প্রতিলিপি 🔗
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All right, welcome everybody to our first episode.
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I'm so excited of Evolving Fire Chats, where we talk about all kinds of things related to counseling and social justice and all the things.
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And I'm so stoked that my first episode is with two of my favorite people, uh, the future Dr.
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Saravia Gumalori and Dr.
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Frank Gortz.
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I'm so glad y'all are here.
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So tell everybody just a little bit about what's important for them to know about you as we have our conversations today.
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And Saravia, do you want to go first?
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Yeah, of course.
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Well, hi everyone.
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My name is Sarabia Gumalori, and I'm currently a counseling doctoral student at George Washington University.
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Um, and so I believe for um folks to know about me, what's important is that I think I've really grown up with social justice my entire life, and it's something that I've really been advocating for and like fighting for my entire life, just coming from a family of immigrants and being an immigrant myself.
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So I think um, you know, in sharing that, I think um anything that I share today really kind of just stems from my lifelong commitment to activism and really standing up for folks who aren't included in specific conversations, who aren't given seats at specific tables as well.
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So I think that's really important to me.
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Um and I think also um what's also important for viewers to know is that my advocacy really centers around BIPOC populations and then immigrant populations as a whole, um, within counseling spaces and then also outside counseling spaces.
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Nice, Frank?
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Um, I'm Dr.
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Frank Goritz, everybody.
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Um I am a practicing counselor in the state of Georgia and Florida.
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I am currently licensed in both states.
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I am a counselor educator, so I have been teaching full-time for four years now and loving every minute of it as we bring up the next generation of counselors.
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I'm also an approved clinical supervisor and qualified supervisor.
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I do a lot of advocacy work as well as research around supporting cutie BIPOC communities, so those are our queer and trans black and indigenous people of color, as well as really disrupting white supremacy as much as possible, knowing how rampant it is in our social systems and systems just beyond our microcosm and in the bigger macro society of where we live, right?
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Um, and I really just do this work, I'm really in it because I want to do this for the uh brown queer children who uh did not really get to um dream, dream loud.
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And so I want to do it do this for them, and that's what I've always been focusing on is doing it for the kid I was and for the kids who don't get to be here in this position.
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Nice.
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Um and for me it's important for people to know as um I'm talking to these two fabulous people today, um, that I'm also a counselor, a licensed counselor in North Carolina.
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Um I'm a queer person, I'm a gender queer person.
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Um I am a Leo rising Sag moon uh cancer or Sagan Cancer Moon, which if you know anything about astrology, um that means I love hard, lead hard, feel hard.
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And so that definitely fuels my fire around social justice and uh speaking for those who sometimes can't speak.
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And so I thought we would start today um with both of you just sharing a little bit about kind of your story and how um kind of how you got to where you're at.
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Sabia, would you like to start?
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Um sure, I can start.
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I think my story really started from for me.
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Um if we talk about my counseling career, um, I think my advocacy and just leadership as a whole really started within my own experiences.
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So I am a sexual assault survivor.
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Um and because of that, um, on my prior campus, I actually was kind of um, you know, silenced to a certain extent.
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And that's really where my advocacy started, um, where I was like, well, I don't want other survivors to feel this way.
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Um, and this was when I first started my counseling career.
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So um I think it kind of went hand in hand, right, with the counseling aspect, but then also just my own advocacy, where I was like, I just don't want people to be silenced.
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Um, and then you know, the barriers that are present present um in higher institutions as well with traumatic experiences such as that.
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So that's really where my advocacy journey kind of started, where I started advocating for other survivors on campuses who have experienced this type of violence, um, and then also really advocating for their mental health um as well.
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And so eventually that kind of led into leadership spaces.
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So um with my advocacy, I was kind of just recognized.
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So I started off working um as uh vice president for a CSI on my campus in my master's program.
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And that's
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kind of where my journey really kind of even took off because now I had more like of an influence, more power to really kind of start bringing um awareness to this topic and then also just awareness to topics in counselor education as a whole.
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So that's kind of really where my service had started.
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So kind of starting from my own personal experiences as a survivor and now kind of leading into leadership as a platform to kind of start advocating for really important issues.
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Um, so yeah, and then from there it just kind of took off and um I've really kind of used leadership in counseling as a vessel in many ways to provide service, um, and then also just help communities that aren't necessarily heard in our spaces.
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So that could be students, that could be new professionals, um, BIPOC and marginalized folks in counselor education as a whole through various organizations like Counselor Social Justice, um, AMCD and other spaces as well.
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So um, yeah, I would say really my journey just started from my own personal experiences, and then really just wanting to make sure that other folks who are feeling alone um in terms of their own activism or feel like they aren't being advocated for, um, feel like they have a community that stands behind them.
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Thanks for sharing this, Robbie.
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What about you, Frank?
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How did you end up where you're at?
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So I think, you know, as a prelude into getting into that, you know, I I want to clarify, I think, what we mean when we say white supremacy, because there's a lot of misconstruing of information, particularly from, you know, folks who are trying to defend racist systems, who are maybe trying to defend their own privilege, they're afraid of confronting systemic injustice, right?
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And I want to speak to that in the sense of white supremacy isn't about hating white people.
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It's not about that at all.
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This is about hating the white racial dominance that has impacted our systems and has influenced the way that we lead our lives.
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And so I know for a fact that white racial dominance and heterosexism played a huge role in my life, even just stemming from being a kid, you know, I'm Puerto Rican, and even in my family, we weren't really encouraged to learn Spanish, right?
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We spoke English in the house, we spoke English at school.
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And even though it was never forced on us to only speak English, it's we had to fit in with the norms, right?
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That was the at least the expectation, not just at home, but in school as well, right?
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So I grew up in South Florida, and I actually live now where I grew up in South Florida.
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Um, I grew up in Coral Springs, Florida.
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Um, and so back in the day there, there was a lot of white representation in just everything you could think of.
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Um when I first, you know, was really coming to terms with my sexuality as a gay man.
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Um, that was when Queer uh Query for the Straight Guy came out.
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It was like legit airing on TV for the first time.
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Um and I'm sitting here going, OMG, this is so weird.
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And I was I was sitting here going, I shouldn't be watching this.
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I need to turn a channel.
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I shouldn't be watching this.
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Because I grew up in those systems, right?
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Right.
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Where they encouraged you, you know, as a man to pursue heterosexual relationships, right?
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Um, and so with all of that, there was a lot of reckoning that I had to come to and figure out on my own, and because it's these systems that isolate brown young people and black young people from being able to explore themselves.
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I didn't have any mentors to guide me when I was young.
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I um I actually always wanted to be a helping professional, but I didn't kind of face that because I think I took a peer counseling class in high school, and a teacher who was a white woman uh said I wouldn't be good at it, and so I never pursued it.
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That impacted my entire life, someone's opinion.
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And that's how, you know, I continuously come to terms with that to this day, because I let the dominance of white representation really speak to how I lived my life.
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So I'm working in retail, I'm still doing social justice work.
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That has always burned alive inside me, right?
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As we, you know, focused on um advocacy within South Florida.
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Um I was president of Lambda United uh with uh Florida Atlantic University, which was my undergrad.
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And um, we had a blast really just disrupting straight culture on campus.
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Um we had parades all the time, we just like and I don't think they were even authorized, we just like did them.
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Yeah.
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Um some of them we just did, you're like whatever.
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Um because we needed that in 2012, right?
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And we still need that today, um, for sure.
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So the the young queer folks who are listening, you
know, please, you know, take up that mantle and be disruptive.
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Absolutely disruption has been what's gotten me here.
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Disrupting the odds.
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Yeah.
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Because, you know, and you know what?
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I think too, my mentors did not show up for me until I was 20 or 21.
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Let's like put it at that.
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Or actually, no, mid-20s, mid-20s, even.
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Um, because my dear friend Nicole was a black woman who really saw potential in me and told me I needed to go into counseling.
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And I was like, no.
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And she's like, I'll literally unfriend you if you do not apply for this program.
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Um I was like, okay, fine.
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Um because I showed her some programs and she was like, see, you're looking at it, you want to do it, right?
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And she encouraged me, so I did it.
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And I loved it.
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I realized this is what I'm actually good at.
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You know, I never knew what I was good at before that, other than astrology.
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I had my little astrology book, and that was like all I knew, right?
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That's awesome.
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So like I was obsessed with astrology because that was the one thing I was good at.
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But maybe what I was really good at was people and emotional intelligence, and um, that was something that I never got to own until I started being in this field.
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Yeah.
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And so I grew up, by the way, thinking that I couldn't do anything.
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I was not an A student kid.
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I was like a C student, D student, B student, B's got degrees, you know, nobody cares.
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Yeah.
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But in my master's program, I was like, I want to do something different because I grew up thinking my entire life of how much I couldn't do.
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Yeah.
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And now I want to do everything.
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Everything that I was told I couldn't do by my own personal conscious, the systems, etc.
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And then I was straight A's.
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Master's and doctoral, straight A's.
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That's what I did.
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Because I could do anything.
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And I had to keep reminding myself of that.
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Now I'm a teacher, now I'm all these things that 14-year-old me would have never even imagined being at all.
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Um, I didn't even think I could have a future.
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That was not in the cards for me.
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I think, you know, I think they said I could be a news reporter.
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That was the high school assessment that I got.
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Um, and I was like, interesting.
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Um, okay.
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That doesn't resonate.
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I mean, it could.
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I mean, I've got presence.
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You know, screen presence.
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I have presence.
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You know, but coming into my queerness allowed me to own my presence because, like, you know, feeling repressed and suppressed in that way, it's it's silencing, it's deafening.
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Um, and so I I feel like really just being able to bloom out on my own through the the the prison, the prison type cocoon that keeps you inside because of these systems.
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So that's how I feel like I really got here to this point in my life.
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Now that I'm like 37.
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But don't tell anyone about that.
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Listeners, if you're listening, don't tell anyone.
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Yeah, right.
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Yeah.
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Don't reveal that information.
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Correct.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, I I really resonate with some of the stuff you're saying about um like being told what we can't do.
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I feel that a lot.
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Um I I feel like I had I had such an interesting, I think it's interesting, journey to where I'm at.
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I also did the retail game.
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Um I my undergrad was from a very small private Southern Baptist College in South Alabama.
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And um I went there because I was convinced if I was stronger in my faith, I wouldn't be gay.
