Welcome to Crazy and the King!!
Feb. 3, 2022

Anti-Semitism, Mercedes Johnson and SCOTUS Affirmative Action

Anti-Semitism, Mercedes Johnson and SCOTUS Affirmative Action

This week: Anti-Semitism is on the rise in the Western World, Mercedes Johnson gets DRAGGED, white male affirmative action.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise in the Western World, Mercedes Johnson gets DRAGGED and White Men want to continue to receive their historical affirmative action when it comes to SCOTUS seats. An Atlanta family opens the first fully autonomous Black owned grocery store in the world. We welcome a new sponsor this week....and check out that new logo!

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Cred:

Production and Music: DJ Cellz

Transcript

[music]

0:00:00.0 Torin Ellis: We've been about this work. Diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging. Shared through the voices of a White woman and a Black man. We bring lived experiences. We have pursued D&I progress for most of our professional lives. We use Crazy and The King to cover news, tips from colleagues and host incredible guests. Listeners count on Julie and I to transparently drive the conversation. We thank you for rocking with us. Check it. Julie kick off the show.

[applause]

0:00:40.5 Julie Sowash: Welcome to Crazy and The King.

0:00:44.2 Torin: Rock, rock, let me tell you something. This whole being on camera thing is always interesting for me. Now, here's the deal this week, J. You see what I got on, right?

0:00:56.2 Julie: I do.

0:00:56.8 Torin: Question is, was I wearing this last week when we recorded?

0:01:03.1 Julie: No, I think it was a different sweatshirt last week.

0:01:05.5 Torin: Was it?

0:01:06.8 Julie: I think it had something on it.

0:01:08.5 Torin: So here is the issue. Yeah, so I have a closet in my office and I have shirts hanging up, and for the most part, this is giving you a little bit of insight. For the most part, the shirts that are hanging up while nice, they're not shirts that I care about anymore. I won't wear 'em out, they're not gonna... I may cut the grass in 'em. Still nice, but I'm not gonna wear 'em out. So this was laying on an armoire in my room, and I'm like, "Well, why is this out?" 'Cause I think I might have had it on already like twice, but what the hell, we gonna wear it again today. 'Cause I still smell fresh. I'm just telling you.

0:01:49.7 Julie: No doubt. And if Mrs. Ellis is like Mrs. Sowash, it's a good possibility she took it and just wore it around for a little bit 'cause she likes the smell of her man.

0:02:00.7 Torin: Okay, alright. That could work. That could absolutely work. Speaking of looking back over time, not inside of my wardrobe, but actually I look back over some of our show notes, and I do hope that you're feeling good this week. We got a lot to cover. We got a lot of ground to cover over the next X number of minutes. Look back over the show notes. And I typed in, I said, how many times have we talked about the Holocaust on Crazy and The King? I came up with two but I think there was a third one that I didn't do a good job of capturing.

0:02:35.7 Julie: Wow, okay.

0:02:37.8 Torin: And last week was actually International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It fell in last week, I wanna say it was the 27th, I could be wrong about that. But this week, we got a little bit of issue that should shock all of us. And it was a tweet by Alexis Learner, which actually is a thread that recapped some survey sentiments from 3600 North American teens. Now, I think they kinda unfair about the North American piece, because when you get down in the story, they're not here in the 50 US States, which we got our own issue. We got Whoopi and we got some other folks that done kinda messed up about the Ho... Did you see that?

0:03:24.3 Julie: I did not. I did not.

0:03:25.6 Torin: Oh, I'll tell you about it.

0:03:25.7 Julie: Okay.

0:03:26.2 Torin: But these North American teens are in Canada. And I know you saw the thread.

0:03:33.0 Julie: Yeah, so brass tacks. Right now, antisemitism and crimes against Jewish people are on the rise, not just in the United States, but in Canada, in Europe. And really what's being pushed by a lot of our school board officials and representatives across the country right now is a whitewashing of history. And you and I have talked about that a lot. And in this survey, they found that a third of students feel the Holocaust is exaggerated or fabricated.

0:04:10.2 Torin: Exaggerated or fabricated. This really is interesting because the study was once again done in Canada, and in Canada, none of the provinces or territories have a responsibility to build Holocaust curriculum into a student's diet, if you will. They don't have to learn about it up in Canada. We do a little bit down here. Go ahead.

