0:01 I know we aren't supposed to bring it
0:04 up, but racism and sexism exist. And
0:07 nowhere is it more apparent these days
0:09 than in conversations about meritocracy.
0:11 [music] In the 11 months of Trump's
0:14 second term, the word was used as some
0:16 sort of antithesis of DEI when in
0:19 actuality DEI simply meant hiring
0:21 qualified people who came from under
0:23 reppresented backgrounds. But
0:24 nevertheless, [music] these discussions
0:27 of meritocracy persisted. And all this
0:29 time later, we can see the result.
0:32 Qualified, high-powered black women are
0:34 being purged from the workforce [music]
0:36 while people like this
0:39 >> in the tank. There it is.
0:41 >> There it is. [screaming]
0:47 >> Get promoted. I'm Aquila Hughes. This is
0:48 How Is This Better? [music] And today
0:50 we're diving into the cost of being a
0:57 So, we have this administration in
1:00 power. Yeah. Who is not I mean, you
1:02 know, the Washington Post, I believe,
1:04 posted their numbers about how it's the
1:06 whitest in I think at least the 2000s,
1:08 the whitest administration, even if
1:10 women overall are getting more placement
1:12 in terms of like appointments. Turns out
1:15 it's it's still real real white. Beyond
1:17 that, there's also the reality that
1:19 black women are leaving the workforce in
1:22 droves, whether they're being pushed out
1:24 um because they're the first to go due
1:26 to layoffs. But I guess if you could
1:28 just talk a little bit about like what
1:30 you're seeing in regards to that and how
1:32 that sort of lines up with the timeline
1:34 of you writing this book because I think
1:36 that obviously we're all talking about
1:38 employment at this point. The numbers
1:40 are down. The country is in a flop era.
1:43 >> What numbers? [laughter] Exactly what
1:46 >> what numbers
1:47 >> you know if you squint and you kind of
1:49 count on your own
1:51 >> I don't think you understand we're in
1:54 like I don't even know what kind of land
1:56 we in right now any analysis you're
1:58 seeing about jobs is based off of
2:00 September numbers
2:01 >> yeah [laughter]
2:04 >> I want to remind people of this not the
2:06 most recent numbers we're we're about a
2:09 week and a half maybe till November
2:11 numbers but we not ever getting those
2:13 October numbers. They told us that.
2:14 >> No, they said they say they were like,
2:16 "We don't have them and you're not
2:17 getting them and don't have
2:19 >> we don't HAVE THEM IS CRAZY."
2:21 >> YEAH, that's kind of their only job is
2:23 to tell us. And they're like, "Well,
2:24 we're not doing our job."
2:26 >> This is [music] Anna Gy, economist, a
2:28 PhD student at the Harvard Kennedy
2:31 School and author of The Double Tax: How
2:33 Women of Color Arecharged [music] and
2:35 Underpaid. And I wanted to talk to her
2:37 because the numbers, old and out ofd as
2:40 they may be, tell the story of women,
2:41 specifically women of color, being the
2:43 first on the chopping block [music] as
2:45 the economy continues to tank under
2:47 Donald Trump. And I would love some
2:49 numbers to back up my suspicions that
2:51 [music] it's frankly racism that's the
2:54 culprit. I'll say first and foremost, I
2:56 did not realize a book like this would
2:58 drop in such a political and economic
2:59 moment. What people don't realize is
3:00 that this book was actually supposed to
3:02 come out last year, so during the
3:05 election time. And I remember I think I
3:08 told my team to like push it a year
3:09 before that because we just needed more
3:12 time with all the interviews that came
3:14 in. For those who don't know, like 4,000
3:16 people had signed up to share their
3:19 story. We don't got 4,000 people money.
3:21 So, we had to like whittle it down
3:23 >> to learn and read and
3:25 >> Yeah. Like we can connect with people
3:26 after the fact. Everything that you're
3:29 seeing right now is really emblematic of
3:31 the double tax. And perhaps what I
3:35 should say is things are not great
3:37 because this country is committed to
3:41 bigotry. That's it. It's really not more
3:42 complicated than that. People like, why
3:44 aren't we Sweden? Why aren't we Finland?
