Latest / Deeply Well with Devi Brown / Equity is Freedom with Dr. Yewande Austin

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Equity is Freedom with Dr. Yewande Austin · Deeply Well with Devi Brown

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Speaker 1: Mm from grandmothers who whispered in their baby girl in
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Speaker 1: two fathers on dimly lit street corners, instructing young soldiers
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Speaker 1: to always keep their eyes open. You be queen, you
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Speaker 1: were fired. You will pass through centuries on the hands
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Speaker 1: of your daughters. They called you wisdom. Proverbs on the
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Speaker 1: backs of diamond eyed school children who growing into hymnals
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Speaker 1: recited by amethyst holding urban philosophers who recited neighborhood commandments
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Speaker 1: out of the windows of restored Alchemedo chariots to keep
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Speaker 1: the warmth of their blood, be wise, be smart, being black,
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Speaker 1: Opal Brown courts bloodstone and prayer. Be every form of
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Speaker 1: jim se King told, scribe, scribe, told son, son, told wife,
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Speaker 1: wife told her daughter, and daughter told the as this is.
1:00
Speaker 1: And the ancestors told me that you would come to
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Speaker 1: give wisdom thousands. They said you would come, Dropping Dropping Gen. Hey,
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Speaker 1: welcome back another episode of the Dropping Gen's podcast. Thank
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Speaker 1: you for being here. I'm your host, Deverie Brown. Connect
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Speaker 1: with me on I g at Debbie Brown and I
1:20
Speaker 1: want to do a huge shout out to everybody at
1:22
Speaker 1: the Black Effect Network and I Heart Radio. That is
1:25
Speaker 1: where my show is so happy to live. But of
1:28
Speaker 1: course you can always connect with the show in all
1:30
Speaker 1: the ways that you listen to podcasts. Today's episode, we
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Speaker 1: are diving into diversity, equity inclusion. This is an area
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Speaker 1: we have not um so specifically touched on in this
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Speaker 1: show yet. But I find this moment in time really fascinating,
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Speaker 1: especially as we are now having these conversations in such
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Speaker 1: an expansive way globally. And the way that I'm kind
1:56
Speaker 1: of experiencing it and noticing it is this down no
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Speaker 1: effect right, Like, I feel that really and this is
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Speaker 1: still unfolding, um but so many marginalized communities, oppressed communities globally,
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Speaker 1: we are each in many ways having a moment in
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Speaker 1: the sun where certain things that have been the norm
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Speaker 1: for us but not known for everyone are being brought
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Speaker 1: to the forefront and being shared and said explicitly and plainly.
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Speaker 1: And the way that I recognize the impact of this
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Speaker 1: moment is that it is all in service to our
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Speaker 1: collective ascension and the elevation of our consciousness. And this
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Speaker 1: is a moment that is thousands of years overdue and
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Speaker 1: our millions of years overdue. Depending on who you act
2:44
Speaker 1: and what evolutionary timetable you may be following, UM. But
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Speaker 1: you know, this past year, I think for many of
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Speaker 1: us was really interesting in watching, especially at the top
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Speaker 1: of the pandemic, when social unrest was really at a
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Speaker 1: height for us here in the US, it was really
3:03
Speaker 1: interesting watching how little ah non communities of color knew
3:13
Speaker 1: about the experiences outside of themselves. I think for me, though,
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Speaker 1: I think we that's been plainly clear for all of us. UM.
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Speaker 1: It was really deepened for me because I do have
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Speaker 1: sometimes the habit of assuming that everyone is like me,
3:31
Speaker 1: even though I know very differently. UM. But I do
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Speaker 1: always have this this belief inside of me sometimes that
3:38
Speaker 1: we are all coming from a space of knowledge, wisdom
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Speaker 1: and compassion. UM. And of course you know, we're all
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Speaker 1: on our own journeys. And in this moment, I remember, UM,
3:51
Speaker 1: James Baldwin said this really perfectly, and I'm paraphrasing now,
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Speaker 1: but it was eye opening for me in a clip
4:00
Speaker 1: I was watching of him speaking on a television show
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Speaker 1: and he said, we have always known how your lives operate.
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Speaker 1: You know, you've never known about ours. But every film
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Speaker 1: that comes out, every major story, every book, every major
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Speaker 1: theme has always centered around whiteness and the goodness of whiteness.
4:21
Speaker 1: And because whiteness has been at the forefront of the
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Speaker 1: way that we experience ourselves. Um, we've known complexities of
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Speaker 1: whiteness very well, you know, I think just being alive
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Speaker 1: in America, based on our movies, based on the magazines,
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Speaker 1: based on the advertisements, based on the books, based on
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Speaker 1: the magazines, based on the history taught in schools, we
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Speaker 1: know what it is at every intersection of whiteness. We
4:49
Speaker 1: know what it is to be poor white. We know
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Speaker 1: what it is to be rich white. We know what
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Speaker 1: it is to be blue collar white. We know what
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Speaker 1: it is to be um, you know, disenfranchised white. Like
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Speaker 1: we know all of the spectrum of the stories and um,
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Speaker 1: the challenges and the different degrees that a full spectrum
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Speaker 1: of white people experience. And I think for a lot
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Speaker 1: of people it gets a little lost on us that, yeah,
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Speaker 1: we have the depth of this understanding of that experience
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Speaker 1: in a multitude of ways, but it's not reciprocated, it's
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Speaker 1: not reflected. There is so much that is unknown about
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Speaker 1: the experiences of people who are not in the position
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Speaker 1: of power in this country. And so I think that
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Speaker 1: that has really lent itself, um to a fascinating moment
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Speaker 1: in time. You know, the reactions that we were seeing
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Speaker 1: that a lot of people had to the social unrest
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Speaker 1: because it was the first time they actually sat down
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Speaker 1: and had to witness it and had to know it.
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Speaker 1: And for us it was like, well for some of us, um,
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Speaker 1: it was like yeah, that's every single day since forever. Um.
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Speaker 1: So you know, with all of that, in the way
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Speaker 1: that it's expanded, there are more conversations than ever happening
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Speaker 1: in really non traditional places. You know, Um, we're in
6:18
Speaker 1: our workspaces having sometimes really complex conversations around race, having
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Speaker 1: really complex conversations about money, about white supremacy, about so
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Speaker 1: many of the systemic structures in place and how they
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Speaker 1: affect everyone. And you know, a thing for me that
6:41
Speaker 1: was that was a little bit irritating, um, when everything
6:46
Speaker 1: was kicking off last year, was this kind of blanket
6:50
Speaker 1: statement that was said as a catch all, especially by
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Speaker 1: a lot of companies, but by so many people on Instagram,
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Speaker 1: the posting of that black uh screen and then the
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Speaker 1: terminology of we're listening, we're learning, you know, and I
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Speaker 1: remember thinking, who crafted that? What is your real intention?
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Speaker 1: What do you mean by that? What are you studying?
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Speaker 1: What are you listening to, what are you learning and
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Speaker 1: how will that show up for active change? UM? So
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Speaker 1: today's conversation, let's dive into all of these things. UM.
7:22
Speaker 1: You know, because we are where we are and we've
7:25
Speaker 1: all chosen this human experience, so we're going to be
7:27
Speaker 1: here for a while. But as is expanding, and as
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Speaker 1: new stories are being new stories are being told, um,
7:35
Speaker 1: and as there is this very clear present shift happening
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Speaker 1: for all of us, all the billions of people on
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Speaker 1: the planet right now. UM, there's so much to look at.