0:04:39.3 Julie: A little. Yeah, well, and even I think that's not the most shocking, but six... Most of the respondents didn't know that six million Jewish people died in the Holocaust. And they had no idea how many concentration camps there were. It's just a general ignorance of probably the largest event in our modern history. And a third don't even believe it really happened, and the rest of them have no idea what that really means.

0:05:17.5 Torin: And then you have Tennessee.

0:05:20.9 Julie: Yes. So I don't know if... Have you ever heard of the book "Maus", M-A-U-S like mouse?

0:05:27.7 Torin: It actually, I believe, I thought it was pronounced mouse, had not heard of it before International Holocaust Remembrance Day of last week. Literally before the day, I had not heard about it, but then of course, I started to hear some of the news drippings and I'm like, "What is going on?" But tell us about the book "Maus", because I wanna see if you hit on the point that really stood out for me.

0:05:53.9 Julie: Okay. So it's a... I'll call it a graphic novel about some mice who were Jewish and they tell their experience of being in a Holocaust through an animal, a character, and it provides some Holocaust education for kids who are too young to see the graphic graphic images of people starved to death and murdered. And so Tennessee parents are now objecting to this book over nudity and language. Now, mind you, that is a naked mouse they are objecting to. Is that what stood out to you?

0:06:38.3 Torin: That's exactly what stood out for me. Because when I heard it last week for, I would say, a day, day and a half, it was just around the book and the nudity, and the language. Later on that second day, someone explained that they were characters: Mice, mouse, cat. And I said, "Wait a minute. So you're telling me that the mouse is naked? And this is what folks is tripping on? Like the day before the Holocaust Remembrance Day?"

0:07:15.4 Julie: Yeah, it's their diversion. It's like, "Hey, why don't you just say that you're anti-Semites? Why don't you just say that you don't want your kids to learn about the murder of six million Jewish people, instead of trying to say the absurdity of a naked mouse?"

0:07:32.9 Torin: Okay. Alright, so let me bring Whoopi Goldberg in right here.

0:07:36.3 Julie: Okay.

0:07:37.1 Torin: I'm gonna paraphrase what she said, because you said... "Why don't you just say that you are an anti-Semite." Whoopi's... Her brouhaha, and you can see that there's a link at the bottom of the show note, if you missed it. Whoopi basically said... I'm paraphrasing it, she said that the Holocaust was not a racial incident because it was White individuals that were murdering other White individuals.

0:08:16.3 Julie: Oh Jesus.

0:08:17.1 Torin: I can't remember what word she used, but she said it's not a racial incident. What do you say to that? Now mind you, she in no way did not minimize the incident, she just said it's not a racial incident, not like what... You get the point ahead. Go ahead.

0:08:38.3 Julie: Yeah, I guess some people think about Judaism as the religion and not as a race or ethnicity. However, I think it is also sometimes harder for people to understand what drives anti-Semitism when their skin is lighter, when you look White, a lot of times as a Jewish person. And I think it just does... It just is supremely ignorant sounding to say that it's not racial. The Final Solution was built to eliminate a race of human beings, and that would be people of Jewish descent, and people who practice Judaism. Although you can convert to Judaism, correct. But I think it's very, very, very much a racial issue and should never be minimized in any way by saying, "Well, it was just White people attacking White people. Or murdering White people."

0:09:44.1 Torin: So when we think about... And I don't wanna go down a rabbit hole here, but I'm gonna ask a question. So when we think about Ireland, how they fought... Parts of Ireland fought with the northerners. Is that racial?

0:10:00.0 Julie: No, that was religious. So that was Catholics versus Protestants. They were all Irish. But that was Catholics versus Protestants. And that is a hill I can't even... A rabbit hole I can't even go down because, very little historical understanding of that conflict, if I'm being honest.