3:46 BECAUSE THERE'S BLACK AND BROWN people here.
3:47 here.
3:48 >> Yeah. Right.
3:50 >> And if you actually look at the data
3:52 over there, it's not great for black and
3:55 brown people either. So I think that for
3:58 me this book is very much I like to say
4:01 it's both a prescription and a reaction
4:02 because when I was writing it I was like
4:06 okay if Kla Harris wins right then maybe
4:08 they might use this as a guide for their
4:12 policym but if she doesn't win
4:14 everything that this man does will be in
4:16 direct opposition to it. What I'm
4:18 realizing though is that communities are
4:21 trying to rebuild as things are being
4:23 destroyed and they still do need a
4:25 blueprint. And so I think that this book
4:28 provides one context and then it
4:30 provides some solutions that we know
4:32 work and some solutions that we should
4:34 really be radical enough to imagine
4:37 could work, right? In terms of the
4:39 numbers around black women, I just want
4:41 to maybe level set for people why you
4:42 should be paying attention to those
4:44 numbers. So this is um the work of
4:47 Katakaroy. Uh Dr. Valerie Wilson has
4:48 done work around this. Let me say
4:50 something that I know a lot of media
4:52 headlines won't say. The data never
4:54 tells us whether or not people get like
4:56 explicitly fired and why they get fired,
4:58 right? So to say that people are being
5:00 pushed out is a hard claim to make
5:04 that's backed by data. But we can bring
5:07 in other data to contextualize why a
5:09 bunch of people are leaving suddenly. So
5:10 what we know from the data is that in
5:13 the good times, black women are the
5:15 least likely to be promoted, the most
5:17 likely to turn over, and the most likely
5:19 to be labeled low performers. As you
5:22 noted, we are the last in first out. And
5:23 a lot of the industries like
5:26 manufacturing, professional, and
5:28 business services, and even we're seeing
5:30 with the rollbacks of DEI, especially in
5:33 certain parts of different industries
5:35 are clearly having an impact on black
5:38 women anecdotally. So, if we take all of
5:41 this together, you can go ahead and say,
5:43 "Yeah, black women are being pushed out
5:44 of the workforce." Now, you might be
5:47 wondering, as a white man, shout out to
5:54 >> Thank you, Devin. Deon, [laughter]
5:57 >> why should I care? And the reality is
6:00 because black women are taxpayers. Black
6:04 women are community members. Black women
6:07 are members of society, have kids, are
6:09 [snorts] trying to feed their families,
6:12 are literally plugging into our economic
6:16 system. If black women are losing, all
6:18 of us are losing because if black women
6:20 are not able to bring in an income,
6:23 often times other people are relying on
6:24 our income. And so it's not just that
6:26 you're taking money away from one
6:27 person, you're taking money away from an
6:29 entire ecosystem of people. And that
6:30 spills into [music]
6:33 whether or not the economy grows or shrinks.
6:34 shrinks.
6:36 >> It feels super important to reiterate,
6:37 you do not have a successful [music]
6:40 economy if a large part of your economy
6:42 is shut out from participation [music]
6:45 due to race, gender, or both. A healthy
6:47 economy requires people to [music] spend
6:48 money, which means they have to have
6:51 jobs so they can have money to spend.
6:53 This is not hard. The double tax is the
6:56 compounded cost of racism and sexism.
6:58 And I think that lots of black women
7:00 know this as misogynoir, right? When we
7:02 kind of bear the full discrimination of
7:06 being black and also being women. And so
7:08 what I basically do is sort of extend
7:11 that definition beyond just blackness.
7:13 >> Again, here's Anna Gifty. any sort of
7:15 proximity to blackness as a racial
7:18 minority puts you in this sort of bucket
7:21 of dealing with all of these costs that
7:24 come with your racial minority status in
7:26 addition to all the sexism that we
7:29 experience in society. And so I feel
7:32 like an example of how this really shows
7:35 up is let's say that you know as a woman
7:37 you're like having to get ready for an
7:39 interview. A lot of times you're
7:42 expected to look a certain way, right?