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And it was an all-women's.
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So I'm not sure how going to an all-women's college was supposed to help with that, but whatever.
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Um but it was such uh I I am appreciative of that experience in some ways because that's where I I started realizing I did have leadership skills.
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Um and but I didn't know what to do when I was done.
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I have a BA in English, and I'm like, what the fuck am I supposed to do with this?
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So I did the retail game and um then a friend of mine was like, I really think you need to think about being a counselor.
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And I was like, what?
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And so
and so yeah, that sparked into I went to yeah, I went to Appalachian State for my master's and um that's where I really feel like I got an understanding of the advocacy act activist part of me.
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Um I don't feel like I really knew that until I went to my graduate um program.
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And um yeah, I had, you know, my that's when my mentors showed up.
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Um I had two mentors that I still have contact with from my master's program, and they were very instrumental in getting me involved with um, you know, our professional organizations and encouraging that.
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Um and then also they one of them is is the whole reason I have um any adjunct experience in teaching.
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Um he just said, here it is, here's the class, take it if you want it, um, because of some issues in his own life.
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And um and that I feel like has morphed into a much more activist part than an advocate.
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You know, I feel like as a master's student, I was really into feminist therapy, you know, because that made sense to me.
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My partner's first degree was in gender and women's studies and race studies, and it was like that just clicked for me.
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Um and then as I got in the field and was doing my thing and um was kind of trying to figure things out, doing communal health, and then um yeah, being in leadership.
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Uh Sravba, you talked about leadership too, you know, being in those spaces.
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Um and I think sometimes just realizing the bullshit that's in those spaces, it's like, what are we doing?
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Why why do we have to do it this way?
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This is so oppressive.
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Um I really started moving away from that and um well, I won't say away from leadership, but a away from certain organizations and yeah, just really morphed into, I feel like more as a more of an activist.
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Like activist feels um responsive, you know, like we're doing things, we're trying to shift the tide.
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Um and I feel like that was kind of part of my process is realizing um how I needed to show up in spaces and um and kind of push, like you know, Frank said, being a disruptor in those spaces.
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Um because those spaces are so oppressive sometimes.
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Um and just not they just don't feel helpful to me in a lot of ways.
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Um yeah, I I I think 20-year-old me would be very surprised that I ended up where I did.
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Um again, just growing up in the Southern Baptist Church as you know, uh being um a socialized female, I was told a lot about what I couldn't do and where my fa where my you know where my place was, and you know and so to deconstruct that and then learn that and then kind of show up and be a disruptor is very different.
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Very different.
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So social justice, that's how the three of us came to know each other, being involved with counselors for social justice.
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So thinking about kind of just where we're at right now as a field, um what do y'all feel like how we're doing with that?
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Where are we going?
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Any of that around kind of social justice?
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Would you like to go first thing?
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Go ahead, please.
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I have a couple of thoughts.
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So um first things first, I think relatively, I feel like more people are getting it in the provision.
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Um, so just like what social justice can consist of, how they can be involved in the various types of social justice and how those forms can present, right?
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So you don't always have to be on the grounds demonstrating your social justice can show up the research, the writing, through working with their clients, right?
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Or even just within conversations um within the community.
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And so I think we are making progress in that and how people are defining themselves as social justice activists and advocates.
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Um, but I think a lot of work is still performative in a sense as well.
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So I think um, you know, that's kind of just been my experience where I've met some wonderful people who are really doing the work because this is what they want to be doing, this is how they grew up.
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Um, and then I've also met a couple of people who are doing the work, right?
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But it can also be performative to an extent.
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And in the end, that can be harmful.
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Um, so that's kind of how I have experienced social justice in the field as a whole.
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So with my work, I'm really trying to like push people to move forth past that performative piece, right?
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So, you know, you can be doing the work, um, and you know, you don't necessarily have to like get anything out of that work other than just like supporting the community and helping people.
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Because I think sometimes social justice work can be praised in some ways, and that's where the performative piece comes in.
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And I think it's really important for people in that space to really kind of start thinking, okay, like what is what aren't my core values?
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Why did I start this work to begin with?
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And kind of, you know, redirect themselves, reflect and kind of go from there.
00:19:51.119 --> 00:20:00.559
Because I think when we all kind of come together and um kind of get rid of that performative piece, we can actually really make some important movement for communities that are really being impacted.
00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:01.440
And as well.
00:20:01.519 --> 00:20:04.160
So that's kind of how I've experienced it.
00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:11.039
In terms of leadership spaces and social justice, um, I feel like again, we are making movement as well.
00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:25.279
I think we again just have to break past those oppressive hierarchies and how whiteness still kind of sits in our institutions and in our organizations, especially within counseling, because again, the field has been so it has been colonized, right?
00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:27.279
It is built still on white supremacy.
00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:31.599
So, how are we going to, like you were saying earlier, Frank and Angela, how how are we going to be disruptors?
00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:38.400
How are we going to dismantle that white supremacy and hierarchy to continue moving forward to really do some good work?
00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:42.799
Well, yeah, having people show up with where their strengths are.
00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:53.839
You know, and I feel like I I've just it's uh it also is bothersome to me how white supremacy has gotten into our activism.
00:20:54.000 --> 00:21:08.480
You know, it's like you'll hear even some, you know, very popular, um, respected uh people in the field talk about, you know, well, if you haven't done this, this, and this, don't talk to me about being an activist.
00:21:08.559 --> 00:21:10.319
And I'm like, whoa, hold on.
00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:23.200
Like you realize like that's uh just as oppressive, you know, that it you can't claim the term activist if you've not done these certain things.
00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:28.880
Like, no, that's not that's not what our the leaders before us just showed us.
00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:33.599
Is that activism comes in a lot of different ways.
00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:46.319
And so finding where your strength is and doing that instead of trying to, you know, look at I guess leaders or elders in the field and say, oh, if I don't do it like they're doing it, then I'm not doing it.
00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:47.440
Well that's not true.
00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:52.880
You know, not everybody is uh somebody standing on the street corner, you know, protesting.
00:21:53.119 --> 00:21:59.599
Some people are babysitting the kids of the people who want to stand on the stand on the street corner, you know, or cooking the meal.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:02.559
for the neighbor, you know, or whatever.
00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:06.720
Like all of that to me feels like activism.
00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:29.119
Um and yeah, how do we because I I agree with you, Saravi, in that you know, it it's bothersome
to me how we see the same even within CSJ, even within especially within ACA, even within our state branches, we see the same people.
00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:30.400
Right?
00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:42.880
The same people in leadership, the same people getting awards, the same people and it's like are we looking outside anybody else?
00:22:43.039 --> 00:22:49.680
I mean and for me, and I no shade on counselor educators, like full-time counselor educators, spirit bless you.
00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:52.559
Oh, you can throw shade, honey, let's say spirit bless you.
00:22:53.359 --> 00:23:10.319
That has always been my criticism of the field is that especially organizations, state branches, North Carolina, probably Florida, ACA, all these organizations, the people in leadership are counselor educators.
00:23:11.279 --> 00:23:14.319
Most of them are not full-time clinicians.
00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:24.799
I totally agree with that point and another point that you're making just to the earlier which I'm going to reflect on as well, but even just the privilege of being able to pursue a PhD, right?
00:23:24.960 --> 00:23:26.400
Not everyone has that privilege.
00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:36.480
So really who are we kind of allowing to show up in these leadership spaces to and you know not everyone again is going to have access to the resources, especially now, right?
00:23:36.559 --> 00:23:42.400
With the big beautiful bill and other federal funding cuts to even be able to pursue that level of education.
00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:54.240
So are we going to actually open up these leadership spaces to clinicians um to members of the community as well because they bring a lot of expertise that you know countereducators might be far removed from as well.
00:23:54.480 --> 00:24:03.200
So and another point I wanted to make was just your um reflection of just the leadership hierarchy as a whole, right?
00:24:03.440 --> 00:24:09.039
How we might have recurring members, we might just have people who have been in these positions for such a long time.
00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:16.960
It kind of reminds me of just our government structure as so even just looking at the Senate people have been there for years and years and years.
00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:23.039
And this was actually a question I was asked at the watch um march on Washington last week in that interview.
00:24:23.599 --> 00:24:30.240
And basically you know um even just like restructuring that from the ground up was my answer.
00:24:30.319 --> 00:24:36.160
And I think that's what we have to do in our counselor education and um leadership spaces as a whole as well.
00:24:36.319 --> 00:24:44.240
We just need to do a whole systemic reform and a full systemic restructuring to kind of start abolishing that white supremacy that shows up as well.
00:24:45.279 --> 00:25:14.880
Absolutely Frank you want to throw your thoughts in here I have so many bubbling thoughts right now which I'm so you know I'm really excited to share um I think because I'm also kind of realizing a little bit too as we're talking you know sort of the humanized aspect of why counselor educators are still doing what they're doing.
00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:21.279
And I think it's because too this is a very this is actually a lot easier field to get into than people think.
00:25:21.839 --> 00:25:22.319
Why?
00:25:22.480 --> 00:25:29.119
Because the expectations are not that high people actually don't have to be licensed in counseling to become a counselor educator.
00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:56.160
That's that's troubling to me right we have counselor educators out there who have no clinical practice experience have sat next to them in training they've turned to me and said what do we do but they are actually actively training other people who are going for their licensure and like we can't we can't have that but you know what it is what I find interesting is that what draws a lot of people into countereduction is folks who feel disempowered.
00:25:57.039 --> 00:26:12.799
Somehow if we go into countereducody a whole sense of goodness and I think that is also part of the problem sometimes because when we're trying to chase goodness so much this puritanistic stance of who we can be that's part of white supremacy.
00:26:13.039 --> 00:26:28.799
Well right it's like because that means that that's the standard right like whiteness is the standard and as long as that's the standard yeah I mean it's gonna be in order to get close to that we've got to uphold these systems of oppression.
00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:41.440
No matter who we are whether we're white Hispanic Asian whatever that that's where we've got to get to right in order to have goodness.
00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:44.720
Yeah because goodness they're now equating with power.
00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:45.119
Right.
00:26:45.279 --> 00:26:49.759
And I think that's where a lot of countereducators are going wrong on this is they're equating power with goodness.
00:26:50.079 --> 00:26:51.920
The power to change systems and do all these things.
