. So the reason, so

53:56

when their body changes, it's

53:58

going to be more stressful. These aren't just

54:02

bad DNA luck, you know? It's

54:04

not just how things are, it's

54:07

how things have been designed, which means

54:09

that redesign can happen. And then anytime a story

54:11

like this happens, I think it's important to echo

54:14

that fact that these aren't just how

54:16

it is for people with these skin tones or from

54:18

with these backgrounds. This is how

54:21

the society

54:23

has designed it to be.

54:25

I wanna say, you

54:28

know, in my auntie chat, we

54:30

talk all about menopause all the time. And

54:32

one of the most important things that we talk about is the fact

54:34

that most people are not talking about menopause. And

54:37

so as women,

54:38

we don't know what's coming.

54:41

The aunties and the grandmas don't tell us. It

54:43

is a whole situation. And then

54:46

to realize that we're

54:48

also gonna,

54:49

going to face the same disparities

54:51

in healthcare. When you go to get

54:53

answers from doctors and nurses

54:56

and not be able to get the answers from them because they

54:58

don't actually understand the care is

55:01

disheartening. What was even

55:03

more alarming about this

55:06

article was the idea of suffering

55:08

as you brought up, D'Arra. If

55:14

you have not had insomnia, if you don't

55:16

know what it's like to go for nights and nights without

55:18

sleep, if you don't know what it's like to wake

55:20

up sweating in the middle of the night, that

55:23

has an impact on everything. It's not just what happens

55:25

at night. It has an impact on everything that happens

55:28

during the day. I thought it was very interesting

55:30

that this wasn't, that they also sort of laid

55:32

out how this is an issue for Asian

55:34

women because their menopausal symptoms are

55:37

different than black women's symptoms and different

55:39

than white women's systems, and they get anxiety.

55:42

And so these poor Asian ladies are out here thinking, they're

55:44

just losing it. When the truth of the matter

55:46

is menopause is causing deep

55:49

anxiety.

55:49

We still

55:52

are required to function

55:54

every day. We're required to work, we're required to

55:56

parent, we're required to be good

55:58

as citizens while... Literally your body

56:01

is going bananas. And I

56:03

say all it is to say,

56:05

God bless the people in women's health,

56:07

especially women of color, doctors,

56:10

and the doctors who go out of their way

56:12

to help normalize what's happening

56:15

in women's lives. It's rough out being a woman,

56:17

ain't easy. Let me just tell you, as one

56:19

who's been one for 53 years, someone

56:21

who's been one for 53 years, and

56:23

the fact that this information is not available.

56:26

I think about how many, what

56:30

do you call these? Erectile dysfunction medicines

56:32

we have. When men have a problem, we

56:34

go figure out how to fix it. When

56:36

women have problems, that's not exactly the

56:38

case. For years, we've gotten bad information

56:42

on hormone replacement therapy. Don't do it

56:44

because you'll get cancer

56:46

totally debunked. And there are women

56:49

who are still going and without critical

56:52

hormone replacement therapy that could smooth

56:54

this all out for them because we don't

56:56

pay enough attention to it and we

56:58

don't give it the credibility that we give

57:01

men's issues. And so thanks for bringing this

57:03

to the podcast. Don't nobody want to talk about menopause,

57:05

but women who are going

57:07

through it. Yeah. Bring

57:09

it on. I love it. I want to talk about

57:11

it all day. Anything around hormones. But it's also important

57:14

for other people to understand what's going on,

57:16

what's going on with your colleagues, what's going on with your

57:18

coworkers, what's going on with your mother. My mother

57:20

and I, My mother and I did not talk for

57:22

three years, and it was because she was

57:24

going through menopause and all kinds

57:26

of things were happening with her. When she got that

57:29

patch, honey, I was like, who is this

57:31

lady? You found my mother. This

57:33

is amazing. And we don't talk

57:35

about these things. And so thank you

57:37

for bringing it, Diara, because this stuff is real.

57:39

I don't have anything to add about menopause,

57:41

but because my news is

57:44

also about the healthcare system,

57:47

I'll just transition into it, is my

57:49

news is about pulse oximeters. And

57:52

when I think about your news, Diara, just

57:54

a reminder that the healthcare system is

57:57

so wild about the healthcare system is that,

57:59

It was built, especially with women,

58:02

built, deconstructing, raping,

58:04

pillaging, using the bodies of

58:06

black women,

58:08

and still has

58:10

no learnings, focus,

58:13

nothing. You think about the history of gynecology.

58:15

It's like this industry does not exist

58:18

without black bodies. But I think about

58:21

pulse oximeters. When you go to the emergency

58:23

room, you go to the doctor, the first thing they do is put your finger

58:26

in the little thing. It measures the level

58:28

of oxygen in your blood. Well,

58:30

guess what? It routinely

58:33

overestimated the amount of oxygen

58:35

in darker skinned

58:37

COVID patients.

58:38

And when it overestimated the level of oxygen,

58:41

it led to delays in treatment and

58:43

hospital readmissions. This comes

58:46

from a study that researchers at

58:48

Baylor College, Hopkins, and HCA

58:50

Health Care did that reviewed about 24,500 cases

58:55

of people whose blood oxygen levels were

58:57

first measured with the pulse oximeter and

59:00

then whose blood was drawn and tested to

59:02

further examine the levels.