7:44 So you might have [laughter]
7:47 >> I I feel like this is so important now
7:50 that the pod is on video. Uh yeah, it's
7:52 a it's not just that I get to show up,
7:53 roll out of bed, and look like whatever
7:54 and people are fine with they're
7:56 listening. [laughter] No, no, no, but
7:59 continue just, you know, scrubbing my
8:00 paid with your fingers.
8:02 >> That's right. There's a even my nail I
8:03 don't know if y'all can see that, but
8:04 one of my nails is out. So I'm I'm out
8:06 here just trying to keep it down, right?
8:09 But my point is like there's a cost to
8:12 presentability that all women deal with,
8:13 right? And I mean that in the most
8:16 expansive way possible. But the double
8:18 tax says, well, black women, especially
8:20 and racial minority women by extension,
8:23 are having to do all this extra stuff on
8:26 top of that cost to really make up for
8:27 the fact that they're minorities as well
8:30 as women. Right? So the example that I
8:32 use is our hair. To give you a sense of
8:35 what I mean, I had to go somewhere
8:37 recently and I was literally doing the
8:39 costbenefit analysis of whether or not I
8:42 should get braids right before because I
8:44 was like, I need to catch my flight. >> Yeah.
8:45 >> Yeah.
8:47 >> But the braids are going to take like 4
8:49 HOURS, 5 HOURS, BUT I don't know if the
8:51 ladies are going to go as fast as I need
8:54 them to go cuz they're humans, too. So,
8:56 you know what? F it. I'm just going to
8:58 go ahead and just throw it in some
9:00 little bun or whatever. and we're just
9:01 gonna pray THAT THE WAY IT WORKS
9:03 [laughter] OUT. BUT THAT'S WHAT I MEAN
9:06 it by like I'm having to do all these
9:08 extra calculations around my existence
9:11 because I'm a black woman. So that
9:13 blackness and that womanhood is that
9:14 double tax.
9:16 >> Absolutely. And you know just I guess
9:18 another question about the title. Can
9:19 you talk a little bit about why you
9:22 chose to put color of color in
9:24 parenthesis? Because you know, is that
9:25 because you think all women will be able
9:27 to relate to at least some of what you
9:30 identify or, you know, talk speak to us.
9:31 >> You know what? Let me It's the end of
9:33 the year, so let me just be real honest.
9:35 So there there's a couple reasons why I
9:37 think we went with of color. So
9:39 initially the conversation was whether
9:41 or not we make this black women are
9:43 overcharged and underpaid, which I think
9:44 that if you really read the book, that's
9:46 essentially what the book is about. But
9:48 there are some areas in life where
9:50 that's actually not the case. So, for
9:53 example, in retirement, I think uh Asian
9:55 women and Latino women are worse off in
9:57 terms of their retirement income than
9:59 black women. So, I can't say that black
10:01 women are on the very bottom of the
10:03 economic totem pole, but we are very
10:05 close to it, right? Or even in pay where
10:07 we know that native and Latino women um
10:09 make less. So, I think that that's where
10:12 it was like, okay, like like if we're
10:14 really trying to be accurate, I have to
10:16 use of color. But like this is the
10:18 number one question I've gotten from
10:20 black women which is like now grown now
10:22 why you just say black women. I'm like I
10:23 hear you. You know what I'm saying? I
10:26 hear you. And so I think for me it's
10:29 actually been a really good lesson that
10:31 like if I'm talking about black women
10:33 let me just like lean all the way into
10:35 that. And quite frankly too I was a
10:37 little scared because this is my first
10:39 book that I've written. I wasn't sure if
10:42 like women's spaces would turn away from
10:45 a book that was about black women. Turns
10:47 out even if you put of color doesn't
10:48 make [laughter]
10:51 >> Yeah. It's not really it's not really
10:52 you know what I'm saying. So >> totally.
10:53 >> totally.
10:54 >> Yeah. That's basically it. >> Mhm.
10:55 >> Mhm.
10:57 >> I mean it's it's really great to have I
10:59 think also your academic lens on this.