0:10:19.1 Torin: And fine, and honesty is where I am. I couldn't comment because when I read some of the comments towards Whoopi, in the context of this particular story and how she was categorized as being an anti-Semitic individual, I had to pause for a moment and I said... Again, I try not to throw out the phrase that a person is being racist or that a person is racist. I try to protect the use of that language because I know it's very strong, and I just don't want to hang that on an individual when they don't absolutely deserve it. So I will say to you personally, I actually reserved a comment and just simply said, again, through all of the learnings that I've experienced, and some of them more painful than the other, some of them more punitive than others, I just... I looked at what Whoopi said and some of the comments, and just said for a moment, "This is one of those times where you just kinda sit back and you just watch and you try to learn through the lens, through the eyes, through the experience of other people." But Alexis Lerner, thank you so much for sharing that study, I appreciate you. Another... I'm smiling because you said, "Blah, blah, blah." You weren't really all that excited about the CEO pledge to get more companies to take diversity hiring more seriously?

0:11:43.1 Julie: Yeah, let's see. An article from... Featuring the CEO of Disability: IN, which is an organization that promotes disability equity index or equality index or something like that. Jill Houghton, who's a member of our community, whose husband is a member of our community. And while I have a great deal of respect for Jill, and I have a great deal of respect for what Disability: IN is trying to accomplish, the conversation was literally the same old shit. "It's good for... It's morally good, it's good for business, you don't talk about us enough, this, that and the other." And it's like, "Dude, if we don't get up some new talking points, and we don't move past this conversation of... We have to be part of the conversation. You have to accommodate us," but to start to have a conversation about equity, right? It's no longer... If a company doesn't have disability in their strategy, in their focus in terms of hiring, growing, promoting, attracting talent and a consumer base, y'all are about 10 years past, that ship has sailed. And now it's time to start talking to companies who want to actually make change, who want to hire, who see the value in our community, who want to be inclusive and create equity, because the same old conversation is just not moving the fucking needle, it is not moving the needle at all.

0:13:21.5 Torin: So if I'm hearing you correctly, nothing wrong with the pledge, you're not taking issue with the pledge. We're taking issue with the narrative inside of the Business Insider story, the content of the story. So what you're saying is, let's talk about the 100 or so companies that signed the pledge, let's show some example of perhaps why they sign the pledge, maybe some of the case study internally that prompted them, that motivated them, that inspired them to sign the pledge, but not, a story focused on, we got a 100 companies that signed, but were not being inc... I absolutely felt the same way when I read it, I was like literally, I was speed reading as I float it up. I'm just sliding the joint up the screen because I'm like, seen this movie like, "We talk about it every week."

0:14:14.4 Julie: Yeah, and you know I'm not one for pledges. They're not a bad thing in terms of creating pressure on other CEOs or other executives to take the same commitment, but if they're not followed by demonstrable outcomes, if you don't hire, if you don't retain, a self-report index or a self-report pledge doesn't mean anything to the community, if more people aren't getting to work. And there's still only 16% of working age adults with disabilities that are employed, and so clearly it's just not enough.

0:14:56.8 Torin: Yeah, I absolutely agree with you. Speaking of disability, there was an incredible family who found out that their son was diagnosed with autism. They actually live down in Atlanta, and the family, instead of... I don't wanna say the word curling up. They were... They sprang into action. And so when they received the diagnosis that the son was autistic, they actually created a grocery store. So how cool is that? Like, I wanna say it's the first Black-owned grocery store that is automated. Like I absolutely love this.

0:15:43.5 Julie: Contactless. Yeah, no it's amazing. So J...

0:15:43.6 Torin: Contactless. Contactless.

0:15:44.9 Julie: Yes. So Jamie and Jilea, sorry if I pronounced that wrong, Hemmings opened an autonomous grocery store called Nourish + Bloom Market, and it's the first contactless grocery store with robotic delivery in the United States, and the first Black-owned autonomous grocery store in the world.

0:16:08.9 Torin: In the world.

0:16:12.0 Julie: In the world. This story is amazing on so many levels, and people with disability sometimes get very frustrated when the approach to a disability is like, "Well, you should eat better, you should meditate or you should do some yoga," or something like that to deal with significant mental illness, but what the Hemmings did is they took the approach of like, "Hey, we're gonna treat our son to be as high functioning as possible, and that includes making sure that his diet supports the most healthy lifestyle he can have, which is good for all of us." And so through the approach of how they wanted to nourish not just their child with autism, but all of their children, they recognized the need for this market. And then to have it so high-tech and to be the first Black-owned autonomous grocery store it's like, this is just a cool ass story.