00:26:52.000 --> 00:27:07.759
That's what we get promised in school but we need to ask all the countereducators who are listening when are we going to recognize when we turn into an oppressor ourselves when do we realize that the power that we're seeking is actually changing us.
00:27:08.240 --> 00:27:21.680
Changing us because maybe we're seeking that approval, that validation which is why so many people are trying to go for awards and organization involvement because the tenure system also takes advantage of our psychological weakness.
00:27:21.920 --> 00:27:25.920
It takes advantage of you need to do all of these things to prove yourself to me.
00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:47.920
And it's this ongoing system ongoing system of disempowerment that leads us to a psychologically wounded place and asks us to take over everything as much as possible to prove our worth and I feel like that's what a lot of people are trying to do and a
lot of white people in catch education have a really easy time doing that because of their privilege access.
00:27:48.079 --> 00:27:54.799
And they have a ball doing it but sometimes if we're not realizing that the power is controlling us we turn into the oppressor.
00:27:55.279 --> 00:27:58.880
We are the ones who are taking our frustrations out on students of color.
00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:17.359
We are the ones who are gatekeeping students of color for our own personal reasons that have to do with biases that were never examined because we're just trying we're just trying to chase the power that we never had so we know what it's like right I and I hear that sometimes between the words of what counselor educators are saying.
00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:18.240
Yeah.
00:28:18.799 --> 00:28:54.079
And I don't think and this is one of the the other points that I have too if you've never had your core identity taken away from you then you will never really know what oppression feels like and why people of color are enraged why people are disruptive right you can have your right to be attacked but when your psychological core gets taken from you because of these systems it brings out something different in us something different for us where we're actually fighting to make a difference so that doesn't happen to other people.
00:28:54.880 --> 00:29:05.440
And there are some people who have never been able to even emotionally touch that experience because then they're judging the people who are disruptive and going that's not professional.
00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:06.960
Right?
00:29:07.200 --> 00:29:18.880
Professionalism has become the new gatekeeping for white supremacy um because it's also very vague and very differentially uh defined um and that's what's so sneaky about white supremacy.
00:29:19.039 --> 00:29:33.759
It loves to find ways to disguise itself in standards and expectations and even if we're just trying to do the best we can it sneaks in there because in order to be the best person we can be, we are misquating goodness with power.
00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:52.319
Yeah I feel like it's what hit me about what you're saying is about yeah if you've never had your core identity either taken from you or told that it was sinful or wrong.
00:29:54.400 --> 00:30:11.680
You know it's like that I mean that is that is a at least for me that is part of kind of that was a I mean it's a deconstructing religious trauma that I'm still doing at almost forty six.
00:30:11.839 --> 00:30:38.000
I mean to and like to be in those spaces you know and being told because we're all in spaces where we're told you know what's good, what's professional what's whatever and so much of that is connected to all these systems of oppression white supremacy and patriarchy and racism and sexism and you know fill in the blank.
00:30:38.799 --> 00:30:45.359
Um and that to just sit with that.
00:30:46.480 --> 00:31:02.319
I think especially when we have privilege um it's uncomfortable and I appreciate Frank what you said at the beginning about white supremacy is not about hating white people it's hating the system of whiteness.
00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:06.559
And it made me think of yeah because it does it to people of color too.
00:31:06.799 --> 00:34:18.079
Yeah for sure for sure that you know people people of color people of the global majority trying to get close to whiteness again because that's the standard you know that's the goodness I mean even think about you know Carl Jung and our metaphors and archetypes and all that white is pure and black is not I mean just something that that is so ingrained in us you know not even about people but about like symbols and metaphors and mythology like all that that white is pure and black is evil I mean so um but when you talked about white supremacy it made me think about um the race to dinners have you seen these um regina um uh Regina Jackson and Sario Reyo who's an Indian American um and they wrote a book about it and it's basically they go to dinners with white women you know a white woman reaches out to them and says we want to do this and there's usually you know six to eight ish and they're all typically the white women all typically know each other in some capacity and I just happened to watch a clip of one I don't know a couple of days ago um where Regina Jackson was talking about how if you're a white woman she doesn't trust you you know and how personal these white women were taking that and I'm like can y'all just not like can y'all step out of yourself for a hot second this is not like personal right this is her life experience that white women and we can't be trusted in a lot of places you know and so it's like that just being being able to really look at that for yourself and do your own unlearning deconstruction you know that's why I I talked to my students about when I I've taught social and cultural twice about cultural humility is an inside job it's not an outside I took 18 CE credits on social and cultural no oh and if you're teaching those CEs that doesn't count either no the real people who are doing it fight for it every day struggle sometimes even with an inner sense of whiteness that you know we don't want to take over us right because I feel the pressure too as a counselor educator I feel the pressure to um publish uh publish till we perish and no matter what like this journey to power that we feel like we've lost it's not real because even the people who are tenured I still see them people of color doing research like their life depends on it.
00:34:18.159 --> 00:34:20.800
Yeah because that's what they were trained to do at this point.
00:34:20.960 --> 00:34:22.480
So you're never fully free.
00:34:22.800 --> 00:34:25.599
If you play by the rules of the system you're never fully free.
00:34:26.480 --> 00:34:28.480
And I think we've all been tricked into that.
00:34:28.880 --> 00:34:43.039
Yeah from the converse like this conversation and conversation I've
had with other counselor educators who are at universities that even after tenure it still feels like you're still on shaky ground in some regards.
00:34:43.280 --> 00:34:54.079
Even if you have tenure you know that it's especially I feel like with um you know the legislative and governmental attacks on higher education.
00:34:54.480 --> 00:35:22.000
We just had a bill that in North Carolina that went into effect actually this school yeah that said for higher education you could not require a course of any kind of I mean of course they listed all the things any kind of diversity blah blah blah blah blah right and so of course that affects any uh master's counseling program.
00:35:22.400 --> 00:35:26.559
And so I talked to a friend of mine who's a counselor educator and I was like what did y'all do?
00:35:26.719 --> 00:35:42.400
And he was like oh we had to go through this big long thing to get an exemption and it had to like go to the attorney and then it went up the chain and it's like and we have to so for AppState we now have to every semester submit our syllabus to be reviewed.
00:35:42.800 --> 00:35:50.079
Even adjuncts and it's like so it's still yeah even that tenure it still feels shaky.
00:35:50.320 --> 00:36:03.679
And I think Frank what you're talking about is that trying to keep close to that power because that's how you feel like you're gonna survive when in reality it's actually how you're dying as you keep fighting and you keep period.
00:36:03.840 --> 00:36:13.599
It's a it's an infectious soul wound that is taking you and taking us if we don't stop ourselves and go, wait a minute, what are we doing and what are we doing it for?
00:36:14.079 --> 00:36:14.320
Right?
00:36:14.480 --> 00:36:20.719
This false sense of security when let's be real any governmental power can take away the tenure process at this point.
00:36:20.960 --> 00:36:21.280
Yeah.
00:36:21.840 --> 00:36:25.599
They know how to play the game in that too so tenure will never protect you.
00:36:25.920 --> 00:36:42.960
The only people the only things that can protect us is each other and we need to do more of that of like really supporting each other and like to stop focusing so much on celebrating ourselves of look at me syndrome I feel like a lot of council educators have look at me syndrome.
00:36:43.039 --> 00:37:10.719
Look at me look at me look at me and that's why I barely post anything because for me I get it I know it's important for us to celebrate our you know things that we're doing right to but at the same time when does it become toxic when does it become um what's the word I'm looking for um oh there's a word that I'm looking for with that like when does it become more about gluttony?
00:37:15.119 --> 00:37:56.159
Yeah and that that makes me think about some of the conversations that we've had in the advocacy committee about how do we come back around to um I mean all of it being based in community and not and not this very individualistic, you know, European Western white you know um kind of because at the same time a lot of these people that I'm thinking about in my head, I realize one major denominator when it's getting kind of like self-serving is when they're not even including other people or they're including the same people over and over.
00:37:56.239 --> 00:37:57.519
Like they're not sharing space.
00:37:57.679 --> 00:37:59.840
They're not sharing space with disempowered people.
00:38:00.159 --> 00:38:05.119
They're not going, hey you know what I was presented with this opportunity but let me give it to a student.
00:38:05.280 --> 00:38:08.400
Let me give it to a colleague who has not been recognized yet.
00:38:08.639 --> 00:38:30.400
Let me spread the wealth rather than hoard it because we feel like we have to or you get a a white person who then contacts a person of a minoritized to get them together and like oh I did this with this person you know like that's gross.
00:38:30.559 --> 00:38:31.519
That's gross to me.
00:38:31.679 --> 00:38:49.119
That's that you're at taking advantage and tokenizing somebody's identity experience whatever to like get your own like oh look how great I am because I authored this article or this book with all these people of color.
00:38:49.280 --> 00:38:50.880
Look how what a great white person I am.
00:38:50.960 --> 00:38:53.599
Man goes exactly that is so sad.
00:38:54.000 --> 00:38:54.800
So sad.
00:38:55.119 --> 00:38:56.639
I don't have time for that.
00:38:57.840 --> 00:39:00.639
Please share your thoughts too because I want to hear about your thoughts on this.
00:39:01.119 --> 00:39:34.159
Of course I just wanted to say I mean that's just free emotional and intelligence related labor right where it's like well let me again just a pattern let me build my success off the backs of people minoritized identities but a lot of times in these positions they don't even get comped right there's no compensation there's really not much recognition either right so tip let's go back to if it's a textbook for example typically like the authors aren't really recognized like right to the extent which the editors are or we're not even getting really comped for writing a chapter or whatever it might be.
00:39:34.400 --> 00:39:47.519
So even just kind of going into that like again it's free labor and you're profiting off that free labor as a white person or as someone from dominant identity maybe even like faculty versus student for example could be an opportunity there too.
00:39:47.679 --> 00:40:03.760
So um yeah I think those are all really important points and even kind of just going back to what we were talking about just community and like the conversations we've had on advocacy committee and social justice as a whole I think again a lot of times counselors really do have that look at me syndrome.
00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:18.639
And I think that's when it can become really harmful when people show up to leadership spaces or important community spaces and that
space isn't being shared, that brave space isn't being created where people are being included.
00:40:19.199 --> 00:40:26.639
And I've seen that happen so many times where that's when it starts to become harmful where it's like okay like maybe I don't belong here.