11:01 It's like there are the things that I've
11:04 sort of seen obviously in my own, you
11:05 know, personal life and I think
11:08 everybody who is a a woman of color or a
11:09 black woman or both or [laughter]
11:11 neither or whatever, I think that we all
11:13 have our anecdotal evidence to like um
11:15 what is systemic oppression, but like
11:19 having real like hard numbers is really
11:21 fascinating. And so I guess like I'm
11:23 curious because I think that this is
11:24 it's cool that you're the one writing
11:26 it. And so I'm curious like how much of
11:28 your own life or career shows up in the
11:30 book even in ways that readers might not
11:32 even realize. [laughter]
11:34 [laughter]
11:35 I don't know if y'all can hear me
11:38 snapping. Um is not new to this. She's
11:42 true to this. Exactly. Um, I feel like
11:44 there were times when I probably should
11:46 have been even more personal. And I
11:48 remember even seeing somebody recently,
11:50 this black woman author, not not author,
11:53 sorry. She's a reviewer, and she was
11:55 like, I wish she had said more about her
11:57 life. And I was like, man, maybe for the
11:59 memoir, I don't know, maybe I'll I'll
12:01 speak to it later. But I mean, I think
12:03 that there's stories that like when I
12:04 read them back, I'm like, this is a
12:07 really personal share. Like people in my
12:09 life don't know this about me. So, I
12:11 think like the first chapter where we
12:13 talk about beauty, a lot of people
12:15 didn't know that I struggled with like
12:16 thoughts of skin bleaching, right? So,
12:18 I'm a dark-kinned black woman and I
12:20 don't think my parents knew that I was
12:21 dealing with those thoughts. I don't
12:23 think, you know what I'm saying? So,
12:24 that's those are some of the things that
12:27 I think were revealed um in me even
12:29 writing the book and being like, wait, I
12:32 have to bring this into it because if I
12:34 don't, then it's an incomplete story.
12:36 And so I feel like stuff around my
12:39 self-image and my self-confidence I
12:41 think has been really personal. I would
12:43 even say, you know, a lot of folks
12:44 didn't know that I've dealt with so much
12:47 discouragement coming up to this point.
12:49 So a lot of people assume this was, you
12:50 know, zippity zoo zippity zay. It was
12:52 like a work situation.
12:54 >> Yeah. Exactly. It's all up.
12:57 >> Like no, I've had discouragement every
12:59 single step of the way, especially from
13:02 white men. And so like this is not
13:04 something that I'm just like, oh, look
13:06 at the the numbers. They're happening,
13:08 you know, hypothetical theoretically
13:10 over there, but like rather this is
13:12 actually my personal experience. And it
13:14 turns out the data really does back it
13:16 up. And I think at the end of the book,
13:18 which every time I finish the book, I
13:20 always cry because I feel like uh this
13:23 is such a release because I think a lot
13:24 of people, especially black women, who
13:26 read the book, are like, I knew I wasn't
13:28 going crazy. And that's like the best
13:30 feeling in the world that okay, all of
13:32 this data, this is what people in power
13:34 listen to, actually backs up the
13:37 experiences that I know to be true, but
13:39 now I can show them this as a way to
13:41 really provide the evidence for why
13:43 things need to change. So, let's dive
13:45 into some of the evidence. [music] Black
13:48 women make up 7.8% of the US population,
13:50 but as far as unemployment goes, we are
13:53 bearing the brunt of it right now, which
13:54 doesn't square with black women's
13:57 achievements academically. But it does
13:59 seem to square with that roll back of
14:01 scholarships for women of color and the
14:04 anti-Dei push. This is, you know, me
14:06 asking for your speculation. Do you
14:08 think that there is any correlation to
14:10 the sort of cracking down on not only
14:13 DEI but on who is getting funding for
14:15 college and scholarships and all these
14:16 things that are being looked at and sort
14:19 of, you know, hoping to hold back black
14:20 women and women of color?
14:23 >> Let let me be frank. These people are
14:25 enemies of progress.
14:26 >> Yeah. M
14:29 >> certified enemies of progress and
14:31 they're also eugenicist. >> Yeah.
14:31 >> Yeah.
14:34 >> I want to be really blunt. They don't
14:38 think that black people, especially
14:41 black folks who are poor, are worthy.