0:17:17.2 Torin: And I absolutely just went to Twitter to make sure that I followed them, you can find them on Twitter @nourishbloommkt abbreviated M-K-T. It's @nourishbloommkt, love, love, love what they are doing. And this right here is an inspiration, because when I think about Black and Brown founders, when I think about others that are under-represented, people from the disability community, that are attempting to launch and start businesses, when I think about people from other ethnicities, of other geographies, other just backgrounds, and when I think about the beauty that they can bring to our startup landscape, a landscape that impacts how we live, work and play, I so appreciated this particular story. And I'm absolutely rooting for the both of them. I think you said it right, Jamie and Jilea Hemmings. Jamie and Jilea Hemmings, shout out to the both of you. Last week, Mercedes Johnson got dragged on Twitter. Did you happen to see, poor Ms. Mercedes Johnson?

0:18:30.0 Julie: I sure did so... I saw it...

0:18:33.9 Julie: How did you feel about that one?

0:18:36.3 Julie: I don't know. So quick background, Mercedes put on her personal Facebook page that a young woman interviewed with her and was getting a salary that was about, I think it was about $50,000 lower because that's what the young woman asked for, and that she didn't personally have the bandwidth to give this young woman a lesson on salary negotiation. So ouch.

0:19:18.2 Torin: Hold on. Hold on. I gotta do it, I gotta do it. I gotta do it, I gotta do it. I gotta do it. I've stood in too many rooms with the microphone, and I've said on far too many occasions, you all as women are raising your pom-poms and you are celebrating, excoriating, celebrating when necessary, excoriating in others, when we are talking about conversations around compensation. "Yeah, that's right. Get them the men. They are not paying us what we... " Women absolutely ride that bandwagon like that train is never late, they will ride that bandwagon of piling on men, piling on organizations, piling on people for not paying them. And what I've said often, J, is, "But HR is mostly women." So you're the one sliding the offer letter across the table to another woman.

0:20:30.6 Julie: Yep.

0:20:32.3 Torin: And you know what the organization is or is not doing, yet you are complicit.

0:20:39.6 Julie: Yeah.

0:20:40.4 Torin: $50,000.

0:20:44.0 Julie: Yeah, yeah. $85,000 to $130,000. And I am 100% in agreement with you especially in the work world, women do not support other women. Now we'll get on the man bandwagon, and I'll do that with you all day, but at the end of the day, women are... Female leaders are harder on their female employees, they have higher expectations of their female employees and they are less likely to make excuses or give justification for failures to their female employees than their male employees. And... But, okay, let me get the but, Mercedes put this on her personal Facebook page, someone who knows her or saw this on her page, took it, posted it publicly, and it went viral and she got dragged, and yes, she deserved to get a little dragging, but then she lost her job. What she also did was save the company $30,000 or $50,000 dollars but because she did it in a very ungracious way, and in an incorrect way, and talked about it, she lost her job. Did she deserve to lose her job over that? Or do we set a policy that we don't underpay regardless of salary cap and... Or salary request, and we do take time to make sure that young women understand salary negotiation. And this is the other piece, the other train that we're gonna put in for pay inequity or training on pay inequity, but instead they said, "Oh, it's Mercedes 's fault," and they just canned her ass. I think that's bullshit too.

0:22:45.7 Torin: I agree. You won't get any argument out of me, this was one of those experiences, one of those situations where we could have absolutely learned... Use it as a learning moment, a teachable moment, as they say, and made everybody better. Like, imagine what the story would have been like had we taken this viral moment, we self-reflected as a leadership team because, trust and believe, this is not the first time that it's happened. And this is not the... And Mercedes is not the only one that knows that it's happening inside of said organization. We take this viral moment, we self-reflect. As a leadership team, we make a more pronounced and demonstrative stand that, this is what we're going to do, we're going to make sure that we make that employee right based on their experience and acumen and accomplishment and what they brought to the table. Maybe it's not $135,000 but this is what we're going to do. We're gonna make Mercedes right, as you just illustrated, but we as a leadership team are going to be right. Missed another opportunity.

0:24:06.8 Julie: Yep.

0:24:09.0 Torin: And instead of being able to show the world that they care about their people and diversity and inclusion and growing, instead of showing that, they just did the cut and run.

0:24:25.9 Julie: Yup, easy. And the real question is, is are they paying that to that woman what she deserves or what she put in as her salary requirements?

0:24:36.2 Torin: Question.