00:40:26.719 --> 00:40:35.199
Maybe the space isn't for me maybe activism isn't for me because I haven't done it in such a way that this person is saying that it has to be done as well.
00:40:35.360 --> 00:40:49.039
And that's when we start losing people who have all these strengths, all these capabilities um so much they can actually bring to the field and activism as a whole because no one's really like advocating for them to do that work.
00:40:49.199 --> 00:41:06.320
So yeah which makes me think I mean it makes me think about so many things even within our own system and how you know again like if you're going for tenure it's so important if you're the first person listed on an article or a presentation that's so gr gross.
00:41:06.800 --> 00:41:07.360
Why?
00:41:07.760 --> 00:41:18.639
Why why is that a thing you know and so how about if you're a white person say no I'm not I'm gonna be the last person listed.
00:41:19.199 --> 00:41:21.920
I want all my I mean why not do that?
00:41:22.079 --> 00:41:25.519
Because look as a white person you already got privilege somewhere else.
00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:38.159
Like you know or look one thing we did so Sage NC when we would present we just all agreed if you're putting it on your C V, you're the first author.
00:41:39.280 --> 00:41:44.400
And we just swapped it up and it's like I don't care I truly don't care because I'm not a counselor educator.
00:41:44.480 --> 00:41:45.599
I'm not going for tenure.
00:41:45.760 --> 00:41:46.800
I don't care.
00:41:47.440 --> 00:41:55.519
But I was working with faculty who were and we just all agreed yeah if it's on your CV put yourself as the first author.
00:41:55.760 --> 00:41:56.320
Great.
00:41:56.639 --> 00:42:01.920
100% and I think there's a thing about people feeling threatened about their power.
00:42:02.079 --> 00:42:24.480
I see that a lot in um white oppressive like faculty and for example um where anything that you do so like for example the the trend that that I like to do of like calling people future doctor and like using their doctor names before they get it there's even POCs sometimes who get offended by that and they go well no like you shouldn't be doing that and I'm saying going why?
00:42:24.639 --> 00:42:38.400
They're on their way to us what is the problem why can't we encourage them and allow them to dream their way here are we that are how are we feeling security wise about our own status?
00:42:38.559 --> 00:42:39.920
Like why is it about us?
00:42:40.480 --> 00:42:41.519
Why is it about us?
00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:44.000
And why do we make so many things about us?
00:42:45.039 --> 00:43:18.800
Well and why why do we feel like it it it's giving like scarcity mindset to me that kind of the chatter around um you know the healing practices and you know how licensed people are so much better than peer supports, coaches, qualified professionals and I'm like, okay, let me tell you something I worked in community mental health I've seen licensed people that I think how the fuck did you graduate from a master's program?
00:43:19.760 --> 00:43:32.800
And then I've had qualified professionals that are like I would give you a master I would just give you a master's degree because of the amount of knowledge and experience and just pure wisdom that you bring to the field.
00:43:33.199 --> 00:43:36.800
It's like what status isn't everything.
00:43:36.960 --> 00:43:52.239
We are so misled by this idea of status we are misled by the idea that if I do so much that it proves I am more experienced than you it proves that I am better than you it means that I'm above you in some way and that is absolutely not true.
00:43:52.559 --> 00:44:01.039
Yeah and then kind of pushing like people with a global majority minoritized identities in our field to achieve that status right to have Any value.
00:44:01.199 --> 00:44:10.239
Um, I think that's just so beyond harmful where it's like you have to like work consistently to like beat that status quo, reach it to actually have any value.
00:44:10.480 --> 00:44:22.400
And then um, I've known like, I mean, I've seen many leaders that are people of the global majority who've now kind of fallen into that performative trap because now you're kind of all the way up here and you've kind of forgotten where you know you've come from.
00:44:22.480 --> 00:44:30.559
And maybe people have earned it, of course, but at the same time, like don't forget to advocate for others to kind of reach that position as well.
00:44:31.360 --> 00:44:32.480
100% on that.
00:44:32.639 --> 00:44:33.039
Go ahead.
00:44:33.280 --> 00:44:33.760
Oh, go ahead.
00:44:35.119 --> 00:44:36.960
Oh, and I was just um adding to that.
00:44:37.039 --> 00:44:45.599
I think a lot of times, especially given that we are one, in a helping profession for thinking about counseling and clinical work as a whole, but two, we're also educators, right?
00:44:45.760 --> 00:44:53.199
And so shouldn't our whole like moral compass be centered around uplifting people, around educating people and kind of bringing them up.
00:44:53.440 --> 00:45:06.880
Um, and so I always get, you know, baffled, really, where I'm just like, why are these like for lack of a better word, why are these politics kind of at play where it's like, why do you have to bring someone down to elevate your own status?
00:45:07.039 --> 00:45:08.480
I just don't think that's necessary at all.
00:45:08.559 --> 00:45:11.599
And given the field that we're in, it's just I feel like it's just immoral.
00:45:13.199 --> 00:45:17.519
Well, yeah, we know that education is so important, that's why they keep attacking it.
00:45:18.079 --> 00:45:18.320
Yeah.
00:45:18.719 --> 00:45:21.760
You know,
that's um, I mean, we know that.
00:45:22.559 --> 00:45:28.880
Um something else you were saying about um Oh, it's gone.
00:45:29.360 --> 00:45:45.119
Um but yeah, that the breaking down of other people, um, I feel like that that also is why I'm so drawn to us coming back to working in community and taking care of each other.
00:45:45.360 --> 00:45:57.280
And that no way of I don't know, education, healing, being a counselor is no better than another way.
00:45:57.440 --> 00:45:58.960
It's just different.
00:45:59.440 --> 00:46:04.559
You know, I mean we even see it in like the hot new things that come out, right?
00:46:04.719 --> 00:46:08.159
That there's a higher even within that there's a hierarchy, it feels like.
00:46:08.320 --> 00:46:12.480
You know, that EMDR is like the gold standard for people with trauma.
00:46:12.639 --> 00:46:24.400
I've met plenty of clients that EMDR either didn't work for them or made them worse because the counselor didn't know what they were doing, you know, or the hot one now is IFS and my my poor therapist.
00:46:24.719 --> 00:46:25.679
God love them.
00:46:27.920 --> 00:46:35.280
They talked to me three times about IFS and I finally said, look, um, no shade.
00:46:35.679 --> 00:46:52.880
Um, but I just don't I just don't jive with IFS, it feels like the hot new thing, and you know, I just whatever the dude's name that does IFS, he wasn't the first one to talk about parts.
00:46:53.199 --> 00:47:01.440
You know, I talk about parts in my shamanic work, like, you know, I just and he's a white dude.
00:47:02.239 --> 00:47:04.320
I just, you know, and I'm preaching it.
00:47:04.400 --> 00:47:10.719
And I told I mean I did tell him because it there is some overlap between my spiritual work and parts work in IFS.
00:47:10.800 --> 00:47:16.159
And I said, I'm I'm willing to try it, you know, because of the overlap.
00:47:16.639 --> 00:47:21.199
Um uh, but I'm definitely not a cheerleader for IFS.
00:47:21.360 --> 00:47:30.559
And so even in that, like even in the stuff we use in our own field, it feels like there's a it's gotta be evidence-based, it's gotta be research, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:47:30.800 --> 00:47:34.960
Which all that is good to some degree, because we don't want to be doing harm, right?
00:47:35.840 --> 00:47:47.760
And there can be things that are just effective, if not more effective, for folks that maybe aren't quote unquote evidence-based, you know, or things insurance will pay for, right?
00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:51.119
And NASA too, council educators do this to each other too.
00:47:51.199 --> 00:47:58.800
That evidence-based this term, I think, is being misused and abused by people who want to feel more powerful than other people.
00:47:59.039 --> 00:48:07.360
I've noticed council educators do that to each other, where if you're not liked in the field and they don't want to see you rise up, oh, that's not evidence-based.
00:48:07.679 --> 00:48:09.840
But qualitative research is evidence-based.
00:48:09.920 --> 00:48:11.039
It doesn't always have to be quant.
00:48:11.119 --> 00:48:14.400
And even if you try quant, oh, those numbers aren't high enough.
00:48:14.880 --> 00:48:17.199
But they often excuse the work of others, right?
00:48:17.360 --> 00:48:30.079
So, for example, we have no psychometric properties on how effective, like um Freudian's version of psychoanalysis was, but we still teach it like golden standard.
00:48:30.639 --> 00:48:39.199
Yes, there's been research on psychodynamic right all the way through, but why are we still so obsessed with teaching about stuff with history?
00:48:39.679 --> 00:48:42.480
History that there's nothing out there on that.
00:48:43.599 --> 00:48:43.920
Yeah.
00:48:44.159 --> 00:48:45.199
I'm sitting here going, what?
00:48:45.360 --> 00:48:46.800
Or the research is outdated.
00:48:47.840 --> 00:48:49.039
But they want to follow it.
00:48:49.119 --> 00:48:51.760
And what you're trying to do is not right.
00:48:52.639 --> 00:48:57.519
If you're trying to advance the future somehow, and your ideas differ than other people.
00:48:58.400 --> 00:48:59.679
I noticed that a lot.
00:48:59.760 --> 00:49:02.960
And I'm going, ew, like, don't do that to break people down like that.
00:49:03.119 --> 00:49:06.480
Like, all types of research is evidence-based, right?
00:49:06.639 --> 00:49:11.440
So the quants who are listening and getting some heart murmurs right now, I'm so sorry.
00:49:11.679 --> 00:49:14.800
Um, but you know, it's mixed.
00:49:14.880 --> 00:49:15.920
There's room for all of us.
00:49:16.079 --> 00:49:16.159
Yes.
00:49:16.480 --> 00:49:18.320
Qual is just as powerful as quant.
00:49:18.559 --> 00:49:22.320
Quant is representing numbers, and I'm more about quality over quantity.
00:49:22.400 --> 00:49:23.280
It's literally nanane.
00:49:23.440 --> 00:49:24.559
Qual quant.
00:49:26.159 --> 00:49:26.960
Exactly.
00:49:27.199 --> 00:49:30.559
I want words, I want language, I want to hear expression.
00:49:31.679 --> 00:49:32.880
Both are valuable.
00:49:33.119 --> 00:49:33.760
Both are valuable.
00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:34.320
Absolutely.