14:44 Period. So, anything that evens the
14:47 playing field, they're anti. I think I
14:50 wrote a piece for Bloomberg maybe a year
14:53 ago and I said all these attacks on DEI
14:55 are not really about merit. Yes, they're
14:59 about merit, but what is that? Right.
15:00 >> Yeah. Looking around,
15:03 >> there's entire ecosystems around just
15:05 getting rich white kids into universities
15:07 universities
15:10 >> where like they're only going there as a
15:11 signal because they're going to work for
15:14 daddy anyway. So, I don't even know, you
15:16 know, what was the reason as Cardi B
15:18 would say, right? But [laughter]
15:23 like I think to that point, what I
15:25 really told folks was these attacks are
15:27 really about widening the racial wealth
15:30 gap and making it really hard for black
15:33 people to build wealth. They know that
15:35 home ownership is tied to building
15:39 wealth. Why is it that the two prominent
15:40 black women that they've attacked and
15:43 accused of fraud, it's always mortgage
15:44 fraud? Have y'all noticed?
15:47 >> Yeah. Actually wild. actually wild.
15:50 >> So, they accuse uh my my wonderful
15:51 Governor Lisa Cook of mortgage fraud,
15:53 and there's already documentation that
15:55 she didn't do that. And then they try to
15:59 try um uh AG Leticia James of mortgage
16:01 fraud twice. Failed both times.
16:02 >> Yeah. They keep trying it. They keep
16:04 throwing it. [laughter]
16:06 >> They're like, "She couldn't possibly
16:07 have a house. We did everything in our
16:09 power to make sure she doesn't have a
16:10 house." And this is really about setting
16:12 president around like, oh, like we just
16:14 don't think black and brown people
16:18 should own things, build things, be able
16:21 to have agency. And the crazy thing
16:23 about all of this, Akila, is what's
16:25 inevitable. And they know it cuz there
16:27 was a Brookings report, Brookings is a
16:29 think tank, y'all, that came out several
16:31 years ago. And basically what it says in
16:33 short, this place about to be black and
16:35 brown, [laughter] >> RIGHT?
16:36 >> RIGHT?
16:38 >> SORRY, IT'S ABOUT TO BE BLACK AND BROWN.
16:40 YOU LET US IN. [laughter]
16:42 >> The white folks aren't having enough
16:45 babies. So, the majority of the world
16:47 that we know is starting to seep into
16:50 the West, which is why you're seeing
16:52 intergalactic crashs from across the
16:54 globe. Basically, what they're trying to
16:57 do at this point, if you guys are
17:00 noticing, is they're setting up, I would
17:02 like to say, the pillars of what they
17:05 hope will become apartheid because in
17:08 about a generation or two, this place
17:10 will be majority minority, and they know
17:12 that that's going to be the case. So,
17:13 they're trying to radicalize their men.
17:16 They're trying to reprogram their women
17:17 and they're trying to set systems in
17:20 place that make it impossible for black
17:23 and brown people to advance in society. >> Right?
17:24 >> Right?
17:26 >> The reality is if we're willing to fight
17:28 against that, they have no chance
17:30 because we do truly outnumber them.
17:32 >> If what Anna is saying is true and the
17:34 numbers do support the idea that the
17:36 future will be way more diverse than
17:38 now, how do we fight for a more
17:39 equitable future?
17:42 >> How do we fight back? I think that we
17:44 can take our notes from history. Shout
17:47 out to the Black Panther gang. Right. Um
17:52 >> Black Panther gang gang.
17:53 >> You know, as [laughter] I said that, I
17:55 WAS LIKE, SOMEBODY'S GOING TO clip that.
17:56 >> Right. Here we go.
17:59 >> I don't care. THEY DID A GOOD job with
18:01 providing food assistance, health care,
18:03 and education to the black community.
18:05 That's what I am highlighting right now.
18:08 >> Yeah. Specifically that y'all can Yeah,
18:09 y'all can have your own conversations
18:13 about that. But the the social services
18:14 that they provided to the black
18:18 community, I think give us a blueprint
18:21 into how do we take care of each other
18:25 during crisis. And it turns out we
18:26 literally just show up for each other.