0:24:36.9 Julie: That, to me, is the rest of the story.

0:24:38.7 Torin: It absolutely is the rest of the story, but in a flash, Apple is refusing to buy Peloton. Mark Cuban launched an online drug company and ASUSU a fintech company that uses a non-traditional metric of on-time payment, rent payments, to evaluate a user's credit worthiness and report it to the bureaus. They reached that billion dollar valuation last week, cha-ching. We call it one billy. Morgan State University is the first HBCU with a fintech center. Encanto on Disney Plus strikes a major chord in a diverse world according to The Guardian. And somewhere out there, a 25-year-old is looking in the mirror saying, "There is absolutely nothing wrong with me dating MacKenzie Scott," that Mackenzie Scott. I mean, maybe not that exact Ms. MacKenzie Scott, but you know what I mean. And no matter what the age, industry, location, perceived success, stay through this break. Julie and I will be right back.

0:25:47.5 Julie: Alright, so I think we're gonna have to do a little more research into that on-time payment for rent company, that's interesting.

0:26:00.6 Julie: And that has a lot to do with diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, but of course, this week could not go by without the announcement of the retirement of Justice Steven Breyer from the Supreme Court. And the silly, I'm just gonna go ahead and say it, melee that has now overtaken our media and my Twitter following or my Twitter feed, because as I'm sure that you know, when the nominee Biden was in South Carolina, he made a commitment that if he were able to appoint someone to the Supreme Court, that he would choose a highly qualified, very capable and experienced Black jurist, Black female jurist. Excuse me, Black woman jurist.

0:26:54.1 Torin: And apparently most of America wants a full list of qualified candidates as options for the Supreme Court, not just a highly qualified accomplished Black woman, they don't want a list of just them, they want a full list of qualified individuals, 73% of people in a poll... It was in the headline, the majority of Americans want Biden to consider all possible nominees for the Supreme Court vacancy. There was a poll taken, 73% don't like the fact that he is curating a short list of highly accomplished qualified Black women, they want the list to be full. And I wonder if while you are listening right now, if you know that former President Trump appointed 54 people to appellate courts, 54 in his four years, and not one was Black. Not a Black man, not even a Black woman. Let our producer put this clip in, and then we're gonna have a conversation around this whole short list for the Supreme Court.

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0:28:40.2 Whit Johnson: Details are emerging tonight about who is on the short list to replaced justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. ABC News has learned there at least 14 Black women under consideration and the White House now confirming one candidate, Judge J. Michelle Childs who is favored by South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn, President Biden saying he will announce the nominee by the end of February. Here's ABC's White House Correspondent Mary Ellis Parks.

0:29:05.7 Mary Ellis Parks: For the first time, the White House confirming the name of one woman being considered for nomination to the Supreme Court, J. Michelle Childs, a US District Court judge in South Carolina, President Biden nominated Childs to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. But her confirmation hearing for that job scheduled for Tuesday postponed, the White House saying Judge Childs is among multiple individuals under consideration. Childs is the favorite pick of Biden's close confidant Representative Jim Clyburn. Clyburn pushed Biden to make that campaign pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the high court, a pledge Republicans have disparaged. Senator Roger Wicker facing criticism after saying any potential Black female nominee must be benefiting from affirmative action.

0:29:51.4 Roger Wicker: The irony is that the Supreme Court is at the very same time hearing cases about this sort of affirmative racial discrimination. And while adding someone who is a the beneficiary of this sort of quota...

0:30:12.2 Marie Alice Parks : And Whit, like you said, we know the President is considering more than a dozen Black women for this nomination, and tonight the White House is also responding directly to those comments from Senator Wicker, saying in a statement, President Biden has established one of the strongest track records ever when it comes to choosing extraordinarily qualified and ground-breaking nominees. With...

0:30:30.6 WJ: Marie Alice Parks in Washington...

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0:30:40.0 Torin: Okay, I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm absolutely peeved off. And for me, while we are discussing this, J, in the vein of politics, it's deeper. But go ahead.

0:31:02.0 Julie: No, you tell me. You give it to me.