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Speaker 1: So on today's show, I have a wonderful, wonderful guest
7:51
Speaker 1: that was actually suggested to me, um by a powerful
7:56
Speaker 1: listener of this show. And when I when I have
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Speaker 1: the opportunity to really look through her work, I just said, Wow,
8:04
Speaker 1: this is somebody that has been really, really in a
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Speaker 1: powerful way showing up in the world and doing some
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Speaker 1: of this deeply complicated and heavy work for a very
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Speaker 1: long time. So today's guest on the show is Dr
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Speaker 1: Yewande Austin. She is recognized as an international expert injustice, equity,
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Speaker 1: diversity and inclusion. Dr Austin's work has touched over two
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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand people in thirty countries, including twenty
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Speaker 1: three nations across the continent of Africa. She was honored
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Speaker 1: to serve as Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's former Special Advisor
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Speaker 1: to the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, the first
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Speaker 1: ever state agency of its kind in the Commonwealth of
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Speaker 1: Virginia and the nation. And to say that was in Virginia,
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Speaker 1: that's a big deal. For the last sixteen years, Dr
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Speaker 1: Austin Social Impact Consultancy One Change LLC has impacted over
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Speaker 1: three thousand academic institutions, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations through
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Speaker 1: programs that explore the powerful intersection between justice, equity, diversity
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Speaker 1: and inclusion, leadership, and innovation. Dr yo Wande Austin, Welcome
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Speaker 1: to the show. Thanks so much for having me. So
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Speaker 1: I think off top before we even get started, we
9:26
Speaker 1: were having a beautiful talk about accessories. So anybody that
9:30
Speaker 1: follows me, I'm a jewelry girl. I love adorning myself,
9:34
Speaker 1: I love accessories. You came on screen looking just stunningly beautiful.
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Speaker 1: You have this gorgeous necklace on, and we both started
9:43
Speaker 1: talking about how much we love, how much joy can
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Speaker 1: be found in that kind of adorning, but I find
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Speaker 1: it to also be such a sacred experience for me.
9:54
Speaker 1: I think the more I connect with the deepest parts
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Speaker 1: of myself, um, the more of banded on my spiritual journey.
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Speaker 1: Everything serves a purpose, everything has a meaning, And so
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Speaker 1: when I'm putting on accessories, it's always so deeply intentional,
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Speaker 1: um and kind of there. It's this curation of how
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Speaker 1: I'm showing up in that moment. So, since you have
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Speaker 1: such beautiful accessories on it, I would love to know
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Speaker 1: what is your spiritual connection to the way that you
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Speaker 1: present in the world. M Well, I think that we
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Speaker 1: all have a story. I have never been attracted to
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Speaker 1: what the masses found to be appealing somehow as the
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Speaker 1: universe created me. I've always been connected to the road
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Speaker 1: less traveled, and that also relates to how I want
10:44
Speaker 1: to present myself. You know, there was a time I
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Speaker 1: don't mind saying that I wore tracks and I were
10:51
Speaker 1: we use and I I adorned myself with um things
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Speaker 1: that were synthetic that I thought represented and I deal
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Speaker 1: of beauty. It wasn't until I decided to celebrate an
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Speaker 1: honor my natural hair that I found beauty in that
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Speaker 1: which others didn't understand, but took a little bit more
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Speaker 1: effort to understand. Just like with so many women of
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Speaker 1: color and our hair, it takes time, and we are
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Speaker 1: so neger to get that immediate gratification in all things
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Speaker 1: that we're much more attracted to that than taking a
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Speaker 1: little bit more time to understand, to manage, to find
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Speaker 1: the beauty in that which is not apparent. And so
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Speaker 1: I found the same thing in my jewelry. I have
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Speaker 1: a piece of jewelry from every country in which I
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Speaker 1: have worked and in the communities where I have served,
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Speaker 1: and there's a story behind every piece, just like there
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Speaker 1: is on my neck today. This piece is actually from
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Speaker 1: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, although I purchased it
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Speaker 1: in Atlanta at one of my favorite shops, Afro Centric
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Speaker 1: Network on Lee Street, Little Plug and I'm gonna be
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Speaker 1: I'm in love with this. I'm gonna be checking out
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Speaker 1: their sight when we get off. It's amazing. But a
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Speaker 1: piece like this, for example, Debbie, is not one that
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Speaker 1: could be replicated. Why because it is created from scraps. Normally,
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Speaker 1: a lot of these pieces from Africa are created from scraps,
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Speaker 1: from the leftovers from parts either from machinery or from
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Speaker 1: wiring or trash that people thought were disposable, but someone
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Speaker 1: had the insight to lean in and find the beauty
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Speaker 1: in that piece. And so these are scraps of leather
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Speaker 1: that are wrapped around pieces of tire. You wouldn't know that,
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Speaker 1: But isn't that a metaphor for life that we are
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Speaker 1: all on a quest to find the beauty within ourselves?
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Speaker 1: And that's one of the things that I love about
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Speaker 1: your show, helping people become deeper connected with their inner selves.
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Speaker 1: Because it's easy to put on the adornments and look fabulous,
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Speaker 1: but how do you feel? What do you resonance every day?
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Speaker 1: How are you intentional showing up in the world. That's
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Speaker 1: really a beautiful, beautiful share and reflection and the thing
13:07
Speaker 1: that comes up for me and it's I'm really connecting
13:10
Speaker 1: to what you were saying as it relates especially to hair, uh,
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Speaker 1: like I have, I have a lot of hair. I
13:17
Speaker 1: got long hair, it's really curly. Um and that my
13:20
Speaker 1: curly hair was a big part of my life for
13:22
Speaker 1: most of my life. And then I started using a
13:24
Speaker 1: keratin treatment some years ago. So I've been on this
13:28
Speaker 1: journey the last year of like retraining my curls and
13:31
Speaker 1: being able to connect to the more natural state of myself.
13:35
Speaker 1: UM one, because I really wanted to save time and too,
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Speaker 1: I just really enjoy my natural state. UM but a
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Speaker 1: piece that has been powerful for me as I'm kind
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Speaker 1: of trying to gently, without judgment, coax my natural being out. Um.
13:51
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of us we make our own
13:53
Speaker 1: like hair products right in our bathrooms, or we make
13:55
Speaker 1: our own little refresher sprays for our curls to keep
13:58
Speaker 1: you know, in between our wa is. And something that
14:01
Speaker 1: I do is I do raiky on my curl refresher
14:05
Speaker 1: each time that I make it, so I send it
14:07
Speaker 1: energy and then I also put anointing oils in it.
14:10
Speaker 1: And so sometimes that looks like a little frankincense and
14:12
Speaker 1: mer sometimes it looks like special blends that I've concoct it.
