Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Activists Around the World: Bonnie St. John

Transcript

Activists Around the World: Bonnie St. John · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and SMITHA.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I want to stuff and I ever told you a
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: prediction of iHeartRadio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: And Happy March is this? Wait? This is Women's Month,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Women's History Month?
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Yeahtory month.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, thank you for correcting me. We celebrate women and
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: all of those who are in the marginal ZS communities
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: all the time, so sometimes I don't even think about
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: it because obviously we're going to be talking about the
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: amazing people, specifically women and those who identify as women
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: all the time anytime. The only times, Yeah, like that's
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: all we talk about essentially, unless we're talking about bad men.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a couple other things, but generally I would agree.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: But yes, one time we did forget it was Women's
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: History Month, which was really embarrassing. But I maintain it's
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: because we talk about it all.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: The time of our show, and we should be talking
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: about it all the time, so you know, I do.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, yeah, yeah, something March is something. Yeah,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: let you go. And this is our first active it's
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: around the world for this month, obviously, and we wanted
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: to celebrate the first and currently only African American woman
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: to win a Winter Games medal for the Paralympics Bonnie
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Saint John. But before we do, I'm gonna go down
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: a really sad, annoying route because I am a pessimist,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: and that is angry. That is angry because as I
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: was looking for Paralympic athletes, and we want to focus
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: on women, and we want to focus on what they're
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: doing and who they are, I'm like, you know, usually
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: we also want to look at the marginalized communities who
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: have really broken through the barriers. And I have to say,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I'm very disappointed, very disappointed, so content orning, I'm disappointed
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and angry. I canna do with that as a thing.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: We did wrap up the Olympics recently, and we want
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: to come back and talk about it soon because there
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: was a lot that happened with the Olympics. Obviously, we've
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: hinted at a few things. I think we have an
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: upcoming episode and which we talk about in reference to
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: some of the things that have happened with the Olympics,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: specifically when it comes to the women and the athletes
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: who took the gold, like who won all of the
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: damn medals essentially for the United States. But hey, we'll
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: come back to that. But yes, today is March third,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. The opening ceremonies for the Paralympics is
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: March six, so we're a little bit ahead. But we
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: wanted to jump in and celebration pre celebration for those
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: who have made this big accomplishment to qualify within the Games.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: And I was desperately, like I said, trying to find
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a woman of color who'll be representing the US for
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: the Paralympics. And sadly there's only two women of color
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: who is representing and they are of Asian descent. Perhaps
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: I have missed a few others who be like, hey,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I'm also technically these things. But from like me trying
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: to research and I went through like bios and such.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: There was a Korean American, a Mongolian American woman, there's
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: a Ukrainian woman, and there are two African American men
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: who are in this games as well. But that's it, y'all.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: There's no plucked woman to be seen to be competing
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: for this year. Although the Google AI, which you know
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: at the top when you start researching things, it pops
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: up to tell you these are the summaries that we found,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: really wants me to add like two women, white women
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: very much so. Caucasian women is in their bio as
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: women of color for some odd reason. And I don't
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: know if it's because once again, AI is not infallible,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: as we've already discussed and have made a lot of mistakes,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: but or if it's this narrative from the US being
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: like it's okay, they kind of could be if you
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: squint your eyes and turn your head left type of conversation,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: which is a whole different conversation. So unhappy with this situation.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: In general, we do not see many black athletes in
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: the Winter Paralympics, and even less black women, and honestly,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: this is disgusting and really set me back in my research.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I had to take a minute because it shouldn't be
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I think for most people of color, I think for
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: most probably black women, they were like, yeah, obviously, like
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: this wouldn't be a surprising thing, and even though we
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: have talked about the Paralympics, it was so glaringly missing,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Like I went back and looked at our episodes and yeah,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: there's no black women that we talked about in the Paralympics,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, ah, I just I wanted to throw
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: this computer at this point, and seriously, the overall numbers
