The girls of Hip Hop Missy Elliot I so I too um am the beneficiary of affirmative action but it does not mean that I wasn’t our oh here you go again I thought we left that potato salad back in the last episode Memorial I mean what you say what you talking about will Okay this is the all reved up Podcast season 7 episode three and I’m Reverend EMT price and I’m Reverend Irene Monroe Irene before we jump into our conversation about Dei under attack let us take a moment to thank all of our listeners and viewers this seventh season is the direct result of your
Support your encouragement and your comments thank you for listening to us on the various podcast apps and for watching the actual live recording of the podcast on our YouTube channel we are grateful for your support your encouragement your feedback your reviews and your comments keep them
Coming thank you so much for sharing the podcast with others and as always a tsunami of thanks for your time continued uh listening your shoutouts and sharing the podcast episodes with your friends and family I would be remiss to not give a tsunami of thanks also to our creative geni genuses our
Co-producers Tyler Wright and kavante Smalls cuz without them there would be no podcast ain’t that right in it that’s right that’s right so I don’t even want to imagine anything without them they are absolutely phenomenal now Irene it’s women’s history month and I have been thinking uh how to celebrate you and and
I just want to I just want to know do you even acknowledge women History Month I mean what is it is is it you know you know is it the feminist thing is it the womanist thing I mean talk to me well yeah thank you so much for asking
Asking the employment though is not as as high and busy as high black employment month because you see with me they they get they get women’s history month they get June pride and then they get black history month so so but absolutely here um one of the things
That I try to do and many many organizations that I belong to certainly highlight the voices of the Unseen and the unheard the the heroes and shuros we we because we always do this here that that with without our without us there are no brothers and without you know
There could be no brothers you know no sisters without us but we certainly highlight the courageous and Bodacious work of of many black women and listen and it’s not just Harriet Tubman and wait and so truth okay I I just need to say that that that our our Pantheon is
Pretty expansive pretty expansive past and present and if you say present you can put Oprah in there but it’s even it’s even more than just Oprah the Canon is quite huge but thank you for asking emit that’s sweet absolutely the University of Florida becoming the latest school to eliminate
All diversity equity and inclusion program positions due to New State rules ABC’s J O Brien joins us us with the details on that good morning Jay on May 25th 2020 George Floyd was viciously murdered in Minneapolis Minnesota rekindling ageold conversations about racial Justice racial equity and the validity of
Diversity equity and inclusion work in organizations many corporate nonprofit civil and higher education organizations quickly made statements affirming and in some cases double Downing on the Dei work they were committed to statements disavow systemic racism statements advocating for more inclusive practices and statements of belonging permeated
All forms of media yet almost four years later where are we Irene I mean for real what planet are we on we’re not even you know so interesting we’re not even at um the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1960s we have so we have gone
Back so far so far in terms of civil rights but you know Dei was has become weaponized in the same way that critical race theory has affirmative action the 1619 project the Banning of books and people forget that Dei really was supposed to be a corrective to 250 Years
Of Slavery 90 years of Jim Crow 60 years of separate and unequal but what did we get with the with you know de the way was rolled out we got lip service it was a reactive approach rather than a proactive approach to the events of 2020
And we got to also realize that what else was going on in 2020 was that um we were we were suffering with covid and black people and other people of color were dying disproportionately we also got to understand this and you know and I have to say this we talk about the
Horrible tragedy but it was really a public lynching we saw that in real time but also that year Brianna Taylor was killed Ahmad Aubrey and the list is list is endless and what we’re seeing with this sort of retrenchment of dni or the dismantling or just the easy collapsing
Of it depending on how you look at it is that those who were first last hired are the first fired in this dismantling uh of De of Dei and and so I say this here because I want to use uh the the former president of of Harvard see she was the
No she was we laugh but we’re we’re shocked she was the last hired okay but the first fired in six months you know the really the the first ever in the history of the of of um of uh Harvard University I I think I was I was a tad I
I think I was a tad naive I really thought that with the tragic incident of George Floyd and the ground swell of people from not just here in the United States in but but but but the globe yeah that that finally we got to see just how systemic gracism plays itself out and
Not just with police now this was a police incident but I thought we had turned the corner when there was uh Hurricane Katrina remember and we saw the devastation of people in the ninth Bo that we understood now that the descendants of slaves particularly are still suffering
But you know there’s something about the tenacity of white supremacy and it’s enduring power I I need to say this I’m not I’m not applauding it but I need to say that and I feel emit I I think we as African-Americans have not learned some of those lessons that were there back in