00:49:34.559 --> 00:49:36.480
So don't make them compete with each other either.
00:49:38.559 --> 00:49:40.000
Be a mixed girl if you want.
00:49:40.159 --> 00:49:41.199
Slightly.
00:49:42.400 --> 00:49:50.880
I had a thought, um, just for overall conversation, just kind of pops into my head um surrounding, I guess, what we were talking about.
00:49:51.039 --> 00:49:58.320
Um, are you and people having certain like statuses and things like that, and what's kind of taboo to talk about in counseling and what's not.
00:49:58.480 --> 00:50:10.239
Um, I think one thought that's always kind of sit in my mind is that counselors and counselor educators are really not expressed, like you were saying, Frank, like to kind of share like their core identities, right?
00:50:10.400 --> 00:50:15.199
Um, maybe because they've been challenged in the past and
maybe they just have not been able to be accepted.
00:50:15.360 --> 00:50:22.719
So even that just being like, I've heard so many times, even within my own experiences, well, don't confuse the professional with the personal, right?
00:50:22.800 --> 00:50:24.719
So don't bring that in whatsoever.
00:50:24.880 --> 00:50:27.920
And I'm just like, in this profession, that's nearly impossible.
00:50:28.079 --> 00:50:30.079
Like you cannot separate the two.
00:50:30.239 --> 00:50:31.280
And same with politics.
00:50:31.440 --> 00:50:32.400
Like you hear it all the time.
00:50:32.559 --> 00:50:34.719
Don't bring in politics with counseling.
00:50:34.880 --> 00:50:37.679
And I've heard that in practices that I've worked at before.
00:50:37.840 --> 00:50:40.880
Um, and again, just impossible to not mix the two.
00:50:41.039 --> 00:50:47.119
So I think um counseling really like in some ways expects us to be a dehumanized version of ourselves, right?
00:50:47.199 --> 00:50:54.079
So you can't be human, you can't experience emotions, you can't experience traumatic incidents and be still be a good counselor.
00:50:54.400 --> 00:50:55.519
And I hear that all the time.
00:50:55.679 --> 00:50:58.719
Or you can't experience all that and be a good activist for other people.
00:50:59.039 --> 00:51:02.159
And I think that's kind of what our conversation just like kind of sparked in me.
00:51:02.239 --> 00:51:04.480
And I'm like, well, that's not okay at all.
00:51:04.639 --> 00:51:08.960
And I think that's again the oppression that's being perpetuated in our field.
00:51:09.199 --> 00:51:16.800
So yeah, that actually just I really appreciate you saying that because that kind of gave I just had like a a ha moment around counter transference.
00:51:16.960 --> 00:51:17.280
Yep.
00:51:17.519 --> 00:51:23.440
Like that, I mean, at least when I was a master student, that was the devil.
00:51:23.760 --> 00:51:30.320
Like, if you had counter transference, it was so bad, you gotta immediately stop and get supervision, blah blah blah blah blah, right?
00:51:31.599 --> 00:51:42.000
And I mean, I I think I'm uh there's the part of me that wants to like go a deep dive when we're done here around counter, like where this idea of counter transference comes from.
00:51:42.239 --> 00:52:00.239
Because my gut's telling me it's it's rooted in white supremacy, about just how like you said, how we are it actually is encouraging us almost to an extent to be a dehumanized version of ourselves.
00:52:00.480 --> 00:52:02.960
Like you check your personal stuff at the door.
00:52:03.039 --> 00:52:04.320
How is that possible?
00:52:05.440 --> 00:52:10.480
How is that possible when I'm sitting in conversation with another human being who is hurting?
00:52:12.000 --> 00:52:15.440
How how am I supposed to check my personal stuff at the door?
00:52:16.960 --> 00:52:19.199
That just doesn't align with me.
00:52:19.599 --> 00:52:22.400
Now, I'm not saying we throw counter transference out the window.
00:52:22.559 --> 00:52:22.880
No.
00:52:23.039 --> 00:52:26.719
I mean, we need to have boundaries and we need to not sleep with our clients.
00:52:26.800 --> 00:52:31.840
I don't know why that's still a thing, but we still like have to talk about that.
00:52:32.559 --> 00:52:35.760
We're saying that because it's still happening a lot and we don't want to see it anymore.
00:52:35.840 --> 00:52:37.280
So stop seeing sleeping with your clients.
00:52:37.840 --> 00:52:40.079
Please, please stop sleeping with your clients.
00:52:40.480 --> 00:52:49.760
You know, and it also if we take it too far, I feel like it actually makes us harmful as counselors.
00:52:50.239 --> 00:53:01.760
You know, if it's like I don't know, I can't I'm supposed to be neutral so that I don't have counter transference and the client doesn't have transference.
00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:02.320
No.
00:53:03.119 --> 00:53:03.440
No.
00:53:04.719 --> 00:53:06.480
I can't go along with that.
00:53:09.199 --> 00:53:09.840
Right.
00:53:10.239 --> 00:53:11.199
Exactly.
00:53:11.760 --> 00:53:19.039
So yeah, that yeah, I feel like that's I need to do a deep dive about countertransference.
00:53:19.280 --> 00:53:20.400
Found out where that came from.
00:53:21.199 --> 00:53:26.000
What's interesting too, oftentimes, is that they only had white people in mind when they wrote that.
00:53:26.320 --> 00:53:26.800
Right?
00:53:27.119 --> 00:53:36.159
Because Freud and Adler, I think, were still saying demeaning things about racially minoritized people and gender and sexual minorities.
00:53:36.320 --> 00:53:43.760
So like Adler, even in creating his stuff, it's like, oh, well, being gay is kind of like a diagnostic issue.
00:53:44.079 --> 00:53:44.639
Right?
00:53:44.880 --> 00:53:48.960
So like there's so many people whose voices are left out because we were deemed as other.
00:53:49.199 --> 00:53:55.039
And counter-transference, I think, comes from that lens of like, oh, like, if because we're all equal.
00:53:55.199 --> 00:53:55.840
We're all equal.
00:53:55.920 --> 00:53:57.360
It comes from that standpoint.
00:53:57.440 --> 00:54:00.000
If we're all equal, we're all equal white people, right?
00:54:00.480 --> 00:54:03.360
Like, no, it's not just about white people in this field.
00:54:03.440 --> 00:54:06.480
And this is the whole issue as to why white supremacy is a bad thing.
00:54:06.800 --> 00:54:19.519
Because it's about that centralized notion that all of us, you know, regardless of race, they use that to justify the continuation of white will always be the norm, you guys will sit at the other table.
00:54:19.679 --> 00:54:20.159
Mm-hmm.
00:54:20.800 --> 00:54:21.440
Yeah.
00:54:21.920 --> 00:54:24.320
Yeah, that white is the norm, white is the standard.
00:54:24.480 --> 00:54:31.599
And I it feels like, at least for me, that's where so much of, you know, we're talking about professionalism.
00:54:31.760 --> 00:54:42.639
Well, yeah, I mean, uh the professionalism has always
been very um white centered, cisgender centered, you know.
00:54:42.880 --> 00:54:53.199
Um, you've got still, you know, in states, you've got laws on the books that black people have to change from the way their hair comes out of their head.
00:54:53.360 --> 00:54:54.960
I'm like, are you kidding me?
00:54:55.199 --> 00:54:56.480
It grows that way.
00:54:56.639 --> 00:54:58.000
Just leave it alone.
00:54:58.239 --> 00:54:59.679
I don't understand.
00:55:00.400 --> 00:55:03.599
You know, what if it was a white person who had red hair?
00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:06.639
And red hair was considered unprofessional.
00:55:07.920 --> 00:55:09.840
You know, that would never happen.
00:55:10.480 --> 00:55:13.039
But it's sure happening to people of the global majority.
00:55:13.280 --> 00:55:38.000
I mean, that's yeah, and that yeah, it's all it feels like that standard and everything is that's the standard that a so many things are um held to, whether it's like you said, what's evidence-based, what are we teaching in the class, what textbooks are we using, what laws are on the books, like all of that.
00:55:38.320 --> 00:55:52.320
And so being able to disrupt that and say, No, actually, I'm gonna use, you know, this textbook, or I'm gonna, you know, whatever.
00:55:53.920 --> 00:56:13.679
That's how structural violence works for sure, too, because I think to like part of what holds us still in racist systems is that people are too scared to let it go, particularly people in power, because the US was built on it, so they have no idea what the rest of the world would look like afterwards.
00:56:13.840 --> 00:56:14.000
Yeah.
00:56:14.159 --> 00:56:15.280
And they're scared of that.
00:56:15.760 --> 00:56:16.719
And I don't know why.
00:56:16.880 --> 00:56:17.599
It's great.
00:56:17.760 --> 00:56:43.199
Hello, we talk about humanism all the time, but it's also because we have people who are fear mongering and saying, if you allow diverse people to have rights, then uh trans people are gonna take over your bathrooms and your locker rooms, and they're gonna do this, and like creating so much fear-mongering of the other that's been around since the beginning of systemic oppression, of what black people will do, about what Asian people will do, about what Latin people will do, they're gonna steal your jobs, right?
00:56:43.360 --> 00:56:47.920
There's always something to try and fear monger to avoid future change.
00:56:48.320 --> 00:56:51.840
Future change that is appropriate and inevitable.
00:56:53.519 --> 00:56:54.480
Like we're here.
00:56:54.559 --> 00:56:55.760
Like, what are you going to do?
00:56:56.079 --> 00:56:58.960
Why is that so important to you that we're here?
00:57:00.159 --> 00:57:00.960
And they're scared.
00:57:01.039 --> 00:57:04.880
I think that's really what it is, but like you're saying the fear mongering where it's like, they're scared.
00:57:04.960 --> 00:57:07.920
We are taking over various positions, right?
00:57:08.159 --> 00:57:19.039
Of power, even, um, and various roles, and you know, people in power with white supremacists, they just don't want to see that because now their power is apparently being taken away, right?
00:57:19.199 --> 00:57:23.440
Um, and I just think the colonizers want to continue colonizing, right?
00:57:23.519 --> 00:57:30.480
And just keep us out of important conversations, whether it be in this field, whether it be in the community, whether it be in larger government as well.
00:57:33.360 --> 00:57:45.360
Yeah, that the um the keeping us out keeping folks out of conversations and holding on to power, you know, is is how they survive.