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: is sitting at like thirty two percent as of twenty
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: twenty four who identified as people of color or marginalized
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: communities for the twenty twenty four Paralympics, those are the
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Summer Paralympics. Obviously the summer is gonna have a little
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: higher number. So there are several things now. Again, of
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: participants for the twenty twenty six Paralympics and the twenty
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: twenty four Paralympics are significantly different. In twenty twenty four,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: the US had two hundred and twenty athletes, while this
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: year in the twenty twenty six there's only sixty eight,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: which seems pretty typical honestly. But the most shocking of
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: all of this is the year lack of diversity. Again,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: I believe out of the two hundred and twenty athletes
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: for the Paralympics in twenty twenty four still counted about
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: twelve percent or black athletes. So that also needs to
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: be a part of that conversation because I'm really annoyed
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: by that overall, looking at how we continue to disadvanchise
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: the marginalized community. It shouldn't be a surprise, but nonetheless,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: it should be embarrassing, and it is. It is quite embarrassing.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: And we want to note that I will say the
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Google AI did put this because I was researching asking
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the questions in different ways, because not surprisingly, what it
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: was giving me again was like, oh, the old twenty
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: twenty four where they had some like good news, because
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: it did go up a little bit in numbers and
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: percentage to be like, see, we're doing better. We have
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the equal amount of women as we do men. Type
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: of conversation. That's what kept popping up at me as
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: if to be to like, you know, try to compromise
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: with me about how bad things were. But in the
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: AI tried it did say due to the lack of funding,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: recognizing that it does take a lot of money in training,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: it takes a lot of just support in general, and
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: we know that it's not given to black athletes. We
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: know it is definitely not given to a lot of
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: disabled athletes as well. So put that as a combination
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: of the intersectionality of discrimination that happens against the black
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: disabled athletes. Yeah, it shouldn't be a surprise. And I
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: will say again the Google AI was right on about
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: bad but like they it's not fair. They're not funded.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: No one cares to fund them. Sorry, it's kind of
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: how it went. I was like, well, you know you
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: got that part right, so I'll give you that. I'll
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: give you that. Yeah. So it is really disheartening to
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: see stuff like that when you want to celebrate. There's
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: been a lot of disheartening stuff with the US. So
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: let would just add that to the list. To the list, everybody.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry again, but we're gonna pause with that and
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: push that nonsense out of the way because we do
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: want to talk about and celebrate the three time Paralympic medalist,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Arthur public Speaker, so many other things, like she is
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: on top of everything, Bonnie Saint John, who is probably
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: one of the best smiles I've ever seen, Like it
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: is genuinely like.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: It.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: You're like, what now, I'm smiling just staring at her
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: picture because she is a joy in these pictures, in
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: her celebrations, in her wins, all the things. And Saint
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: John made history in nineteen eighty four by becoming the
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: first African American woman to win a Paralympic or Olympic
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: medal at the Winter Games, point blank, the first during
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: the Paralympics. She won bronze for both the giant slalom
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: and slalom and a silver medal for overall performance and
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: it was with this that she was named second fastest
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: woman in the world on one leg. Yeah, so her
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: path to the Paralympics started at the age of fifteen
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: when she was invited by a friend to go skiing.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: She made the decision to continue skiing, but had to
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: earn the money to keep going. So she is also
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: one of the ones we talked about where she is
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: disafranchised that did not have the funds to even get
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: to this point, but she went for it, between getting
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: jobs and writing to companies to ask for their broken equipment,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: any equipment, seeking to really persist into this area. She
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: did it, and she practiced a lot for this new skill,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: something that she was like, I'm going to do alpine
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: skiing and I'm going to do a damn good job
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: of it. And though she talked about how she did
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: get some stairs and discrimination, she talked about how she persevered,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: like she talked about the fact that yes, the able
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: body community would look at her a little odd, but
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: it was her peers who really pushed her to keep
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: going and continued to work on what she loved. So,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: just for some historical contexts, it was at the age
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: of five she lost her right leg below her knee