14:16
Speaker 1: And every time I'm looking to refresh my hair, I'm
14:20
Speaker 1: also charging like my crown chakra and sprain like these
14:24
Speaker 1: intentions into my scalp. And I've just found that it's
14:27
Speaker 1: really been a beautiful piece of my process. And so,
14:30
Speaker 1: you know, kind of as we fit. It's interesting, you know,
14:33
Speaker 1: you do really big work in the world and and
14:36
Speaker 1: we're gonna start unpacking all of that, and everyone was
14:39
Speaker 1: able to hear some of our introduction. And but what
14:42
Speaker 1: I found is, you know, early in my life, I
14:45
Speaker 1: really rejected beauty in many ways, Like there were things
14:49
Speaker 1: about attractiveness that I've rejected, and I was just like
14:54
Speaker 1: way more concerned with being cerebral, way more concerned with
14:58
Speaker 1: how I felt I was energetically showing up. And I
15:01
Speaker 1: feel like I really rejected some of um, you know,
15:05
Speaker 1: some of the qualities of like the divine feminine. I
15:08
Speaker 1: was really stuck in some of my um masculine that
15:13
Speaker 1: I had taken on for protection, right um and and
15:16
Speaker 1: some some of that personal vigilance sometimes we take with
15:20
Speaker 1: ourselves depending on our experiences. And part of the journey
15:25
Speaker 1: that I found, as I'm always thinking deeper into my
15:29
Speaker 1: authentic self is letting my natural inter radiance come out
15:34
Speaker 1: and actually taking care with myself. When I was younger,
15:37
Speaker 1: I was I was so in rejection of beauty and
15:41
Speaker 1: my own appearance that I wouldn't spend time with myself.
15:45
Speaker 1: I was working through this thought this week where I
15:47
Speaker 1: was like, I wouldn't even deep condition my hair because
15:49
Speaker 1: I resented the amount of time. It took right. I
15:51
Speaker 1: didn't want to be in front of the mirror for
15:52
Speaker 1: that long. And now it's one of the things that
15:55
Speaker 1: I savor and really look forward to giving myself that care.
15:59
Speaker 1: And I found that the way I care for myself
16:03
Speaker 1: in that way that I used to think was a
16:05
Speaker 1: little more vapid or you know, just maybe surface, it
16:09
Speaker 1: actually allows me to show up really powerfully in my
16:14
Speaker 1: work and really powerfully in the world. And I feel
16:17
Speaker 1: cared for and I feel protected, and I also feel
16:21
Speaker 1: like that investment that I put into me. UM. So
16:25
Speaker 1: I just, yeah, that came forward for me as we
16:27
Speaker 1: were kind of beginning this conversation. But Debbie, I so
16:31
Speaker 1: relate to that. You know, the world that both of
16:34
Speaker 1: us do today, UM didn't come overnight. It came through. UM.
16:40
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of trials for me, early trauma
16:44
Speaker 1: in my life, UM that put me into a cocoon
16:48
Speaker 1: that took years for me to break free of. People
16:52
Speaker 1: don't understand that today. They don't quite honestly believe me
16:55
Speaker 1: that I was a wallflower in high school, that I
16:58
Speaker 1: was that little girl that was really afraid of her shadow.
17:02
Speaker 1: But I'm so grateful that there are people along the
17:05
Speaker 1: way that saw the beauty within first that was so
17:10
Speaker 1: important to my growth. Um And and when I also
17:14
Speaker 1: think back to a time when I was just a
17:16
Speaker 1: little girl and experienced some early traumas, and I remember
17:21
Speaker 1: my mom um setting up our first apartment after she
17:25
Speaker 1: had left my father and living in a closet for
17:28
Speaker 1: the first several years of my life, and she saw
17:31
Speaker 1: that I was angry. I was very sad as a
17:35
Speaker 1: little girl. Um. It saddens her today to know that
17:38
Speaker 1: I had very little joy as a child growing up
17:41
Speaker 1: because I was burdened with so many of those adult
17:45
Speaker 1: issues that a lot of children around the world are
17:48
Speaker 1: introduced too far too early in their lives. And it
17:51
Speaker 1: changes who you are. It shapes a very important part
17:56
Speaker 1: of who you are, how you see yourself, and how
17:58
Speaker 1: you show up in the world. But you know, there's
18:00
Speaker 1: a very important lesson that my mom taught me very
18:03
Speaker 1: early on that I'm grateful for to this day, and
18:06
Speaker 1: that is I didn't have to be defined by my
18:08
Speaker 1: circumstances and I could become better because of what I
18:12
Speaker 1: had overcome. She taught me very early on that if
18:15
Speaker 1: I were to succeed, to be happy, um, to walk
18:20
Speaker 1: in the fullness of myself that it was my responsibility
18:24
Speaker 1: and it came from within. That one lesson has served
18:29
Speaker 1: as the ethos of my work around the world is
18:32
Speaker 1: that no matter what it is that we're going through,
18:35
Speaker 1: the answers to solve the world's greatest problems are within
18:40
Speaker 1: their right there. But if we could get to a
18:43
Speaker 1: point where we don't cover up, right, we're not covering
18:47
Speaker 1: up with the things I talked about, the tracks and
18:50
Speaker 1: the weaves, and this is no disrespect to anybody who
18:53
Speaker 1: does wear them, but I think we have to think
18:55
Speaker 1: about why we do these things. Why why do we
18:58
Speaker 1: subscribe to serve ideals of beauty or how we should
19:02
Speaker 1: show up in the world and put all of that energy,
19:05
Speaker 1: not only the finance. I remember spending a lot of
19:08
Speaker 1: money on that and going on and making sure I
19:12
Speaker 1: had my lashes, although I must say I was rushing
19:15
Speaker 1: to get my little false eyelashes on before my interview
19:18
Speaker 1: because sometimes I feel naked without with you today without them,
19:24
Speaker 1: And first I appreciate that, but before us to check ourselves,
19:28
Speaker 1: like what is that in my brain? At a certain
19:32
Speaker 1: point that said, I have to be lashing to have
19:34
Speaker 1: a last fully on to watch the fullness of who
19:38
Speaker 1: I am and to be fabulous. You already got it.
19:44
Speaker 1: If you are true to yourself, even when people don't
19:48
Speaker 1: believe in you, even when times get tough, your beauty
19:53
Speaker 1: will radiate through uh like a little lash I have
19:57
Speaker 1: stuck in my eye that I've been trying to move up.
20:00
Speaker 1: But I for the first five minutes of our interview,
20:03
Speaker 1: as my eyes have been watering, you will still radiate
20:06
Speaker 1: through that. You will still rise above if you are
20:09
Speaker 1: true to who you are. It's when we start listening
20:11
Speaker 1: to the static and we start paying attention to images
20:15
Speaker 1: and the narrative that other people put out there that
20:18
Speaker 1: we should subscribe to. When we're not true to to
20:22
Speaker 1: who we are, that's when we diminish our beauty. It's
20:27
Speaker 1: it's so interesting actually to be leaning into this piece
20:31
Speaker 1: of it and I think, um that this is a part.