The day when we were black entrepreneurs we owned we still own our HBCU but I think we need to need to look at this because we’re really at an existential point now in 2024 with with Trump might likely return to to the to the to the
White House he said it was going to be a blood bath he said he was talking about something else but I think most of us understood that this man should he be re inaugurated again um I think we’ll be back to uh a full-blown uh Civil War I
Think we saw beginnings of it if we didn’t understand it June I mean not June January 6 January 6 yeah January 6 so I think I think it it helped me because you know I you know I don’t know what to think I chuckled because I think
In the three episodes of this seventh season we have mentioned Claudine gay every episode right and it slly was not intentional so I think that shows the residual trauma of this situation and the impact on it you know literally to both of us let me do a historical piece
Well let’s say that because we’re both we’re both in the academy we know how hard wait a minute we know how hard first to get hired yeah and then listen you’re you’re a Dean you know and you know and and to ascend to to the yeah to
The highest level at you know at this prestigious in let me do a little history here because on March 6 1961 it was President John F Kennedy who signed executive order number 10925 that mandated that government contractors and I quote take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and employees are treated
Fairly during employment without regard to their race Creed color or national origin uh and we look at 1961 as kind of the beginning of this affirmative action Movement we remember that in 1964 the Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination on the basis of race color religion sex and national uh
National origin and then it was in 1965 that President Lyndon B Johnson signed executive order number 11246 requiring government employers to hire without and I quote hire without regard to race religion and national origin and so we go back to these two presidents right back in the 1960s who attempted to do something
Affirmative uh on behalf right you know um using executive order but then we get to where we are now um March 2023 Texas House of Representatives passed a bill with a writer in it that banned the use of State funds for Dei programs in universities and colleges and then in
May of the same year may 2023 Texas passed legislation Banning offices and programs promoting Dei at publicly funded colleges and universities and then if that wasn’t enough January 2024 Florida Board of Education banned federal and state money being used towards Dei programs and universities in essence saying that any public school
That uses funds whether federal or state for Dei we’re going to wipe those offices out and we’re going to get rid of those people so how do we come from the 1960s part of the history that is still in some history books even though they’re banning all kinds of stuff how
Do we come from that moment to where we are now where it’s just a an eradication of anything that has anything to do with Dei and you know what and I want to I want to say one of the early signs of Dei believe it or not was Brown versus
Board of Education to desegregate to desegregate the schools but see one of the things I’m always baffled by you know sort of like the winners tell history and stuff so I mean once we see such movement that you had certainly you know Illustrated in the 1960s so so we
Get we get to the SE to the 70s and we get to the baky case reverse discrimination univ California so you gota so one of the things we got to understand is is this here so they used uh racial they used what what was the term here it was reverse discrimination
It uses they said there was racial quoters as opposed to racial preference to sort of equalize the kind of you know discrimination that W that that certainly took place I I think this is one of the things that I feel now that I be I begin to understand one of the
Things I realize about the opposition or the or the right here they use libert Liberation terms you know like King’s like King statement they take these terms that we use and flip it on their heads and and use it use it and use it to their advantage use
It so much that it becomes toxic and it has no meaning and stuff and I think part of it that while we are certainly seeing how the right you know has turned you know the 1619 project and that’s so so evident based that’s evident based you know the pilgrims came 1620 we came
Up in here in Chains in 1619 but I I think I think there are a couple of things that we have to be really more more aggressive um than or as aggressive as as as the right is I should say and I’ll give you an example em let me just
Tell you so at one point we were kind of baffled meaning those of us who were who were trying to understand EV evangelicalism now you had for a good while G given us some some good examples of it but we be I began to understand this that it was an identity okay
Meaning you didn’t have to go to church it was an identity it certainly was a politic because we saw that in the Republican party here we also understood it geographically you know as well as we then understand it which I think a lot of us did uh we understood it as an
Ideology um so I so I think what what we got to understand is that we we got to understand how the right is able to how do I say morph itself continuously to fight its battle I’m hoping that we can we meaning those of us that are in the left or just
Anti-trump um can do something similarly as a counter response here but I just want to say this but as black people I need to say this because I know that I was watching the NAACP Awards and Queen Latifa came out with you know you got to