00:57:45.519 --> 00:57:52.400
And so, you know, there's part of me that can have empathy for that, can have empathy of, yeah.
00:57:52.719 --> 00:58:04.480
It it makes sense to me that it would be scary to look at a world being so different from the world you have experienced thus far.
00:58:04.639 --> 00:58:06.159
I can have empathy for that.
00:58:06.320 --> 00:58:09.360
Um I can I think we all should have empathy for that, yeah.
00:58:09.519 --> 00:58:13.119
Because I mean fear is a natural emotion that's really scary.
00:58:13.440 --> 00:58:14.800
Absolutely.
00:58:15.360 --> 00:58:25.519
And you know, I feel like the the and of that is a big and my I love my clients so much.
00:58:25.599 --> 00:58:28.079
They'll talk about I hear you in my head all the time.
00:58:28.400 --> 00:58:34.320
And I'm like, Mo most things have an and, actually, you know.
00:58:34.559 --> 00:59:29.360
Um but the other the behind that and is how how much this is gonna sound so cheesy and optimistic, how much more wonderful would things be if we weren't trying to climb over top of each other and fight and compete and whatever, if it was we just took care of each other and we had community spaces that had healing practices of all kinds and had mutual aid and had affordable ho you know, we had communities that had affordable housing and we had places paying livable wages, you know, and that you know, people had stable housing, and we didn't have communities that are basically food apartheids, you know.
00:59:29.440 --> 00:59:34.239
It's like why what why not?
00:59:34.320 --> 00:59:36.800
Like why not do those things?
00:59:37.119 --> 00:59:47.360
Even amongst your fear that, you know, if this person has something I don't well that's not actually what we want to move towards.
00:59:47.519 --> 00:59:50.639
We want to move towards you have it and I have it.
00:59:50.960 --> 00:59:56.480
And that's great, because then we can both live a life worth living.
00:59:57.519 --> 01:00:04.400
Oppressing others isn't going to keep you warm, nor is it going to make you any colder if you shared space.
01:00:04.880 --> 01:00:06.159
We just all want to be warm.
01:00:06.639 --> 01:00:07.119
Mm-hmm.
01:00:08.320 --> 01:00:09.440
Absolutely.
01:00:09.760 --> 01:00:16.400
And it and I feel like if any group of people should get that, it would be
counselors.
01:00:19.119 --> 01:00:22.719
And uh oh, you know?
01:00:23.280 --> 01:00:27.199
We're supposed to, but it's also because of the lack of training, right?
01:00:27.360 --> 01:00:31.199
Because we don't centralize, you know, social justice the way it should be.
01:00:31.679 --> 01:00:35.119
Where like social justice is the benevolence that we've been talking about.
01:00:35.360 --> 01:00:37.760
You can't have beneficence without social justice.
01:00:38.159 --> 01:00:39.119
Sorry, not sorry.
01:00:39.280 --> 01:00:40.880
Otherwise, it's fake beneficence.
01:00:41.039 --> 01:00:43.440
It's beneficence towards selective people.
01:00:44.559 --> 01:00:45.840
It's being a polite person.
01:00:46.400 --> 01:00:48.159
Yeah, it's being polite or whatever.
01:00:49.039 --> 01:00:54.320
Yeah, the selective empathy uh is key, I think, there too, right?
01:00:54.480 --> 01:00:58.000
Or like a performative benevolence that you mentioned.
01:01:01.039 --> 01:01:11.599
Yeah, that if and I feel like uh if any yeah, again, if an any group of people would be on their front lines of trying to change things, it would be counselors.
01:01:11.840 --> 01:01:14.559
And that's why I can't get behind that counseling is not political.
01:01:14.719 --> 01:01:15.440
Yes it is.
01:01:16.000 --> 01:01:16.719
Yes it is.
01:01:17.039 --> 01:01:22.559
Because we all know about our clients need their basic Marshmallow.
01:01:23.360 --> 01:01:28.960
Our clients need their basic needs met in order to continue to thrive.
01:01:29.440 --> 01:01:45.599
And then when you've got you know, gerrymandering and redlining and you've got people actively working against people having affordable housing and having food and having clean water how what?
01:01:46.800 --> 01:01:47.119
No.
01:01:48.239 --> 01:01:55.280
Yeah, counselors, you ought to be out there advocating for clean water and protesting data centers.
01:01:57.199 --> 01:02:03.519
I mean, it's uh I don't they're I just counseling is political, full stop.
01:02:05.440 --> 01:02:07.679
And they're afraid to give up their comfort, a lot of people.
01:02:07.760 --> 01:02:21.199
They're afraid to give up their comfort because of what other white people are gonna think of them, of what their profession is gonna think of them, because we can't admit that our field is still led by intimidating forces of oppression.
01:02:22.239 --> 01:02:26.159
They keep a lot of people going, Oh, I need to I can't do all that.
01:02:28.960 --> 01:02:32.880
Instead, I'm gonna advocate through just research because that's good advocacy.
01:02:33.840 --> 01:02:35.440
That's safe advocacy.
01:02:36.639 --> 01:02:43.199
Or I'm gonna see I'm a white therapist and I'm seeing people with a global majority, but I actually don't care about what's happening in the world around you.
01:02:44.400 --> 01:02:54.239
I'm not asking you about how you're feeling when you've seen members of your community hanging from trees or being shot by law enforcement.
01:02:54.400 --> 01:02:55.599
I'm just not gonna read it.
01:02:56.320 --> 01:02:58.320
I'm also scared to read that research, that asked.
01:02:58.400 --> 01:03:01.519
I'm also scared to read that research if it's not about people.
01:03:01.840 --> 01:03:03.440
Like, what is this really about?
01:03:03.760 --> 01:03:04.960
Yeah, what's it about?
01:03:07.199 --> 01:03:11.679
Well, and how are you how are you conducting that research?
01:03:11.840 --> 01:03:13.519
Who's in your research?
01:03:13.840 --> 01:03:15.119
Where are you going?
01:03:15.679 --> 01:03:25.360
Are you doing safe research where, you know, you're not going into the other side of town?
01:03:28.159 --> 01:03:31.280
Are you including who are you including in your research?
01:03:36.239 --> 01:03:36.719
Yeah.
01:03:37.599 --> 01:03:38.960
And then how are you framing that?
01:03:39.119 --> 01:03:40.719
So how are you framing these responses?
01:03:40.880 --> 01:03:47.760
Let's say you are working with marginalized communities, now you get this data, how are you actually interpreting it so it's not harmful?
01:03:49.840 --> 01:03:50.480
Yeah.
01:03:51.760 --> 01:03:57.519
Well, yeah, I mean it's just like you know, again, how are how are you interpreting it, how are you writing about it?
01:03:57.679 --> 01:03:59.039
Because language is important.
01:03:59.280 --> 01:04:07.599
And I, you know, I used to use the term food desert, you know, um, because I thought that's yeah, that makes sense to me.
01:04:07.679 --> 01:04:08.639
But I was listening to Dr.
01:04:08.719 --> 01:04:15.519
Raquel Martin, who is phenomenal, to follow her, and I've been to several of her trainings with Dr.
01:04:15.679 --> 01:04:22.079
Han Ren, and they talk about, you know, food desert a desert is a naturally occurring environment.
01:04:22.320 --> 01:04:23.760
This is a food apartheid.
01:04:24.079 --> 01:04:28.960
Like you're actively trying to get rid of a group of people.
01:04:29.440 --> 01:04:30.639
That's apartheid.
01:04:30.800 --> 01:04:32.079
I was like, whoa.
01:04:33.360 --> 01:04:34.400
Blew my mind.
01:04:34.559 --> 01:04:35.679
But there but she's right.
01:04:35.840 --> 01:04:48.079
I mean, she's right in that when you have communities that don't you've got people who don't have access to grocery stores, fresh produce, locally grown stuff, that's a that's food apartheid.
01:04:48.159 --> 01:04:49.360
That's not a food desert.
01:04:50.239 --> 01:04:53.280
And even how hard it is to actually get those resources, right?
01:04:53.440 --> 01:04:56.079
The boots that you actually have to go through.
01:04:56.480 --> 01:05:00.880
Um, where I think people on the outside don't necessarily understand, like there's a process.
01:05:00.960 --> 01:05:08.239
You can't just access these resources, right, by just asking for them because they're built again on deservingness as well.
01:05:11.440 --> 01:05:19.519
So with all this that we've talked about and and these systems that we find, we all find
ourselves in, you know, because just like Dr.
01:05:19.599 --> 01:05:23.199
Jennifer Mullen says, there this is a mental health industrial complex.
01:05:23.280 --> 01:05:24.719
And so we're all in it.
01:05:24.960 --> 01:05:26.559
Like we are all in it.
01:05:30.239 --> 01:05:41.039
What what do you feel like are some I mean, kind of some things that maybe we could do, small things, big things.
01:05:41.119 --> 01:05:45.360
I mean, the advocacy committee, we do kind of more bigger things.
01:05:45.920 --> 01:06:11.760
Um for folks who are kind of in their universities, in their clinics, and their agencies, um maybe things you've done that have been successful or ways you've You've advocated or been activist in smaller circles or kind of just some ideas maybe people can kind of think on to see if and see if it's something maybe that they could do.
01:06:16.079 --> 01:06:17.039
I think you can go ahead, Frank.
01:06:17.199 --> 01:06:18.400
I feel like I've been talking a lot.
01:06:19.360 --> 01:06:31.039
No, I mean one thing I'll say and I want you to share is um take more risks so that like oppressed people don't have to take on all of that burden and then be punished for it.
01:06:31.840 --> 01:06:38.800
Like if I had more of that support, like I could have been in a completely different scenario sometimes in my professional environments.
01:06:43.039 --> 01:06:44.800
About just taking those risks.
01:06:44.960 --> 01:06:46.960
Um, I would have to agree with that.
01:06:47.119 --> 01:06:54.960
Um, just being one of my pieces of advice too, just like really put yourself out there, especially if you are holding a dominant identity.
01:06:55.119 --> 01:07:03.199
Um, and you do have that power and you do have that privilege where you aren't necessarily being I guess you aren't fearful, right?
01:07:03.360 --> 01:07:09.760
Necessarily of having repercussions to the extent folks who are of minoritized identities would experience.