20:34
Speaker 1: This is a conversation I haven't had yet on this show,
20:36
Speaker 1: like really in and I think it's powerful because I think,
20:40
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, and the work which we're going
20:44
Speaker 1: to step into is like one thing, but it's also
20:46
Speaker 1: how do I drive my ship to be able to
20:50
Speaker 1: show up for the calling on my life? Right? How
20:53
Speaker 1: can I get so tapped into my inner radiance that
20:58
Speaker 1: that is a piece I don't have to think a
21:00
Speaker 1: lot of about because it's part of my ritual. It's
21:02
Speaker 1: part of how I offer myself to God and myself
21:07
Speaker 1: every day and in every way. And it's funny, Um,
21:11
Speaker 1: you know, I remember when I was younger, and things
21:12
Speaker 1: are a little different in this moment, Like the last
21:14
Speaker 1: couple of years, we've we've come into such expansive conversations
21:18
Speaker 1: around womanhood, around um, you know, all the societal contracts,
21:23
Speaker 1: including the way that we view ourselves through leading advertisement
21:27
Speaker 1: shows and all the things of the time. And so
21:31
Speaker 1: I found for me that being in the global pandemic,
21:35
Speaker 1: like being in my house for a year, not being
21:37
Speaker 1: able to get my my nails and TOAs done, especially
21:40
Speaker 1: in the first few months, or get my hair done,
21:42
Speaker 1: which was my go to was always just go for
21:44
Speaker 1: a blow dry because I didn't want to spend time
21:46
Speaker 1: doing my hair by myself, you know, um, and really
21:49
Speaker 1: like pouring down our clothes, and you know it, it
21:54
Speaker 1: created like a moment for me where I felt the
21:59
Speaker 1: most beautiful, like I really was able to just sit
22:03
Speaker 1: and be with myself with all without all of the
22:06
Speaker 1: trappings and also without any of the feedback, any of
22:09
Speaker 1: the in person um you know, body language or comments
22:13
Speaker 1: or experiences, and so you really get to know, like
22:16
Speaker 1: what is leading me to whatever my look is or
22:19
Speaker 1: however I want to present and each day and you know,
22:22
Speaker 1: I remember when I was younger, especially when I was
22:24
Speaker 1: working in radio, I used to do we have so
22:27
Speaker 1: many interviews and you know, every other day, like we'd
22:30
Speaker 1: have different artists or you know, people coming on to
22:33
Speaker 1: to be on the show. And you know, sometimes you're tired,
22:36
Speaker 1: you show up at work. You don't want to be
22:37
Speaker 1: all blah blah blah, you know, blah blah bam. And
22:41
Speaker 1: I was thinking. I was talking to a friend of mine,
22:43
Speaker 1: my friend Saddi Simone, about this, and I was like,
22:45
Speaker 1: I remember there was a time I used to apologize
22:48
Speaker 1: for my face, you know, like if I was ever
22:51
Speaker 1: ran into someone in public and I didn't happen to
22:53
Speaker 1: have makeup on, or my hair was an a ponytail,
22:55
Speaker 1: but like, oh my god, I'm sorry, don't look at
22:57
Speaker 1: my face. And I put on like glasses, you know,
22:59
Speaker 1: and I'd be wearing glasses inside like sunglasses, and I'm like,
23:02
Speaker 1: oh sorry, I didn't I didn't have time to put
23:04
Speaker 1: my makeup on today, or oh I didn't do my hair,
23:07
Speaker 1: and that was a regular thing for women then, right,
23:11
Speaker 1: And this wasn't that long ago, but it isn't now.
23:14
Speaker 1: And that's really interesting to look at how how our
23:18
Speaker 1: paradigm shifts happen and so instantaneous, and then everything is
23:23
Speaker 1: different and we have these new permissions and now I'm
23:25
Speaker 1: looking back like, how would I Why on earth would
23:28
Speaker 1: I ever apologize for how I look to anyone? Why
23:33
Speaker 1: would I ever give that amount of power to anyone?
23:38
Speaker 1: Uh So, it's really Yeah, it's interesting to explore at
23:41
Speaker 1: the different stages of our ages of life. You know,
23:44
Speaker 1: how we the layers in which we can accept ourselves
23:49
Speaker 1: feeding into the stereotypes we we've all been led him
23:53
Speaker 1: up and really at some point been um um distracted
24:01
Speaker 1: by external noise and allowed it to become our internal noise.
24:07
Speaker 1: But this pandemic, with all of the catastrophic losses, the
24:13
Speaker 1: destruction of our economy, of our comfort even within our
24:18
Speaker 1: own spaces, because now we have to share them with
24:22
Speaker 1: some people who we are questioning while we were with
24:24
Speaker 1: them in the first place, and it has now forced
24:30
Speaker 1: us to confront the external noise that we allowed into
24:36
Speaker 1: our homes where now we have been contained to stay safe.
24:41
Speaker 1: But we're finding Wait a minute, there's so much more
24:43
Speaker 1: noise in this space than what I remembered before the pandemic.
24:47
Speaker 1: Because I was able to leave, I was able to
24:49
Speaker 1: escape that, I was able to pretend that it did
24:51
Speaker 1: not exist. Stract now we have been forced to come
24:54
Speaker 1: face to face with all of the lies that we
24:59
Speaker 1: have fed into and it is time and all of
25:02
Speaker 1: the personal betrayals that we may have even made to ourselves,
25:06
Speaker 1: all of it, all of it. It's time for us
25:08
Speaker 1: to get real about everything. In light of all of
25:12
Speaker 1: the destruction that COVID has caused, it has also created
25:16
Speaker 1: what I call an era of reawakening that we fell asleep.
25:20
Speaker 1: I think we fell asleep after President Obama. We thought
25:23
Speaker 1: there was no way that we could go back, and
25:26
Speaker 1: we did not take advantage um of our rights to vote.
25:31
Speaker 1: And we see where that got us. We have not
25:34
Speaker 1: taken care of our bodies. We see where that has
25:37
Speaker 1: gotten some of us with our our COVID weight. Maya
25:40
Speaker 1: colpa I ate brownies. For about the first three months,
25:45
Speaker 1: I was struggling with the transition listen, and I'm a
25:48
Speaker 1: motivational speaker. But the motivational speaker was like, wait a minute, right,
25:52
Speaker 1: it's something that had never been I've been through some
25:55
Speaker 1: things deby brown and the life. I have survived a
25:59
Speaker 1: heart attack, bilateral pneumonia. I work with human trafficking victims
26:04
Speaker 1: and orphans and in conflict zones. I've been through some things.
26:08
Speaker 1: I've seen some things. Haven't seen this one. So we
26:12
Speaker 1: started neglecting our body and again tapping into other things
26:17
Speaker 1: like brownies that made us feel made us think that
26:20
Speaker 1: we felt better. For me, it was green tea ice cream.
26:23
Speaker 1: I ate that every single night, Like I could not
26:26
Speaker 1: go to bed without having some every single night of
26:30
Speaker 1: the pandemic. Right, that's amazing. But it forced us to
26:35
Speaker 1: get real aboutism in this country. As with the death
26:41
Speaker 1: of George Floyd. I find it fascinating that it ignited
26:46
Speaker 1: this fight against police brutality around the world, because in America,
26:50
Speaker 1: will labor Wait a minute, this has been going on
26:53
Speaker 1: for four hundred years. What made it different. It's because
26:56
Speaker 1: we were forced to be still and everyone was four
27:00
Speaker 1: to witness it, yes, and to not move around and
27:04
Speaker 1: to not be distracted by the external noise. Now that
27:08
Speaker 1: external noise became our internal pain, that we made a collective,
27:15
Speaker 1: universal agreement. We were no longer okay by sitting still
27:20
Speaker 1: and saying that was someone else's pain. I feel sorry
27:24
Speaker 1: for George Floyd, but that's too bad that had happened
27:27
Speaker 1: to him and his family. But that's not my problem.
27:30
Speaker 1: And I thank God and the universe for that that
27:34
Speaker 1: I think the entire world has finally seen we can
27:38
Speaker 1: no longer subscribe to this idea that's that someone else's pain,
27:43
Speaker 1: because when it affects one of us, it affects all
27:46
Speaker 1: of us. And then we're so awakened that now we're
27:50
Speaker 1: seeing case after case after case of Brianna Taylor and
27:54
Speaker 1: Dante right, and we're saying, wait a minute, what's going on?