0:31:05.1 Torin: Yeah, it's just deeper for me because when I think about that 73%, when I think about the poll and I just want a full list, I just want highly qualified individuals, I don't want you to reduce the list or to only include Black women, I have to ask the question, how many of these 73% of individuals are making their way into our workplaces, and they are the impediment as to why individuals, employees, teammates, colleagues, HR managers, TA people, recruitment marketing folks, supplier diversity folks, CSR folks, ESG folks, philanthropic folks, board folks, it's why... How many of those 73% are the impediment to people being intentional around inclusion and representation in the workplace, this is not just politics, these are people going into our corporate quarter.

0:32:20.3 Julie: Yeah well and if we think about it from the totality, there have been 103 Supreme Court justices and 17 chief justices, which means there have been 120 jurists that have sat on the Supreme Court since George Washington appointed the original six back a long time ago. Not one of them has been a Black woman. Only five of them have been women, period. And zero have been Black women. So to me, the court has never benefited from the views or lived experiences of a Black female, and that tells me that there is absolutely no one more qualified to be chosen than a Black woman. And it's again, dumbfounding to me, and to your point, is that there is no reason to pick this fight right now, right? The court is still going to be a 6-3 court, Roe v. Wade is still going to be overturned, we are likely looking at a conservative court for the next 20 plus years. Breyer was a centrist, moved more to the left as he got older. All of the women that I've seen on the shortlist are dramatically more middle left than I would prefer them to be, but all three are incredibly qualified, most have clerked for the Supreme Court. They all have impeccable educations, a couple have been senate confirmed multiple times. There's no win in the conversation for people like Ted Cruz or Gabby, what's her name, to have this conversation. It just shows the push back and the need to create divisiveness and to keep Black women down and subjugated for no other reason than to just do it.

0:34:42.4 Torin: Yeah, no other reason. I think about, you know, what did Ted Cruz... I'm sorry, Senator Collins, she said that President Biden has handled this clumsily. Tulsi Gabbard and Ted Cruz both slammed the President. Ted Cruz actually called it offensive. He said it was offensive that we would curate a list or limit the list only to Black women. Offensive to Black women. He said this was offensive to Black women. Now, mind you, this is the same wet his tissue paper Ted Cruz who wouldn't even standup for his own wife to Donald Trump.

0:35:28.9 Julie: Yeah, thank God he's defending Black women.

0:35:32.2 Torin: Yup. We absolutely need you over here Ted Cruz to help defend Black women when you wouldn't even defend your own wife. And here's the issue around tokenization because that's what a lot of people are going to say. A lot of people have said in the past, continue to say right now, that when we have affirmative action, when we have diversity policies, goals, targets, that intentionality that I mentioned, when we do that, that we are hiring tokens, that we are placing tokens in position. Even some Black and Brown people feel like they are a token. A whole another discussion. But to that point around tokenization, Alisia Adamson Profit, she's a lawyer down in Florida. She said that, "People are going to say she only got this because she was a Black woman, and that could not be further from the truth. She would not even be considered if she wasn't qualified, prepared and ready." That's said by Ms. Profit, a lawyer down in Florida.

0:36:44.1 Torin: And that's the part that we try over and over and over repeatedly, I mean repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly, we try to get people to understand that when you are intentional about identifying audiences, groups of people, communities that are overlooked and marginalized, absent from the conversation, when you are intentional about bringing them to the table including them in the room, placing them in a position of power, submitting or soliciting their feedback, their contribution; when you are intentional about that, that's not a lowering of the bar, that's not us trying to tokenize them. It's placing them there because they absolutely have earned it, and if they haven't earned it, that will show itself over time. But to say that going after a voice, I just listen to what you said a moment ago, Julie, and I think about all of the predatory activity that took place in the '60s to break up Black families in public housing.

0:38:05.7 Torin: I think about the drug laws and the effort that was placed into the crime bill in the... What was that? The '90s? I think about Reagan in the '80s and his propping up Black women as the poster of welfare, when we know that that's the furthest thing from the truth. When I think about the number of decades that I've been at least a conscious or an awake teen up until and through adulthood, all of the instances in which we could have used the contribution and the voice of Black women. Healthcare today. Healthcare, we are sorely missing out on that rich discussion that I know a Black woman could add to whatever conversation is taking place from the bench.