59:04

Now, here's the thing. If the readings are too high

59:07

or falsely high, then the patients

59:09

may look fine on paper

59:12

when in reality, they're not fine. They need some

59:14

additional care, some something. But

59:17

because the machines aren't calibrated

59:19

to darker skin,

59:21

it looks like they're fine. And a reminder that

59:23

most people's fingertip reading

59:26

is never double checked by a blood draw.

59:28

Just like when I think about when I got tested for strep,

59:30

they do that little culture. The culture could say whatever.

59:33

But they could actually run it through a lab

59:36

and get a final result. Most people's aren't

59:38

ever run through a blood draw.

59:40

Now, here's the wild thing.

59:43

It says that patients

59:45

with a fingertip

59:47

pulse oximeter reading of 94% or more,

59:49

but whose blood tests showed at lower

59:52

levels were deemed to

59:54

have an unrecognized knee for COVID therapy.

59:56

Here we go, y'all.

59:57

Black patients were found to be knee-

59:59

nearly 50% more likely

1:00:02

than white patients to have their

1:00:04

condition go undetected.

1:00:06

Hispanic patients were 18%

1:00:08

more likely than white patients to have

1:00:10

an unrecognized need. Now, if you

1:00:12

remember in the heart of COVID, how

1:00:15

black people just started dying, when

1:00:17

I read this, I'm like, they could have gone to the

1:00:19

hospital in time. They could

1:00:21

have seen a doctor in time.

1:00:23

50% got

1:00:25

the wrong reading at the beginning. 50% got

1:00:29

told that they were OK when they were... That

1:00:32

is wild.

1:00:33

So I wanted to bring that here because I hadn't

1:00:36

heard about this, just like with the menopause

1:00:39

conversation. I didn't know anything about that. And

1:00:41

I didn't know anything about this. So I wanted to bring it here. So

1:00:44

my first reaction when I was reading

1:00:46

the article was

1:00:49

how in my

1:00:50

black brain, when I saw the words

1:00:53

dark skin, I was of course,

1:00:55

and still infuriated. But I think

1:00:57

in my head, I thought,

1:00:59

oh,

1:01:02

black people who, what we would call

1:01:04

in the black community, darker skin are having

1:01:07

a harder time, which is like this group of people.

1:01:09

But I'm like, oh, you're talking about anybody who's darker

1:01:11

than Italian? Like, is that what we're

1:01:13

calling dark skin? Are

1:01:16

we talking about, are we talking about black skins in

1:01:18

Latin? Like, black people, I'm like, oh,

1:01:21

you're talking about everybody. And that

1:01:23

kind of was blowing my mind was

1:01:26

how incompetent the

1:01:29

medical industry is if it

1:01:31

can

1:01:31

only deal, if it's

1:01:33

making mistakes around people who

1:01:36

are this article's

1:01:38

definition of dark skin. It

1:01:41

would have still been incompetent, but

1:01:44

I think in my head, because

1:01:47

obviously the medical

1:01:50

community, it skews towards

1:01:53

helping white people, I would have just intellectually

1:01:55

understood how that happened. I don't,

1:01:58

I get how it happened.

1:01:59

but this is, that's ridiculous.

1:02:02

That's ridiculous. That means it's an

1:02:05

incompetent

1:02:06

piece of medicine and technology if that

1:02:09

huge of

1:02:11

a swab of people cannot get

1:02:15

accurate help in suggestion.

1:02:17

I'm also just

1:02:20

going back to COVID times

1:02:23

when it was like, order

1:02:26

the oximeter. You have to have an oximeter. You have

1:02:28

to have your mask. You have to have your glove. It

1:02:30

was like all these things you had to have to

1:02:33

protect yourself that I was

1:02:35

like, yes, if I have these things, I

1:02:38

will live. This will help me live. And

1:02:41

I ended up getting long haul COVID

1:02:43

in 2021

1:02:46

and that I have multiple oximeters

1:02:48

because that was the thing that like kept me sane.

1:02:50

I was like, okay, if my oxygen is at the certain level, that

1:02:52

means, okay, Diara, you're okay. And

1:02:55

so to know that

1:02:56

that thing was not designed for

1:02:59

me or to Miles's point, anybody

1:03:02

darker than a french fry.

1:03:04

I don't know,

1:03:06

like that is wild to me. We

1:03:11

are consumer and have to be a believer of

1:03:13

these things, some of the things that were told

1:03:15

particularly around public health.

1:03:18

So this was a wild one for me. So

1:03:20

now I guess,

1:03:23

listen, I don't even know what to say. I don't know what

1:03:25

to do with all these oximeters now. I'm gonna give them away to white

1:03:27

people. I mean, I think

1:03:29

I don't have a lot to add to this. I'll

1:03:32

only say that it means

1:03:34

that it reminds me that we have to

1:03:36

ask the doctors when we go at one,

1:03:39

next time I go to the doctor and they put a pulse oxometer

1:03:42

on me, I'm gonna be like, okay, can I get a blood test to confirm?

1:03:44

Like we have to be armed with the information

1:03:47

so that we can advocate for ourselves

1:03:49

for healthcare. And so I think that's

1:03:52

my big takeaway. And I hope that everybody listening

1:03:55

to this understands that

1:03:57

they should challenge their doctors when doctors

1:03:59

may...

1:03:59

sweeping recommendations based just

1:04:02

on the Pulse-Aksandra reading.