27:57
Speaker 1: This has been going on, but rayism has not always
28:01
Speaker 1: been as blatant as um hanging lynching. It has not
28:06
Speaker 1: always been as blatant as police brutality. Now we are
28:10
Speaker 1: so awake and alive that we're recognizing we also don't
28:13
Speaker 1: have to work in spaces where we're not valued, we're
28:16
Speaker 1: not receiving equitable compensation, where we psychologically don't feel safe,
28:22
Speaker 1: where spiritually we feel we have been re enslaved in
28:27
Speaker 1: some spaces. I've worked in some of those spaces, and
28:30
Speaker 1: I can say during the pandemic, I'm saying, no, I'm free.
28:35
Speaker 1: And we're recognizing now the critical intersection between our spiritual selves,
28:40
Speaker 1: our social selves, and also our emotional selves, and that
28:45
Speaker 1: they're also deeply connected. That we can no longer forsake
28:48
Speaker 1: one of them just for the sake of getting ahead
28:52
Speaker 1: financially or when it comes to our our beauty. None
28:57
Speaker 1: of that matters, you know, at the core of it
29:00
Speaker 1: is not what we embodied on earth to know. And
29:03
Speaker 1: do you know there's so much more available. You've been
29:06
Speaker 1: doing the work of diversity. I mean for just so
29:09
Speaker 1: long globally. I'm really interested in your perspective of in
29:14
Speaker 1: the last year especially. I think two of the well,
29:17
Speaker 1: i'll say three of the words that I think kind
29:19
Speaker 1: of took over our vernacular in one form of another
29:21
Speaker 1: was mental health, wellness and diversity. And I remember, you know,
29:27
Speaker 1: when when the social unrest really broke out around this
29:31
Speaker 1: time last year, as you as you said, you know,
29:34
Speaker 1: for many of us, it was like, yeah, this has
29:37
Speaker 1: been happening every day since human existence, Like hello, you know,
29:42
Speaker 1: but I think, Um, the thing that we noticed was
29:45
Speaker 1: that everyone was called to quote unquote action. A lot
29:49
Speaker 1: of it was performative, the black boxes, right, like the
29:52
Speaker 1: we're listening, we're learning, you know, and and it's like, okay,
29:56
Speaker 1: so what does that mean and what does that mean
29:58
Speaker 1: in practice? But I'm really curious, um, having done this
30:04
Speaker 1: work globally in in many different ways for so long,
30:08
Speaker 1: what are you noticing about diversity in this moment? How
30:12
Speaker 1: is that showing up? Is there real weight behind it? Um?
30:16
Speaker 1: And what's necessary for our spaces to truly be diverse
30:21
Speaker 1: in the way that they should be. Yeah, it's so
30:24
Speaker 1: very interesting that you ask that, because for the last
30:27
Speaker 1: sixteen years I have taught d e I Diversity, equity
30:32
Speaker 1: and inclusion as a completely separate subject from social justice.
30:38
Speaker 1: I think it was this part of myself that felt that, Um,
30:42
Speaker 1: A lot of people are either intimidated by or maybe
30:45
Speaker 1: turned off by the idea of social activism because that
30:48
Speaker 1: concept is passe, right, because we've already won the fights. Right.
30:54
Speaker 1: We've got through the through Jim Crow, we got through
30:57
Speaker 1: the freedom of enslaved human beings here in this country,
31:01
Speaker 1: we got through the civil rights movement. We have our
31:04
Speaker 1: first identifiable elected presidents. So a lot of people feel
31:09
Speaker 1: like the idea of activism is passe, even though it's
31:13
Speaker 1: always been very deeply ingrained in my heart. So I felt, Debbie,
31:16
Speaker 1: I think this responsibility for not shoving it down someone's
31:19
Speaker 1: throat if they wanted to learn about activism and social justice.
31:23
Speaker 1: I'm happy to lead those conversations and teach those tools,
31:27
Speaker 1: but it's optional. I've also focused more on d E
31:31
Speaker 1: and I in corporate and academic spaces, and and in
31:37
Speaker 1: more recent years, have started integrating that into the work
31:40
Speaker 1: that I do internationally. Thinking again, I don't want to
31:44
Speaker 1: force in that particular case, I don't want to force
31:48
Speaker 1: American perspectives on the international communities that I serve, but
31:54
Speaker 1: I now recognize that they are all intrinsically connected. We
32:00
Speaker 1: now recognize that D E and I are just three
32:03
Speaker 1: of a multitude of tools we need to create more
32:06
Speaker 1: equitable spaces. But I can tell you, as a D
32:09
Speaker 1: E I expert, that diversity doesn't work. It doesn't work
32:14
Speaker 1: because while I was working out of the belly of
32:17
Speaker 1: Jim Crow, we are still dealing with people who are
32:22
Speaker 1: no longer physically shackled and chained, but they are economically
32:26
Speaker 1: shackled and chained with people that are no longer legally
32:31
Speaker 1: raped on a plantation. But it is acceptable for a
32:37
Speaker 1: woman or a man to be um accosted by the
32:42
Speaker 1: law enforcement professional professionals that we hired to and protect
32:47
Speaker 1: us and rate behind closed doors or or behind bars,
32:52
Speaker 1: and somehow in a system that they're still allowed to
32:55
Speaker 1: get away with it. So it's a different type of rape.
32:58
Speaker 1: So we don't see the same forms of slavery that
33:02
Speaker 1: existed four hundred years ago. But I would challenge you
33:06
Speaker 1: and your audience to think about in many ways that
33:09
Speaker 1: there are our communities that are siloed in poverty, not
33:14
Speaker 1: by accident, but intentional slavery is still alive and well.
33:20
Speaker 1: The modern forms of slavery, like the prison industrial complex,
33:26
Speaker 1: very much alive and well. Segregated schools that still exist,
33:31
Speaker 1: and some people will be shocked to hear that the
33:36
Speaker 1: large majority of public schools in this country are still segregated.
33:40
Speaker 1: We don't call them that, but depending on where you
33:45
Speaker 1: live determines on the quality of education that you get.
33:48
Speaker 1: That is still segregation and it is legal. So I
33:53
Speaker 1: say that diversity alone is not enough, and for professionals
33:58
Speaker 1: that have brought me for so many years that um
34:00
Speaker 1: say that they don't have the funding or the time
34:03
Speaker 1: and they want me to come in and just conduct
34:05
Speaker 1: a forty five minute or one our diversity training for
34:08
Speaker 1: this month and think that that's okay. It won't work
34:13
Speaker 1: if you think that getting on the bandwagon of hiring
34:15
Speaker 1: a chief diversity officer, which linked in. According to their report,
34:21
Speaker 1: two percent of their hires in two thousand and twenty
34:24
Speaker 1: were chief diversity officers who in two thousand and twenty
34:28
Speaker 1: one aren't staying in these positions because they're passionate and
34:32
Speaker 1: serious experts in this work and find that they're working
34:36
Speaker 1: in companies that aren't truly committed their companies that are
34:40
Speaker 1: there checking a box. They're checking a box and putting
34:43
Speaker 1: a band aid on the problem because our staff is
34:47
Speaker 1: saying that we are not equitable. We've got to make
34:49
Speaker 1: a statement and take a stand on on where we
34:52
Speaker 1: support diversity. That they're thinking that they have done the work,
34:56
Speaker 1: that's not the work. You're not doing the work of
34:59
Speaker 1: diversity off, you're not making a serious financial commitment and
35:02
Speaker 1: investment in the work. If you are not encouraging conversations
35:07
Speaker 1: in safe places, if you are not assessing your hiring
35:10
Speaker 1: policies and benefits, and the list goes on and on.