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: due to a condition called pre femeral focal disorder. So
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: she lost her leg at a very young age. She
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: had some hard times with her family and life as well,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: but she continued and persevered through all of this, but
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: obviously again did not deter her in her accomplishments. And
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: though the overall impact of her wind is historical, she
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: actually didn't realize it as she was winning. She was
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: just like, I, oh, yeah, I'm gonna do a good job.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: That was her whole thing. And here's a quote from
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the Paralympic dot org on an article about her historical wins.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: I have worked so hard to be able to participate,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: to qualify, to be a part of it, and then
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: I was completely stunned at how well I did. It
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: was a surprise to me. I trained hard, I spent
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the summer on a glacier. I trained with two late skiers,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: but there wasn't many opportunities back then to compare myself
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: to other competitors, so I didn't know how I would
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: do when I won, it was a shock to me
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: and I think to everyone. And it was only later
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: that I realized I was the first African American to win.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that was very special. It was terrific.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: There's just so few African Americans in the sport, but
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: that was a great milestone. And I love that And
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: that makes perfect sense to me, Like, I don't compare
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: it because I don't have anything to compare it to.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: So I'll just do the best I can. We'll see
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: where we go from here. And then she gets medals
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: and after that she went on to graduate from Harvard,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: a small school, big deal, and even go on to
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: work at the White House under the Clinton administration. So
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: this is from her site, Bonnie Saint John dot com.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Bonnie graduated with honors from Harvard, one of Rhodes Scholarship,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: are numerous sales awards at IBM, and was appointed by
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: President Bill Clinton as director of the White House National
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Economic Council. President Obama named her to represent the US
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: and delegations to both the Winter Paralympic Games in Vancouver
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: and the Summer Paralympics in Rio. And obviously, she is
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: a phenomenon in general we all have to keep talking
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: about her. I hate that. I believe she's the only
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: African American woman who's still in the Paralympics have won
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: the award. So I'm like, again, maybe the research just
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: wouldn't let me go because I try to find if
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: I was wrong. And so obviously it's amazing to celebrate
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: her wins and how she became a milestone for so
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: many more athletes to come, not that many, not that many,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: as we don't have any black women athletes this year,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: but we love to see her story and how she
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: inspires so much, and as it is glaringly obvious to us,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: there's a need for more diversity in the world of competition.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: She of course would agree, but also talks about how
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: it is a celebration to see when we do have
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: diversity and women, especially women of color, in athletics and
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: in the Paralympics. So back to that Paralympic article, she says,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: having more women in minorities achieving in sport helps the
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: representation in the corporate world, and having more women in
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: the corporate world rising in leadership helps the representation in
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the sports world. I'm proud to have worked on both
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: sides of the equation to make a difference for women
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: and minorities. I do have to pinch myself sometimes to
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: realize the barriers that I broke through, and I get
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: very excited cheering on those who continue to break those
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: barriers and change the world. Breaking through barriers and skiing
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: has given me a lot of courage and fortitude to
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: be able to make a difference for others, and I'm
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: very proud that I get to do that. So obviously,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: she is a history maker, a change maker in so
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: many ways, and we want to celebrate her who continues
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: to encourage and be a light in this very dark field.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Sometimes yes, yes, absolutely, and as always, listeners, if you
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: have any thoughts about the Para Olympics as they're about
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: to start, are the Olympics or anything else we would
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: love to hear from you. You can email us at
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: Hello at Stuffnever Told You dot com. You can find
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: us on Blue Sky at mom Stuff podcast, or on
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Instagram and TikTok at stuff I Never Told You Were
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: also on YouTube. We have some merchandise at Common Bureau
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: and we have a book you can get wherever you
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: get your books. Thanks, it's always to our Superduce Christina
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: or executive crews to my and your contributor Joey, thank
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: you and thanks to you for listening. Stuff Never Told
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: You is production of My Heart Radio. For more podcast
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: on my heart Radio, you can check out the heart
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Radio app, Apple podcast, or where you listen to your
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: favorite show it Yeah,