Vote it open up with Kyla not with KY I’m sorry Kyler I’m looking at you it opened up with kamla it opened up with kamla you know and um and she’s calling in and say tell you know American tell tell this audience to vote which is all black predominantly black here and and
And stuff but I I think that we gotta do better if if we if we’re g to vote Democratic which I hope we do we got we got to be more proactive about what we want and and want it you know non-negotiable all right we got to take a break we
Really got to take a break I think we need two breaks right now but we gonna take one at this point this is the all red. podcast we’ll be right back Major tech companies like Google and meta have quietly made cuts to their diversity equity and inclusion programs
And they’re laying off workers in those departments and according to job search site indeed Dei related job listing saw a 44% drop from mid 2022 to Mid 2023 this is the all ribed up Podcast we’re back that was a segment from Fox News show outnumbered back in December 2023 wow Irene Dei must
Die yeah what do we do with that you know well I don’t you know this is this is what I think here I mean what we’ve been seeing is a politics of Revenge for you know and for a good time I you you know I I think it has reached a
Crescendo at this point because see I felt that we’ve been seeing a retrenchment since Ronald Reagan and I know this is for for any of you were born 80s okay but but but I be but I but I began to see that the the moment that the baky case was one that’s
Reversing um affirmative action there’s just been this serious chipping away we still deal with voter suppression but I think something that we’re not facing here to me I I I think we need to say that we are at a civil war we we we we’ve seen it not just with
African-Americans but other you know minority demographic groups you know lgbtq we we see this listen we see this with the reversal listen I was alive you folks weren’t none of you but I was alive when when when when roie Wade was ratified well see that’s part of it
Because see part of it is like to me if you don’t have a full panoramic view of the issue and you start at a certain point but leave out what’s happened before you get a very truncated version of of how long this has been going on
You know but I but see so I think we’re looking for something like what started the first Civil War we we want the Cannons to go off but to me the Cannons went off before January 6 I mean this really to me is a contest between democracy and white and and white
Supremacy and and it’s been that it’s been that I mean it’s been that since to me reconstru I mean reconstruction and when I say that we need a more Innovative approach in organizing we we need to um we we we need a we need better messaging I I just think that that part
Of it is because we I I think we give folks who believe in I guess a better a better America’s better Angels don’t know do are living from some sense of privilege and or historical Amnesia I mean you work with me you laid it out beautifully because during the season of enslavement
Which was a number of hundreds of years um we were prevented to learn how to read and write right so that that memory and and accessing the information we didn’t necessarily have access to except for the fact that we were brilliant resilient and smart um and so even with
The notion of this Banning of books and Bannings of histories the attempt is to eradicate that Long View right that memory that goes back to the things that you’re talking about and if you can rip off or or or take that off then a person only has their own existing memory and
Their own reference points so you’re right A lot of people don’t remember trickle down economics and Ronald re and his attack on inner city populations and people many people don’t remember those things and the fact is many people don’t remember how certain guns and weapons got into these inner cities because we
Weren’t manufacturing them ourselves right crack cocaine right so when you look at all of those and you look at that in the whole view you’re absolutely right so here’s the reality the reality is sociologists and demographers are suggesting that the United States of America by 2045 will be a flipped Nation meaning
Those who currently position themselves and see themselves as the majority will be in the minority and so that anxiety and that fear for what you talked about revenge I think that that’s creating a last hurrah of white supremist ideologies and white supremist you know vigilantism so I agree with you that we
Are in a civil war and you’re right it’s not with muskets and it’s not With Grenades but it’s certainly in the economic Warfare and the positioning of who gets jobs and who doesn’t get jobs who gets homes who doesn’t get homes who gets access to generation and who gets to be president
Har right but you know I need and you know one of the things I want to say here and you know now you were born now at this time em it but the other two are producers Kyla and kavat W I feel like you leaning into agism here I’m really
Feeling this I’m feel I’m feeling aism yeah well I’m the first one I’m the first one to call it but I’m the first one to call it but but this but this is what this is what happens here so you know we we we say we seem surprised and
I don’t know why I mean so let’s just look at baby Bush I can’t even deal with Papa Bush but baby Bush he he talked about compassion and conservatism and it was anything but compassionate but we we talk about the only time another time that the election you know the only time
That in my lifetime that I know that an election was stolen was the race between Gore and Bush his brother meaning baby Bush’s brother Jeb Bush was governor of Florida right and the these were these hanging Chads God forbid if you named your child Chad that year but but you