35:14
Speaker 1: We now know that diversity alone doesn't work. What we
35:18
Speaker 1: really want is a new framework that we recognize now
35:21
Speaker 1: as JEDI. That's justice, equity, diversity, and include that we
35:26
Speaker 1: realize that we must bring justice from the margins to
35:31
Speaker 1: the forefront of everything that we do. When we lead
35:36
Speaker 1: with justice, we we really speak to our spiritual selves.
35:40
Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, we say that we commit first to doing
35:45
Speaker 1: the right thing, first, last, and always we put ourselves
35:49
Speaker 1: in the feet of uh and the shoes I'm sorry,
35:52
Speaker 1: rather of others. We consider others feelings and how our
35:56
Speaker 1: choices will impact them. Yeah, and we think about having
36:01
Speaker 1: the courage to open and confront conversations that before we
36:06
Speaker 1: have been afraid of of leading. Because the the sad
36:10
Speaker 1: fact is that we do live in two America's. One
36:14
Speaker 1: America that was built for a privileged few to have
36:18
Speaker 1: access to all the resources that they needed not just
36:21
Speaker 1: to survive, but to thrive, and then we live in
36:25
Speaker 1: yet another America where the system has been designed knowingly
36:30
Speaker 1: and intentionally allowing too many people to still suffer, and
36:34
Speaker 1: they're okay with it. So we we have to get
36:37
Speaker 1: to a space now where diversity is not enough. It's
36:41
Speaker 1: a part of the solution that it's not the total.
36:44
Speaker 1: What we really want is justice for every single human being.
36:49
Speaker 1: How does that present itself in the workplace? For a
36:52
Speaker 1: workplace to actively have radical transformation where everyone is fully
36:57
Speaker 1: respected her, they're making been a facial contributions into the world.
37:02
Speaker 1: How does that become a reality in these places? And
37:05
Speaker 1: have you seen it? Like, have you really seen corporate
37:09
Speaker 1: and company structures being able um to show up powerfully?
37:14
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there are some companies that are doing great
37:17
Speaker 1: work around justice. But I can give you one example.
37:21
Speaker 1: One of my clients I've been working with now for
37:23
Speaker 1: nine months, who CEO told me, we really want to
37:28
Speaker 1: do the work. Um, there's seven mindsets. They're one of
37:31
Speaker 1: the biggest social emotional learning companies in the country, and
37:36
Speaker 1: I have been conducting some real surgical Jedi work on
37:40
Speaker 1: their company for nine months. For a CEO to make
37:44
Speaker 1: a courageous step like bringing in a Jedi expert to
37:51
Speaker 1: operate on their company to not only assess all over
37:55
Speaker 1: their curriculum, to assess their organization and make sure that
37:58
Speaker 1: they are an inclusive organization. We just completed a racial
38:02
Speaker 1: equity impact assessment. It's scary. It has ruffled a few
38:06
Speaker 1: feathers UM and even created UM, let's just say, some
38:11
Speaker 1: interesting conversations within the company. An assessment would look very
38:15
Speaker 1: much like if you went into a doctor's office and UM,
38:20
Speaker 1: they lead an examination of you physically. So I'm coming
38:26
Speaker 1: in and I'm assessing everything from your curriculum to your
38:29
Speaker 1: hiring policies. I am conducting anonymous surveys with your executive
38:36
Speaker 1: leadership team as well as your staff UM to assess
38:41
Speaker 1: your position and or feelings about equity, inclusion diversity within
38:46
Speaker 1: your company. Do you feel psychologically safe expressing your race
38:52
Speaker 1: or ethnicity? UM. Are you invited into conversations that would
38:57
Speaker 1: help you advance your career or are you excluded from
39:01
Speaker 1: those conversations. Do you feel that you are receiving equitable
39:06
Speaker 1: compensation based on the lived experiences that you're bringing to
39:10
Speaker 1: a workplace. Historically, we have perhaps put too much value
39:15
Speaker 1: on academic credentials and even professional credentials. That are important,
39:20
Speaker 1: of course, to demonstrate what you have accomplished as a professional,
39:24
Speaker 1: but there are so many lived experiences that professionals, especially
39:28
Speaker 1: of the bipop community, Black Indigenous people of color possess
39:33
Speaker 1: that because of racism, they may not have had an
39:35
Speaker 1: opportunity to advance academically, but that doesn't remove their opportunity
39:41
Speaker 1: to contribute significantly to your growth as a company. So
39:44
Speaker 1: are those lived experiences being evaluated in the hiring process?
39:50
Speaker 1: Is your compensation equitable with men in the firm? White
39:55
Speaker 1: men in the firm, especially, who still earn in upwards
39:59
Speaker 1: of already sends more on a dollar than an African
40:02
Speaker 1: American woman and more than of of an Hispanic woman
40:07
Speaker 1: for the same job, the same responsibilities, the same leadership role.
40:12
Speaker 1: So we're taking really an assessment of of the entire
40:17
Speaker 1: framework of your company, and then I'm generating a report
40:21
Speaker 1: for you with recommendations for how you move forward. So
40:24
Speaker 1: there are companies like Seven Mindsets that are making courageous,
40:28
Speaker 1: bold moves to say what we've done before is important work,
40:34
Speaker 1: but now we recognize we have a greater responsibility as
40:38
Speaker 1: a result of that, they have some clients who have
40:41
Speaker 1: complained that they have more people that are leaning in
40:45
Speaker 1: and recognizing the power of them being bold and making
40:50
Speaker 1: a commitment to using their educational platform as an opportunity
40:55
Speaker 1: to show young impressionable minds the power and the important
41:00
Speaker 1: and the beauty of diversity. What called you to this work? Mmmm?
41:06
Speaker 1: I think because I was that kid that was always
41:09
Speaker 1: different and felt weird in my difference, not recognizing that
41:14
Speaker 1: it was my beauty, it was my cape. If we
41:17
Speaker 1: all had a superhero cape, my weirdness would have it
41:23
Speaker 1: wouldn't been my cape. I gotta tell you, As a child,
41:26
Speaker 1: I have always been more fascinated about social justice and
41:31
Speaker 1: my gosh, Debbie, when I found out that there were
41:34
Speaker 1: pioneers like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglas
41:41
Speaker 1: who used music in the arts, which were always precious
41:44
Speaker 1: to me as weapons for change. What nobody else talking
41:48
Speaker 1: about that in class? You know, they were talking about
41:51
Speaker 1: what cars they wanted to drive and being a superstar.
41:55
Speaker 1: And yet my mother, Um, I mean, God bless her
41:59
Speaker 1: for having the clarity to drag me to see the
42:03
Speaker 1: homes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson when I was
42:06
Speaker 1: a child, because the stories that I learned about them
42:09
Speaker 1: in school were they were these heroes, right, and there
42:16
Speaker 1: was a time that they were a hero to some
42:18
Speaker 1: but oppressors to others. I would not have learned those
42:22
Speaker 1: truths if my mother had not dragged me, because I
42:26
Speaker 1: Nes was not trying to be my friend, okay, and
42:30
Speaker 1: Nels was trying to ensure that her child was exposed
42:33
Speaker 1: to the truth. Those were life changing moments for me
42:36
Speaker 1: to go to these plantations and see the slave quarters.
42:40
Speaker 1: I actually have a slave quarters right in my backyard.