01:07:09.920 --> 01:07:25.360
So if you are in the position, um I would encourage you to really use your platform to uplift these voices or to protect your marginalized peers as well and colleagues, um, as we are doing the work, because I think that is key as well.
01:07:25.599 --> 01:07:28.880
Where right now a lot of people are are under attack, right?
01:07:28.960 --> 01:07:30.800
Especially those with marginalized identities.
01:07:30.880 --> 01:07:35.920
So if you could take that risk, um I think that would really make a lot of a difference.
01:07:36.960 --> 01:07:45.760
Also, don't hoard resources, like share resources with people, you know, and you know what's really funny actually, and this this blew my mind.
01:07:46.000 --> 01:07:53.199
So um when I was in my doctoral program, it was a female student of color who shared this opportunity with me to join CSJ.
01:07:53.679 --> 01:07:55.840
But you know who else was sharing opportunities with me?
01:07:56.000 --> 01:07:58.239
One white woman in my cohort.
01:07:58.400
--> 01:08:04.159
And because of that, I was able to apply for some things, get a grant, like a small grant, etc.
01:08:04.639 --> 01:08:09.360
And it's because the white people, white students were being fed information that the students of color were not getting.
01:08:09.840 --> 01:08:14.079
Um, and that shit happens more often than you think in council education programs.
01:08:14.400 --> 01:08:18.319
So you know who you are out there, change your systems, right?
01:08:18.479 --> 01:08:22.319
So that everybody has equal access to opportunities, and don't hoard resources.
01:08:22.640 --> 01:08:29.680
If you are a like high and mighty, fierce person of color who's like above it all or like at the top, right?
01:08:30.640 --> 01:08:42.079
Email your other people, the newer people in the field, and said, Hey, I have no idea what your life aspirations are, but here are compiled resources that I built so that you could be successful in Council Ed.
01:08:42.399 --> 01:08:43.119
Just have it.
01:08:43.359 --> 01:08:44.640
I typed it up for you.
01:08:44.800 --> 01:08:47.439
I put a whole bunch in there, like it's all for you.
01:08:48.239 --> 01:08:52.880
Imagine how much of a difference that would make if more of us did that for each other.
01:08:53.119 --> 01:08:56.319
Like when we just show up offering people a plate of food.
01:08:58.159 --> 01:09:02.880
I'd rather have somebody say no thank you than assume that they're not hungry.
01:09:06.560 --> 01:09:07.680
We need to more of that.
01:09:08.079 --> 01:09:14.560
Yeah, we yeah, which makes me think about again that with cultural humility being an inside job.
01:09:14.960 --> 01:09:17.279
Like at some point saying, you know what?
01:09:17.760 --> 01:09:19.279
I don't need any more.
01:09:19.840 --> 01:09:20.960
I don't need any more.
01:09:21.199 --> 01:09:28.560
I don't need any more accolades, I don't need any more positions, I don't need any more grants, I don't need to I don't need any more.
01:09:29.199 --> 01:09:30.239
Here, you have it.
01:09:30.720 --> 01:09:38.479
Not and not in like a cocky, arrogant kind of way, but just in a but let's include you in it, right?
01:09:38.800 --> 01:09:39.039
Right.
01:09:39.119 --> 01:09:41.520
I've had my fill, right?
01:09:41.760 --> 01:09:47.199
And so you know, like with the food, like no, I don't think I need to take leftovers today.
01:09:47.279 --> 01:09:47.840
You take them.
01:09:50.319 --> 01:10:03.760
You know, it and that yeah, and I I feel like yeah, that advocacy and activism uh sometimes goes quietly.
01:10:04.000 --> 01:10:09.760
You know, activism isn't always um out in front.
01:10:10.079 --> 01:10:20.720
You know, sometimes it's the things that we do quietly or that the only people that know about it are us and the person that we talk to or whoever.
01:10:20.880 --> 01:10:27.199
You know, activism doesn't always have to be these big things, it's little things too.
01:10:27.359 --> 01:10:38.560
And so to not discount those, don't discount the um the call you made to the social worker, you know, or whatever that those are important too.
01:10:38.880 --> 01:10:44.239
And that's that's just as much activism as protesting on the street corner.
01:10:46.479 --> 01:10:46.800
Yeah.
01:10:49.199 --> 01:10:56.800
And when you see people victimized as well by oppression, I think back to when I lost my job last year, right?
01:10:57.039 --> 01:10:59.279
And now I'm in a whole new job, which is wonderful, bless.
01:10:59.600 --> 01:11:10.479
Um, but when I lost my job last year, the students actually put more effort into advocating for me by writing letters to the higher up people than actual people in counselor ed did.
01:11:10.720 --> 01:11:11.039
Wow.
01:11:11.279 --> 01:11:14.800
And like people in Counselor Ed would just look at you and be like, Are you okay?
01:11:15.439 --> 01:11:16.800
Do you need anything?
01:11:17.039 --> 01:11:22.000
Some council educators had gone out of their way and said, Hey, I may have an opening where I'm at.
01:11:22.159 --> 01:11:23.039
We want you here.
01:11:23.439 --> 01:11:32.319
You deserve a home to be in, you deserve food, because you were literally put out on the street and everybody else was watching from their windowsills.
01:11:32.560 --> 01:11:33.119
Yeah.
01:11:33.359 --> 01:11:33.920
Yeah.
01:11:34.159 --> 01:11:37.039
And so, like, I'll always remember who those people were.
01:11:38.399 --> 01:11:40.640
And so I go, Okay, I see you.
01:11:41.279 --> 01:11:49.520
And know that if that ever happened to somebody else, including the people who were at their windowsill or whatever, I would be looking for jobs for them and helping them.
01:11:50.960 --> 01:11:51.760
A hundred percent.
01:11:51.920 --> 01:11:54.159
If that happened to somebody else, because it should never happen to anyone.
01:11:56.640 --> 01:11:56.960
No.
01:11:57.279 --> 01:12:16.159
Well, and that come back to taking care of each other and that um it we're getting out of this mindset that if I give this opportunity to you or if I draw your attention to this or whatever, that means I'm gonna go without, and that's just not true.
01:12:17.439 --> 01:12:18.239
It's just not.
01:12:18.560 --> 01:12:19.760
Will you miss out on something?
01:12:19.920 --> 01:12:21.039
Sure, of course.
01:12:21.600 --> 01:12:22.239
You know.
01:12:22.560 --> 01:12:31.680
Um but I just don't I just don't believe in hoarding things or keeping things to ourselves.
01:12:32.880 --> 01:12:40.960
Because we've been told we've been sold to lie that that's how we are successful and we that's how we grow.
01:12:41.039 --> 01:12:43.840
And I was like, I just don't know.
01:12:44.239 --> 01:12:46.479
I grow when I take care of my community.
01:12:47.520 --> 01:12:53.359
And I believe the universe is gonna take care of me if I take care of who I'm called to take care of, which is my community.
01:12:57.119 --> 01:13:00.800
That's just I agree with that so much.
01:13:00.960 --> 01:13:11.600
Um, even just
in terms of how we can approach um activism and leadership, just because that's a big basis of what my leadership really is, where it's like just taking care of one another, right?
01:13:11.760 --> 01:13:28.000
Um, you know, if I have certain opportunities that I can send, whether it's newer students, newer professionals, or even like people who just haven't been in these spaces, I will because I think it's just so important to get new people, new voices in these spaces, especially people who have not had that privilege to get in there.
01:13:28.239 --> 01:13:40.319
So um I just really love what you were saying earlier, Frank, where it's like, okay, like, you know, maybe you see someone who's new, whether it's a student, new professional, just have like a list of resources, whatever it might be, and send it to them.
01:13:40.479 --> 01:13:42.479
Um, you know, if it's helpful, like they'll use it.
01:13:42.560 --> 01:13:44.159
If not, then it'll sit there.
01:13:44.319 --> 01:13:55.359
But at least like we've kind of done our due diligence where it's like, you know, I see um newer people coming up in the field and I want to help them now because I have these resources as well.
01:13:55.520 --> 01:14:02.800
So yeah, and that if you if your plate is full, don't keep taking.
01:14:03.039 --> 01:14:03.680
Yeah.
01:14:04.880 --> 01:14:09.520
You know, I if your plate is full, go sit down.
01:14:10.479 --> 01:14:13.840
Let somebody else, you know, because I feel like that's part of it too.
01:14:14.159 --> 01:14:15.279
Yeah, pass it down.
01:14:15.520 --> 01:14:19.600
This is why a lot of us are burnt out in counter ed, too, because we don't stop saying no to things.
01:14:19.840 --> 01:14:22.479
And what we actually should have been doing is going, hey, you know what?
01:14:22.720 --> 01:14:24.880
I actually know somebody who'd be really good for this.
01:14:25.039 --> 01:14:32.479
And like, make sure you put somebody who could benefit from these opportunities, even if they're a student, bring them into the fold.
01:14:32.640 --> 01:14:38.479
I think this would be a great opportunity for you to be able to learn, grow, and develop your skills as a leader.
01:14:38.640 --> 01:14:42.800
Like, you can do all of these things because we don't ask for much.
01:14:43.199 --> 01:14:43.840
We don't.
01:14:44.079 --> 01:14:44.720
We don't.
01:14:44.880 --> 01:14:49.520
People who ask us, oh, can you take this on, this on, most of the time they don't look at my CD.
01:14:50.800 --> 01:14:55.520
So if I'm sitting here going, Oh, well, I recommend this person, that should be enough.
01:14:56.239 --> 01:14:57.359
Like, pass it down.
01:14:57.520 --> 01:14:57.840
Yeah.
01:14:58.239 --> 01:15:03.439
And let people learn, let people grow, like, let people eat, like do those things.
01:15:03.600 --> 01:15:03.920
Yeah.
01:15:04.159 --> 01:15:06.399
Stop complaining that you're stuffed.
01:15:06.800 --> 01:15:07.920
Well, and stop complaining that you're not gonna be able
to do it.
01:15:09.439 --> 01:15:09.600
Right.
01:15:09.840 --> 01:15:11.359
You're so burnt out.
01:15:15.760 --> 01:15:19.600
You know, there's a person over here that would be really good for that.
01:15:19.840 --> 01:15:26.880
Or you know, I'm not I'm not able to take that on, but I know somebody who would be a killer at it.
01:15:27.199 --> 01:15:28.720
So here's their information.