0:39:05.9 Julie: Yeah, and let's, as we just wrap up this the segment, if you're not following along, two of the top names, we talk about women who are extremely qualified, Black women who are extremely qualified. Ketanji Brown Jackson is a clerk... A former clerk of Justice Breyer. She worked at the US Sentencing Commission. She has been a federal trial court judge on the DC circuit since 2013. And she has been senate confirmed two times, including by the current Senate. Leondra Kruger, who is a member of the California Supreme Court, is a graduate of Harvard and Yale, was previously another clerk on the court and has argued a dozen cases before the Supreme Court at the federal level. Tell me if any White man had those qualifications, or any White women, I'll just go ahead and say, any White woman had those qualifications that we'd be having this discussion. Amy Coney Barrett never tried a case in federal court.

0:40:11.2 Torin: Say that again.

0:40:12.2 Julie: Amy Coney Barrett never tried a case in federal court.

0:40:15.0 Torin: Never.

0:40:16.7 Julie: Never.

0:40:18.7 Torin: Tried a case in Federal court. Her Voice, a great way to take us to our Her Voice segment. Take us to the first person in South Korea, J.

0:40:28.1 Julie: Well, before we do that, we have to introduce our newest sponsor.

0:40:34.2 Torin: Oh, maybe that was one of the surprises that you didn't let me in on last week.

0:40:41.4 Julie: It is. So we are welcoming this week, our newest Crazy and The King sponsor, excuse me, Talvista. We are thrilled. We love working with that team over there. I've worked with them on a couple of other projects, and we were so excited when they came around a couple weeks ago and said they want to support Crazy and The King. So thank you, Talvista, welcome to the Crazy and The King family. And let's take our first ad listen for them.

0:41:11.6 Torin: Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome. Love the work that they are doing over there at Talvista, and certainly appreciate them for believing and trusting in our curated voices. Her Voice segment, South Korea.

0:41:30.2 Julie: That South Korean internet giant, Naver, has named 40-year-old Choi Soo Yeon, an attorney who now leads their overseas operations, or who did lead their overseas operations, as its new CEO as it aims to expand internationally and improve a corporate culture that some say is toxic. Congratulations, Soo Yeon.

0:41:52.5 Torin: My dear friend, Darlene Slaughter, made the ELITorin 100 list of women compiled by Diversity Women Media. The list celebrates Black women. Black women who have toppled barriers and risen to the upper echelons of their respective organizations. We will actually post the complete list in the show notes, but you can go over to @diversitywoman on Twitter, if you'd like to engage with the organization and see the list for yourself.

0:42:21.7 Julie: And Maisha Cannon joins, perhaps, the most exciting games company on the planet, ROBLOX, as a program manager. You can follow her on Twitter @talentgenie.

0:42:33.5 Torin: One of my favorite people in the entire world. When we were doing our new formation cohort last year in trying to, I would say, give a foundation on D&I and DEIB to a number of people, Maisha was the first person to jump out. She was the first person to jump out and say, "Torin, I will absolutely come and talk to your cohort." So we love the work that you are doing over at, Maisha. Have fun. I got some folks over at ROBLOX that I know, I wanna make sure that they are treating you well. Our quote for the week, "And whilst we have so much more to understand, I've made the presumption we are getting there that it is always better to add a plus to the universe and never a minus." That was said by Hung Lee, curator of Recruiting Brainfood. If you are not following Hung, please find Hung Lee, H-U-N-G Lee on Twitter and go to recruitingbrainfood.com.

0:43:40.9 Julie: Alright, name drop for this week is to Jared Allmond, Skillsoft. He is a listener of Crazy and The King, big fan of Torin, big fan of John Graham, also a big fan of Julie Sowash, connected with me on LinkedIn and we just had the opportunity to have a great conversation. And so I definitely love that. Thank you, Jared, and look forward to hearing and connecting with more listeners this year.

0:44:04.6 Torin: And of course, we are kicking out Black History Month. Everyday, we try to make it history, but Microsoft's Legacy Project is out in the ecosystem, and it's a project that's going to give students an interactive Black History Month experience. It offers a rich Black history curriculum to all schools. Gotta go to website, or go out on Google and just look for Microsoft's Legacy Project. The link is too long for me to mention right here, but go out on Google, look for Microsoft's Legacy Project. I close reminding each and every one of you to share the pod with your digital tribe and to find your voice. Be a better human, let's create better culture, teams and workplaces. For now. J and I are ghost.

0:44:54.7 Julie: See ya.

[applause]

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