42:43
Speaker 1: You'll have to come visit me sometime. I live in
42:45
Speaker 1: a year old historic home UM with the slave quarters
42:49
Speaker 1: that are attached. But to not only see those slave
42:52
Speaker 1: quarters as a child, but learn about the career stories
42:56
Speaker 1: of my ancestors who invented everything from the traffic light
43:00
Speaker 1: to ironing boards to building some of the most beautiful
43:04
Speaker 1: buildings that we've seen in this country. We're not taught
43:07
Speaker 1: those stories in school. Debvy and didn't like history in school.
43:11
Speaker 1: The true history, the untold history, is what we really
43:15
Speaker 1: need to celebrate, right it has yet to be told.
43:18
Speaker 1: So my mom was doing that and taking me to
43:21
Speaker 1: see Leontine Price and UM so many you know where
43:26
Speaker 1: I I learned as a child that UM, you could
43:30
Speaker 1: break a stereotype and rebuild a narrative through music. You
43:35
Speaker 1: take a story of a man like George Gershwin, a
43:38
Speaker 1: Jewish man that was born into poverty and had the
43:41
Speaker 1: courage to dismantle the stereotype of of African Americans as
43:47
Speaker 1: poor and ignorant and develop an opera for first all
43:52
Speaker 1: Black cast where you would sing all see a woman
43:56
Speaker 1: that wasn't just singing a Negro spiritual or maybe into
44:00
Speaker 1: taining people and like le fol bilj with Josephine paper,
44:04
Speaker 1: which was wonderful. But to hear a Leontine price to
44:08
Speaker 1: sing a m P and iud never go w nowhere
44:25
Speaker 1: listen shree. Yeah. So seeing what a treat, thank you,
44:37
Speaker 1: the beauty, thank you, I didn't warm up for that one,
44:40
Speaker 1: but I want to share a little. But seeing the
44:43
Speaker 1: tereotypes being broken as a child showed me that I
44:49
Speaker 1: could take charge of the narrative that I wanted to
44:52
Speaker 1: create in my life, and I could show other people
44:55
Speaker 1: also how to create a story, not where the story
45:00
Speaker 1: ends in poverty and sadness and loss, but a story
45:05
Speaker 1: that ends the way that they have scripted it, one
45:10
Speaker 1: of triumph, one of resilience and hope. Mm hmm, hold
45:16
Speaker 1: that thought. We are coming right back. So two things. One,
45:30
Speaker 1: I love how you just dropped all that glory on
45:33
Speaker 1: us and kept going. So I gotta call that out
45:39
Speaker 1: of that was such a beautiful Uh, thank you for
45:43
Speaker 1: sharing that that other layer of you and your artistry.
45:47
Speaker 1: M hmm, you know what really, So what I'm hearing
45:51
Speaker 1: and what you're saying is one I'm hearing you know
45:55
Speaker 1: something that that for me is always a character touristic
46:00
Speaker 1: of deepest connection to God Um and deepest purpose, which
46:07
Speaker 1: is it's just an insatiable curiosity. It is, it's a
46:13
Speaker 1: piece of you that longs to investigate, that longs to
46:17
Speaker 1: know the origins of the deeper story to Um. And
46:22
Speaker 1: then I'm also really experiencing the pioneering work because I
46:27
Speaker 1: think for many of us you know this these terms right,
46:31
Speaker 1: like the work of d e I, the work of Jedi,
46:33
Speaker 1: like for many of us, this is on the forefront.
46:37
Speaker 1: Especially this year, we're really understanding pieces that have been missing,
46:42
Speaker 1: things that are necessary, UM. Certain certain words are coming
46:46
Speaker 1: to the forefront, equity, inclusion and diversity, justice, UM. But
46:53
Speaker 1: to have been doing this work for so long, I'm
46:57
Speaker 1: really fascinated to know how did you find this as
47:00
Speaker 1: your path? Like a work that was not known on
47:03
Speaker 1: the mainstream level but is It's truly some of the
47:07
Speaker 1: deepest work one can dedicate their life too, and also
47:10
Speaker 1: one of the most exhaustive types of work that one
47:14
Speaker 1: could dedicate their lives. So you are constantly educating, you
47:18
Speaker 1: are constantly filling yourself with knowledge and seeking, and it's beautiful,
47:24
Speaker 1: but it is tiring. It is tiring to hold space
47:28
Speaker 1: in that way, UM, for such important work and sometimes
47:35
Speaker 1: such profoundly heavy work. UM. So how did you find
47:39
Speaker 1: yourself creating this life for you? In this work that
47:43
Speaker 1: you share? M. I find it interesting that you say
47:48
Speaker 1: how did I find it? Because I think it really
47:50
Speaker 1: found me and it it comes from the earliest traumas
47:53
Speaker 1: that I experienced to my life, which I alluded to before. UM.
47:58
Speaker 1: But there's something to that, you know. I think that
48:01
Speaker 1: most of us tend to think that trauma has to
48:06
Speaker 1: manifest itself in or that it will invariably manifest itself
48:11
Speaker 1: in very negative ways throughout our lives. The word trauma
48:16
Speaker 1: is is heavy. It's a big one. There's no there's
48:21
Speaker 1: no getting around it. We're not talking about a wound,
48:24
Speaker 1: we're not talking about a scrape, we're not talking about
48:26
Speaker 1: a pimple. Trauma is to your core on a cellular level, right,
48:32
Speaker 1: And on a cellular level, if we recognize that everything
48:37
Speaker 1: about us is energy, right, everything that comes in and
48:41
Speaker 1: out of us as energy, then that means that trauma
48:45
Speaker 1: is a negative energy that literally can disrupt the flow
48:50
Speaker 1: shape and even growth patterns within our our body. We
48:55
Speaker 1: tend to think that that story has already been written,
48:58
Speaker 1: that we have a child ex experiences a certain trauma
49:01
Speaker 1: or even compounded traumas earlier in life that has already
49:05
Speaker 1: defined their path. Very rarely do we look at the
49:09
Speaker 1: fact that some of the greatest triumphs and beauty are
49:13
Speaker 1: born from death and conflict. If you just look at
49:18
Speaker 1: the way a seed is planted, a seed is planted
49:23
Speaker 1: in dirt. You know what my favorite flowers is the
49:26
Speaker 1: lotus flower because it can only grow in mud. And
49:31
Speaker 1: look that most of us don't think is appealing. It
49:36
Speaker 1: doesn't feel good, it's gritty, But what emerges out of
49:41
Speaker 1: that muddy water is this glorious flower. So going back
49:45
Speaker 1: to a seed and what a seed has to go through,
49:48
Speaker 1: buried in dirt and darkness, right, that only when it
49:52
Speaker 1: is rained on constantly and fertilized sometimes by some human
49:58
Speaker 1: a dog waste, right, and it has to pierce through
50:02
Speaker 1: that soil and withstand torrential storms and harsh sun and
50:09
Speaker 1: other waste that is poured upon that seed as it
50:12
Speaker 1: as it fights to grow. But ultimately, not only does
50:15
Speaker 1: it produce a glorious flower, but emits oxygen that we
50:20
Speaker 1: depend on. We don't think about conflict or trauma resulting
50:26
Speaker 1: in beauty. And I think that I recognized early on,
50:29
Speaker 1: with with some help and a lot of tough love,
50:34
Speaker 1: that the beauty within me I could either bury and
50:38
Speaker 1: stay rooted in sadness and anger, or I could choose
50:44
Speaker 1: to fertilize it and use the lessons that I learned
50:48
Speaker 1: from overcoming those traumas to help other people. I chose
50:51
Speaker 1: the latter path. It was a choice, and debby, it
50:55
Speaker 1: is a choice that I make every single day. And
50:58
Speaker 1: I want your listeners to recognize is that they have
51:00
Speaker 1: a choice that they can make every single day to
51:06
Speaker 1: walk in their beauty, to identify it, to look past
51:10
Speaker 1: the muck and the mire, and to recognize that they
51:13
Speaker 1: were born perfectly and beautifully made, even with their COVID
51:18
Speaker 1: brownie pounds on them. Because we can get rid of those, right,
51:22
Speaker 1: we can get rid of those, but how about that
51:24
Speaker 1: internal work. UM. I almost say that I expressed to
51:30
Speaker 1: you that I've been through some really big traumas in
51:32
Speaker 1: in my life, and I'd say one of the toughest
51:35
Speaker 1: was when I had a heart attack eight years ago.