01:15:28.880 --> 01:15:31.920
I mean, because again, the opportunities are gonna come again.
01:15:32.960 --> 01:15:44.079
So it's sometimes it's like even talking to yourself of like because I get it, like I get the fear again of that scarcity.
01:15:44.560 --> 01:15:45.439
I get that.
01:15:45.600 --> 01:15:47.760
I feel that a hundred percent.
01:15:48.960 --> 01:15:55.600
And coming back to we don't uh we're not hoarding.
01:15:56.079 --> 01:15:58.479
You know, that's not gonna help us be successful.
01:15:58.640 --> 01:15:59.760
It's gonna kill us.
01:15:59.920 --> 01:16:00.880
So That
01:16:01.199 --> 01:16:01.520
asked.
01:16:01.600 --> 01:16:01.760
Why
01:16:01.760 --> 01:16:04.479
are you sitting there being scared about scarcity when you got heartburn, honey?
01:16:04.880 --> 01:16:08.800
If you got heartburn, you need to hand that plate over because you don't need to be eating no more.
01:16:09.439 --> 01:16:11.039
And don't be worried about scarcity.
01:16:11.199 --> 01:16:13.520
Your body's like, I had enough, please stop.
01:16:15.199 --> 01:16:16.800
Listen to your body.
01:16:19.920 --> 01:16:23.119
Um, okay, so my my closing question.
01:16:23.520 --> 01:16:24.960
This is a fun question.
01:16:26.079 --> 01:16:29.520
What is on your music playlist right now?
01:16:30.640 --> 01:16:32.159
What are you listening to?
01:16:36.399 --> 01:16:36.560
Okay.
01:16:37.279 --> 01:16:39.279
Um, I think I have a good mix.
01:16:39.359 --> 01:16:41.680
Um, I think Bad Bunny is on my playlist right now.
01:16:41.840 --> 01:16:42.479
Yes.
01:16:43.439 --> 01:16:46.399
He's always on my playlist, so yeah.
01:16:47.840 --> 01:16:48.479
Yes.
01:16:52.640 --> 01:16:53.520
Not you, Frank.
01:16:53.600 --> 01:16:54.239
He's on your playlist.
01:16:54.399 --> 01:16:55.199
Oh, it's my turn.
01:16:55.359 --> 01:16:56.159
Oh gosh.
01:16:56.319 --> 01:17:03.520
You know, as a queer person, you know, you've screwed me over with this question because you know I've got so many divas on my own playlist.
01:17:03.760 --> 01:17:05.039
Like, what you mean?
01:17:05.119 --> 01:17:06.640
Just like music on my playlist.
01:17:06.800 --> 01:17:09.520
First of all, I think of Insravia, you're gonna laugh at this.
01:17:09.600 --> 01:17:11.119
I've told you this before as well.
01:17:11.279 --> 01:17:21.039
So Rain on Me by Lady Gaga and Ariana is always on my playlist because I imagine myself as Lady Gaga singing, and then I imagine Sravia as Ariana Grande singing.
01:17:21.279 --> 01:17:26.159
Like, that's all I think about in my head as we're doing the choreo to like a music video in
my head.
01:17:26.239 --> 01:17:28.800
That's like all I'm thinking about when I hear that song.
01:17:29.039 --> 01:17:32.399
Cause like legit, like that just power is so dope.
01:17:32.560 --> 01:17:39.760
And and that's why, as well, Sarabia, you're one of those people that I love pouring into because I want to see you and others have it all.
01:17:39.920 --> 01:17:40.239
For sure.
01:17:40.479 --> 01:17:47.600
Like, if something ever happened to me, you're the next supreme, like, ready to go and like do things right.
01:17:47.920 --> 01:17:54.239
Because I know it's in your heart to do that, and like I don't just give stuff freely to everybody, I get that.
01:17:54.640 --> 01:18:00.479
And if I know it's one of our people who can do some real good, just give it to them.
01:18:00.640 --> 01:18:01.199
Give it to them.
01:18:01.920 --> 01:18:03.039
Why is that so hard?
01:18:03.680 --> 01:18:06.079
I share, offer her one biscuit.
01:18:06.159 --> 01:18:06.560
Damn.
01:18:06.880 --> 01:18:08.960
Seriously, one hot biscuit.
01:18:09.279 --> 01:18:10.880
Yes, yes.
01:18:11.279 --> 01:18:12.640
At least, yeah.
01:18:12.880 --> 01:18:19.920
I feel like we at the CSJ conference we need to find a karaoke place because I feel like I need to see that in person.
01:18:20.640 --> 01:18:21.359
I need that.
01:18:23.439 --> 01:18:24.000
I'd be down.
01:18:24.399 --> 01:18:25.439
I would be that.
01:18:25.600 --> 01:18:29.199
And of course, RuPaul, you know, RuPaul's music is always living for me.
01:18:29.359 --> 01:18:35.279
I always listen to ASMR, cake and candy, um, the Queen Dall of it.
01:18:35.359 --> 01:18:43.520
Because it's such feel-good music that you can imagine yourself walking down the runway to just to remember how special you are and how important you are for just being you.
01:18:43.840 --> 01:18:45.359
Forget about all the other stuff.
01:18:45.600 --> 01:18:49.119
Literally, we are just born naked and the rest is drag.
01:18:49.199 --> 01:18:51.039
Like, RuPaul was very right about that.
01:18:51.279 --> 01:18:51.920
A thousand percent.
01:18:52.159 --> 01:18:55.039
Um, so I'm just sitting here going, like, let's just have a good time.
01:18:56.319 --> 01:18:59.359
Let's just have a good time, let's just be us and let's celebrate that.
01:18:59.600 --> 01:19:00.560
Yes, 100%.
01:19:01.279 --> 01:19:01.680
100%.
01:19:02.399 --> 01:19:08.000
Man, I have I have so much I have such random things on my playlist.
01:19:08.079 --> 01:19:08.640
I can't.
01:19:08.720 --> 01:19:11.760
I mean, of course, Melissa Etheridge is always at the top.
01:19:11.920 --> 01:19:14.479
I mean, she's just like, oh my god.
01:19:15.039 --> 01:19:16.239
I just can't.
01:19:16.479 --> 01:19:17.680
I just can't.
01:19:17.920 --> 01:19:23.840
Um, so she, I mean, she's definitely um always part of the playlist.
01:19:24.079 --> 01:19:33.840
Um I and I mean I grew up in the 80s, and so I love some Aerosmith, poison, like all that.
01:19:33.920 --> 01:19:42.319
Um, and
then some really cheesy stuff like Holland Oates and Rick Astley and uh, of course, Hart and Dolly Parton.
01:19:42.399 --> 01:19:43.520
She's on my playlist.
01:19:43.760 --> 01:19:48.399
Um, yeah, so quite quite a mix, quite a mix of stuff.
01:19:48.479 --> 01:19:50.800
So this podcast episode is for you, Dolly.
01:19:51.359 --> 01:19:51.600
Friday.
01:19:52.640 --> 01:19:56.479
Totally I wouldn't throw me a thousand dollars while I up there to do.
01:19:56.880 --> 01:19:57.520
Oh man.
01:19:57.760 --> 01:20:04.159
If you so I listen to this woman, her name's Monty Mater, and she I follow her on all my socials.
01:20:04.319 --> 01:20:14.560
She is um an activist, uh musician, and she did she has a podcast called Flippin' Tables, which I love because that's my favorite story on Jesus.
01:20:15.119 --> 01:20:20.560
And she did an episode, I think it was almost two hours, about Dolly Parton.
01:20:20.880 --> 01:20:22.319
Oh my gosh.
01:20:22.560 --> 01:20:34.000
I mean, I knew Dolly Parton was a one of a kind human being, but my gosh, she really breaks it down from like where she was born, how she grew up, all the things that she's done.
01:20:34.159 --> 01:20:35.119
Oh my god, it's phenomenal.
01:20:35.199 --> 01:20:36.079
So you gotta listen to it.
01:20:36.159 --> 01:20:36.800
It's so good.
01:20:36.960 --> 01:20:37.920
It's so good.
01:20:38.399 --> 01:20:43.119
Really quickly as well, when I said the Supreme comment earlier, that's just a reference to Kevin.
01:20:43.199 --> 01:20:48.239
We do need to abolish hierarchies because truth be told, like, we actually are all supremes, like together.
01:20:48.720 --> 01:20:51.520
Um, and that doesn't take away from another person or whatever.
01:20:51.680 --> 01:20:56.079
Like, nobody is just greater or inherently greater um than somebody else.
01:20:56.239 --> 01:20:57.520
That's bullshit.
01:20:57.840 --> 01:21:00.000
So we're demolishing that bullshit.
01:21:00.079 --> 01:21:00.960
Sorry, Kevin.
01:21:01.359 --> 01:21:02.159
Sorry, Kevin.
01:21:03.439 --> 01:21:09.039
We all have our talents, we all have our gifts that spirit has given us, and we need to use those.
01:21:09.199 --> 01:21:12.399
My talents are not gonna be the same as either one of y'all.
01:21:12.880 --> 01:21:17.600
We may have similar ones, but we're gonna have ones that others don't have.
01:21:17.680 --> 01:21:19.680
And we can't do this without each other.
01:21:20.159 --> 01:21:20.479
No.
01:21:21.039 --> 01:21:21.359
No.
01:21:21.920 --> 01:21:22.720
We can't.
01:21:22.960 --> 01:21:23.760
We can't.
01:21:24.079 --> 01:21:25.600
Well, I really appreciate y'all.
01:21:25.760 --> 01:21:27.279
Love you both so very much.
01:21:27.439 --> 01:21:31.760
I'm so glad y'all were my first episode because y'all are amazing.
01:21:32.159 --> 01:21:35.760
And yeah, all the stuff will be in the show notes.
01:21:35.920 --> 01:21:39.520
And yeah, thanks for a great chat today.
01:21:40.000 --> 01:21:43.520
Keep thriving and slaying, my queer queens who are listening.
01:21:43.760 --> 01:21:44.239
Yes.
01:21:44.560 --> 01:21:45.119
Absolutely.
01:21:45.279 --> 01:21:46.960
And thank you so much for having us, Angela.
01:21:47.039 --> 01:21:47.600
This is amazing.
01:21:48.159 --> 01:21:49.039
We love you, Angela.