18:29 We pull resources. We protect one
18:32 another. You have a vested interest in
18:34 somebody else's well-being. I'm starting
18:36 to see that single mothers are starting
18:38 to buy homes together. That's so
18:40 intelligent. I think the other thing
18:41 we're starting to see is a lot of
18:43 unions. I don't know if folks know the
18:45 data show that the unionization has been
18:46 on the decline, but we're starting to
18:49 see a resurge of union efforts, right?
18:51 Even with mom's when we're seeing that a
18:54 lot of working family party candidates
18:56 are coming to the the top of a lot of
18:58 these tickets. We're seeing a lot of
19:00 folks who are progress
19:03 in the sense that they want free buses,
19:04 they want free child care, people just
19:06 want to be able to take care of their
19:09 neighbors. I think having that spirit
19:12 and turning it into action is really,
19:13 really important. I keep telling folks,
19:15 you got to go outside and touch grass. >> Yeah.
19:15 >> Yeah.
19:19 >> You out here spinning out on blue sky is
19:20 not making the world better, >> right?
19:21 >> right?
19:23 >> It's complicating airflow. [laughter] Go
19:26 and do something with your life that
19:27 helps your community.
19:30 >> That's I mean that's fantastic. And like
19:31 I'm curious, I guess when you think
19:34 about future generations and what that
19:36 looks like, we kind of have two paths,
19:39 right? we keep going down the path of
19:41 more regulation against people of color,
19:44 taking away rights from people of color,
19:46 um women of color being more oppressed
19:48 and at sort of the bottom of this rung,
19:51 and then we have another future. [laughter]
19:52 [laughter]
19:55 Um, and so I guess, you know, you talk
19:58 about what people can do to fight back,
20:00 but is there anything you've sort of
20:02 seen more specifically like economically
20:05 that people can start thinking about to
20:07 plan for if they want families to not
20:08 have to exist in that? My plan is just
20:10 to leave, but some people got to stay.
20:12 [laughter] So, you know, turns out the
20:13 whole world is in America. So,
20:16 >> right, I would say Europe is about five
20:18 years behind the states at the moment. I
20:21 think what I said before still applies
20:23 here. Unionization should be happening
20:26 in every aspect of our lives. And that
20:29 is how we hedge against a future that is
20:33 not people centered. Right? I think that
20:34 um a lot of folks think that they can go
20:36 at this alone. And what you're going to
20:39 realize is that people who want ill for
20:41 you, they're banking on you doing this
20:42 by yourself. And so I think that you
20:44 literally linking up with other people,
20:46 you plugging into different community
20:48 groups, you investing in your community.
20:50 So I got like a letter recently in the
20:53 mail from my library system. I said, "Go
20:55 Books, right?" Like I was like, "Yes."
20:58 Because I was like, I I want to support
21:00 kids reading in the library. I want that
21:02 to be something that is a pillar of my
21:04 community growing up. So I feel like
21:07 that to me feels like really great
21:08 preparation. I think if we're thinking
21:11 practically, if you're in the workplace,
21:12 for example, you should be talking
21:14 openly about how much you're making
21:15 because I want to make it very clear
21:17 into the mic. I don't know where the mic
21:18 is, but let me make it very clear to
21:21 y'all. These corporations
21:24 don't care about you. I'm so sorry. They
21:25 don't care. >> Yeah.
21:26 >> Yeah.
21:29 >> They don't care if you die today because
21:30 guess what they gonna do? They gonna put
21:33 up an Indeed post talking about we got a
21:34 new opening. Isn't that what happened
21:35 with that CEO?
21:38 >> Yeah. STRAIGHT UP. NEXT WEEK
21:41 >> to that end like is there policy
21:43 analysis that you've seen that like can
21:45 maybe safeguard against the you know
21:47 this sort of downward trajectory for us
21:49 >> for sure I think one thing we need to do
21:51 is reduce the price of child care
21:53 literally the price of taking care of
21:55 the next generation needs to go down
21:57 significantly so we know the child tax
21:58 credit which is interestingly enough a
22:01 bipartisan supported policy is
22:02 definitely something that's on the table
22:05 should be a lot higher on that front
22:08 having public resources is be wellunded
22:10 is extremely important. I'm a PBS kid.