Had these hanging Chads and but but it it it turned it turned out that the decision was that bush one Gore very gentlemanly you know rescinded un you know unlike um you know Trump but but but the point is is that I I feel like
We we we this shock and awe should be fatigue at this point because it you don’t get to this moment just by January 6 a lot led up to that a lot leads up to even now the reversal of a roie and I think one of the things I’ve
Learned being a child of the civil rights movement that that it’s all it’s always an ongoing process it’s always and I think that some folks particularly I think white folks can lean into you know this is a good time you know it we’re not we’re not where we where we
Used to be but now we’re far back we’re further back than than we were in the 60s at this point well you know one of the things that is really interesting during Co we had the numerous protests and marches where young people young people made the choice to come out of their
Homes and to march on the streets right and when I looked at these young people I saw not just black people yeah I saw the grandchildren of some of the most heinous and vigil I mean you know vile racist I I saw the grandchildren of some of the you know right-wing
Evangelical you know you and you you can list those different populations but I saw their grandchildren out marching in the streets and I do know that there is a changing tithe that is going on which is why we have a generational issue going on which is why the two leading
Candidates for president of the United States are old white men it makes sense to me it makes sense to me that the Congress is majority old white people it makes sense to me because there’s a changing tide that is happening generationally that these 20 it’s not
Fast enough I agree with you but these 20 and 30 year olds are coming and I believe they have a different vision for what this nation could and should but they’re not but you know see this is my problem see if I I I like I like like to
Ride on their optimism and their energy and their fervor but but I I did that for a moment and a number of us did and and had and had they had they come to had they promised to do what they did would say they would do Bernie would have been president because Bernie
Sanders had the Young Folks he had he had a kind of ground swell that I’ve never seen before you know to see folks come out the way they did I mean it kind of reminds you of the 60s because you know the 60s you had the Vietnam War you
Had the women’s movement had the you know people coming out trying to change the course of our of our democracy I never thought for once when they said the Browning of America that that that that transition would be where okay white people wouldn’t be in power I I
Think that what we we didn’t understand is that with the demographic change we we we needed to also change the complexion of those in power because then we will have something that was like a party you know a people of color majority with with a white you know right you know leadership
Here but but I I just I just feel this here that if Trump does you know get in office and and he made very well now at at this point I I just want you to know that Canada is looking pretty good to me child I’m going south not North I’m
Not going south oh well South meaning where okay I’m G find me I find me an island that oh that kind of sound okay that kind because you can’t go any any more south than Florida okay no no I got to go past Florida I don’t even touch Florida I
Stay away from Florida I mean I mean and you know the NAACP has put out a travel advisory saying to to not only black folks but to black students attending these universities particularly those that are athletes that do you want to be in this state that you have not Nar a
Protection well I think we all need to be honest about that and we should be honest and vocal about it and speaking of vocal let me close us off for tonight uh or for today or for but did we solve the problem though did we solve We’re
Not Gon to solve the problem we’re not g to Sol and I’m G tell you why I’m G tell you why we’re not going to solve the problem because we’ve been here before and we will certainly be here again from the debates of web boys and Booker T
Washington to the work of Dr Mary McLoud bth from the Visionary activism of Ella Baker to the Marchers of Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr we’ve been here before and we will certainly be here again from the work of the Niagara Movement through the NAACP and on to the Urban League the SCC
And on to all the black fraternities and sororities we’ve been here before and we will certainly be here again from black churches to HBCU from Freedom schools to Hip Hop ciphers we’ve been here before and we will certainly be here again from 1619 and before to 2024 and Beyond we’ve been
Here before and we will certainly be here again in the words of the old spiritual we’ve been buked and we’ve been scorned there is trouble all over this world but I ain’t going to lay my religion down so we keep on praying and we keep believing that the Divine will
Do something pretty spectacular and Majestic that will challenge the humans to be better to one another someday one day we shall overcome amen amen and I shame I shame all revved up is brought to you by us the revs our amazing producers are Kyler Wright and kavante Smalls music for this
Episode is from Revan Price’s son and musical prodigy imig G price I fourth all red up is distributed by gbh additional thanks to Bob kmth Elizabeth ob’ Brian May Heath Devin Robbins Meredith nman and Zack Walman if you like what you hear let us know give
Us a review on Apple podcast and follow us at all reved up pod on Facebook Twitter Instagram and YouTube feel free to send us a note a question or a comment to all reved upod gmail.com we’ll be Back
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