51:37
Speaker 1: I'm a survivor and I lost everything. I mean everything.
51:46
Speaker 1: There were days where I couldn't even um didn't have
51:49
Speaker 1: enough money to pay for my power, and I lived
51:52
Speaker 1: in darkness and there was a lot of shame with that.
51:55
Speaker 1: UM My family didn't even know because there was shame
51:58
Speaker 1: in this loss that I had sperience. Here, I've overcome
52:02
Speaker 1: this huge hurdle in fighting for my life. But I
52:06
Speaker 1: gotta tell you, after forty um some odd visits to
52:11
Speaker 1: the doctor's office and four stays in the hospital and
52:15
Speaker 1: not not knowing whether I would live or not, many
52:18
Speaker 1: times I would often go home and crawl into my
52:21
Speaker 1: bed and I would think it would have been so
52:26
Speaker 1: much easier for me not to have survived, because why
52:30
Speaker 1: is it that I have helped all of these people
52:33
Speaker 1: all around the world and I now can't even take
52:36
Speaker 1: care of myself and I am afraid of dying every
52:41
Speaker 1: single day Because that trauma, right when you experience it
52:44
Speaker 1: once there is a perpetual sense of fear that it's
52:48
Speaker 1: going to happen again, so why should I even try.
52:51
Speaker 1: It was much easier for me to stay in bed
52:53
Speaker 1: in total darkness and cold than it was to pull
52:57
Speaker 1: myself up and decide to fight. But Debbie, when I
53:01
Speaker 1: started getting really sick of myself and stick could feeling
53:05
Speaker 1: tired for myself, bad for myself, I'm sorry, and I
53:10
Speaker 1: got tired of crying, and I decided something beautiful can
53:14
Speaker 1: come out of this. I wrote a list of the
53:16
Speaker 1: things that brought me the greatest joy and what my
53:19
Speaker 1: greatest strengths were, and I rebuilt my life. And I've
53:22
Speaker 1: used that model many many times. I've taught children around
53:26
Speaker 1: the world that there are three pillars of life that
53:30
Speaker 1: if you can achieve these, you can pretty much get
53:33
Speaker 1: through anything. And that is number one, figuring out who
53:36
Speaker 1: you want to be, how to become that person, and
53:40
Speaker 1: then how to remain true to being that person in
53:42
Speaker 1: the darkest moments of your life. And I think that
53:45
Speaker 1: the lessons that I have gleaned from overcoming some of
53:50
Speaker 1: the greatest traumas in my life have helped people find
53:54
Speaker 1: the greatness within themselves. And that's why I choose to
53:57
Speaker 1: do this work. I choose to do this work every
54:00
Speaker 1: single day because I see other people growing from and
54:04
Speaker 1: becoming more beautified by this work, and it's hard to
54:09
Speaker 1: let go of that. Yes, it's hard work, but when
54:12
Speaker 1: you see other people growing from the skills that you
54:16
Speaker 1: have gleaned from your own suffering and survival, then it's
54:20
Speaker 1: easy to want to lean in to do the hard work.
54:22
Speaker 1: Because when we plant that seed of hope, uh and
54:27
Speaker 1: possibilities and others, than it makes the world better. And
54:31
Speaker 1: that's what I choose to do every single day. Amazing, amazing.
54:36
Speaker 1: It's I love, UM, especially that you so eloquently are
54:40
Speaker 1: speaking to beauty because there's a very specific spiritual path
54:44
Speaker 1: that is called the Beauty Way, and it's ancient. It's
54:48
Speaker 1: from you know, all the realms UM since in antiquity.
54:52
Speaker 1: But it's all about that path of leaning into joy,
54:56
Speaker 1: cultivating your inner radiance as a tool for trans did
55:00
Speaker 1: healing and self mastery. So I think that that is
55:03
Speaker 1: just exquisite. UM. At the end of every show, I
55:09
Speaker 1: love to share some soul work with the audience, and
55:12
Speaker 1: I would love to invite you to offer potentially a
55:16
Speaker 1: self care practice, maybe a journal prompt or something that
55:19
Speaker 1: can be savored when this episode ends. For each listener,
55:24
Speaker 1: m So, I would say first that that which brings
55:27
Speaker 1: you the greatest joy, lean into that. We often question
55:34
Speaker 1: that which brings us joy, especially if it doesn't fit
55:37
Speaker 1: into that box that we have been conditioned to believe
55:41
Speaker 1: we're supposed to fit neatly in, and that if you
55:44
Speaker 1: don't fit into that box somehow, if you're on the
55:48
Speaker 1: outside of it, that somehow you have taken a wrong turn.
55:52
Speaker 1: Instead of recognizing that every single one of us has
55:56
Speaker 1: a divine path that we're supposed to follow, and that
55:59
Speaker 1: no buddy's path looks the same. So lean into that
56:03
Speaker 1: which brings you joy, and you will see the infinite
56:07
Speaker 1: possibilities that exist within that. When we exist in a
56:12
Speaker 1: space of joy, when we protect and nurture that joy,
56:17
Speaker 1: doors open the universal binds in our favor for the
56:23
Speaker 1: right people, the right resources and opportunities and knowledge for
56:28
Speaker 1: us to celebrate that every single day of our lives.
56:32
Speaker 1: And I would challenge your audience to do that. When
56:35
Speaker 1: you find that joy, do it every single day of
56:38
Speaker 1: your life. So beautiful dr one day, Austin, How can
56:44
Speaker 1: everyone find you? How can they connect with you. Yeah,
56:48
Speaker 1: so there are a few ways they can reach out
56:50
Speaker 1: to me on Facebook. Um, I have a fledgling social
56:56
Speaker 1: media page, but you can find me on Facebook at
56:59
Speaker 1: your Wandi Austin dot not dot com. I'm sorry you
57:02
Speaker 1: will hand the Austin on Facebook. You can also find
57:06
Speaker 1: out more about my humanitarian work at Change International dot
57:10
Speaker 1: org and Global Institute for Diversity and Change dot com.
57:18
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us. This has been
57:21
Speaker 1: such a joy spending this time with you, and thank
57:25
Speaker 1: you for your internal and external radiance. Thank you for
57:31
Speaker 1: having me, Debbie. Hey, find me on social Let's connect
57:35
Speaker 1: at Debbie Brown. That's Twitter and Instagram, or go to
57:39
Speaker 1: my website Debbie Brown dot com. And if you're listening
57:43
Speaker 1: to the show on Apple Podcasts, please please please don't
57:47
Speaker 1: forget to rate, review, and subscribe and send this episode
57:52
Speaker 1: to a friend. Dropping Jams is the production of I
57:55
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Black Effect Network. It's produced by Triple
57:59
Speaker 1: and Me Debbie Brown. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,
58:03
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
58:07
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.