22:12 >> Yeah, [laughter] same.
22:13 >> Oh, I love it. Wait, what did you watch?
22:15 >> So, I'm I think I'm a little bit older
22:17 than you, but I was watching Zoom, but
22:19 it was like not the original. It was like
22:19 like
22:21 >> I was on the very tail end of when it it
22:22 went off air
22:24 >> and like majorly Sesame Street household.
22:25 household.
22:26 >> Okay. Period. We
22:28 >> Now I'm in the NewsHour game.
22:30 >> I LOVE IT.
22:32 Great news, by the way. They're so good.
22:33 >> Yeah, they get to the truth. They get to
22:34 the heart of it.
22:35 >> That's right. public resources, things
22:38 like Head Start are so so important. I
22:40 would also say too that I think that
22:42 worker power is going to be the future
22:45 and it's also going to be what I think
22:48 prevents us from living in a purely
22:50 exploitative and extractive world.
22:53 People just need to literally speak up
22:55 and be like, "Nah, I actually am not
22:56 going to pay that." I know we all see
22:59 the egg prices. They're preposterous. I
23:01 was at Roast Brothers the other day. I
23:03 just come back from my my little my
23:05 little European book tour, whatever. So,
23:06 it had been two about a month and a
23:08 half. The last time I was at Roach
23:09 Brothers, I went to go to Ben and
23:12 Jerry's. It cost maybe $4 a pint. I got
23:15 there maybe a week OR TWO AGO. $7
23:16 >> FOR ICE CREAM.
23:17 >> For ice cream
23:18 >> in this economy,
23:19 >> girl. I said, "Huh?"
23:22 >> They said no little treats. [laughter]
23:23 >> But my point here is that I think that
23:28 we as people forget that we're the 99%.
23:31 If we actually want things to change, we
23:34 can determine that future together. But
23:35 I think that that's exactly what
23:37 happens. There's a lot of fractures
23:38 because people want to be proximate to
23:40 the 1% or they want to benefit from the 1%.
23:41 1%.
23:43 >> They think they're going to be the 1% if
23:44 they just wait long enough.
23:47 >> But history has shown that that never
23:50 happens. And the only way that progress
23:53 actually comes to fruition is when the
23:55 people say, "Actually, we not messing
23:57 with this collectively." And so I think
23:59 those are the ways in which economically
24:01 we can protect ourselves to ensure that
24:02 some of the policy solutions that are on
24:04 the table like reparations, making sure
24:06 that entrepreneurs of color, especially
24:08 black entrepreneurs get access to
24:10 capital, right? Like these are all
24:12 things that are super important just to
24:14 let folks know, black hiring managers
24:16 are more likely to create jobs for black people.
24:16 people. >> Yeah.
24:17 >> Yeah.
24:18 >> So that's why you want black entrepreneurs.
24:20 entrepreneurs. >> Yes.
24:20 >> Yes.
24:22 >> Cuz they're going to hire black people.
24:23 They're going to hire people in their
24:25 community. So if they're not getting
24:27 capital to pay people, then they can't
24:29 employ people and they can't create jobs
24:31 for the community. So that's why all of
24:33 these things are intertwined. Ensuring
24:35 that our economic future doesn't leave
24:36 anybody behind. >> Yeah.
24:36 >> Yeah.
24:38 >> Let me cut to the chase. How is it
24:40 better to strip women of color of
24:42 opportunity for advancement to appease
24:44 the last gasp of white supremacy that
24:46 refuses to honestly and earnestly
24:48 [music] compete? It's not. And the only
24:50 way forward toward progress is to
24:52 support one another. Mutual aid sounds
24:55 fringe to many, but sharing meals and
24:57 resources is kind of where the onus
24:58 stops for us as individuals to fight
25:01 huge systemic injustice. Obviously,
25:02 voting is going to matter going into
25:05 2026, and when we don't vote, it's those
25:07 on the margins who tend to feel it most.
25:09 So, let's do better this next time. Our
