Full Transcript for Brown Buzz: Billionaire Scandals, Black Women Making History & My Oprah Moment!

them to companies in China who weren't able to get access to them previously. He was having an affair with that woman. Not just the fact that he was having an affair. This woman was actually a spy for the Chinese version of the CIA, according to the New York Times. OK, that's embarrassing enough. What's worse is how many people knew about it and for how long. I'm a huge fan of that show, The Diplomat on Netflix. It stars, believe me, there's a point, Keri Russell and Rufus something or other. It's so good. Keri Russell plays a diplomat in the UK and you get to see these like inner workings of behind the scenes politicians trying to like stop these crises from happening. And it just made me think of this show. When you think, when you hear and you read about how, for how long certain people in the U.S. government were trying to get something done about this, because Jensen Wong is like, became besties with Donald Trump. I mean, there was a time when Jensen Wong was on stage and he got a call from Trump and he's like, oh, let me pick this up right quick. That's how tight they were. You had Secretary of State Margot Rubio issued a secret letter apparently to the White House saying, yo, we have evidence that this woman is a spy. Someone do something. And Trump chose not to act. This was like a well-known open secret. And when the news initially comes out, who's one of the first to come to Jensen's defense? It's Trump himself saying, oh, he's a nice guy. Like, they shouldn't, you know, fire this guy. Well, then what was it? One or two days later, we got news of a second extramarital affair. This time, the CEO could not keep his little, you know what, his eggplant emoji in his pants. He's also having an affair with one of his direct reports. direct reports, okay? I'm not even going to mention her name because, like, it doesn't really matter. He's the one with all the power. He's the one who needs to be held responsible. There was some question of, is he going to resign because of the whole having an affair with a Chinese spy thing? Which, honestly, I was shocked at the fact that he wasn't immediately fired. Like, is that not a fireable offense? How can you trust the leader of one of the biggest companies in the world with that company if they are so dumb as to have an affair with a spy? I'm so sorry. What does that say about your judgment? We already knew his judgment was kind of weird. You saw those leather jackets. I saw the, come on. That leather jacket is saying I'm a sleazebag. That leather jacket is saying I think I am God's greatest gift on earth and I have a God complex myself. And because this entire industry and world is holding me up as a king and I'm best friends with the president of the United States. that I can do whatever the hell I want to do, even if that means, yeah, I'm going to sleep with the spy. I'm going to sleep with the CEO of one of my biggest customers, despite the fact that that's in my own company's code of conduct as something not to do. And on top of that, I'm going to go ahead. I'm going to have another affair with a direct report, which is also something anyone at the company is not allowed to do. How are you going to trust this man? Okay. But it actually took until the second affair for the board to finally get it together. They had an emergency meeting. The board had made its decision. Jensen Wang is out. It was written that he resigned. But, you know, they probably were like, dude, you're either going to resign or we're going to have to, like, oust you. And Jensen was like, fine, I give up. This is the end of a ridiculous era. This is 33 years this man was the founder and CEO of this company. Now he has stepped down and apparently there's not really a succession plan or there wasn't at least. But they found someone. They have appointed the CFO of the company, Colette Kress, with the thankless task of keeping the ship upright. after this man and his tiny you-know-what have tried to bring the company under. As of this recording, it's about 3 p.m. on Thursday. Since the story first broke, the stock has fallen over 20%. It was trading at $ 215 before the first Chinese spy affair news broke. 00:06:42 Speaker 2: Woo-wee! 00:06:43 Speaker 1: And this is a really good example of why we don't just buy individual stocks, right? Because if you're someone who was like, ooh, NVIDIA, the hottest stock on the planet, I'm going to scoop up a bunch of this. One man's mistake. has sent that stock tumbling. I've seen some people like on threads, actually there was someone who was screenshotting the stock price and they are buying the dip. They're looking at this as like, OK, this is a CEO who's made a mistake, but the fundamentals of the company still make it one of the most important companies, if not the most important company in the globe. So we're going to continue. We're going to buy this stock. I think people are showing that they have faith that the company will bounce back. So if you're someone who, you know, have been thinking about getting it on NVIDIA, but the price was a little too high for you. I mean, is this like NVIDIA is going on sale? I don't know about that. Apparently, like based on all these news reports, based on the fact that it took them this long to fire this man after he legitimately was boinking, a Chinese spy. I'm sorry for saying boinking. I don't think I've ever said that out loud in my entire life, but we're going with it. They took them that long to fire him because that's how integral this man apparently was to the company. 00:07:49 Speaker 3: So. 00:07:50 Speaker 1: You could kind of argue like if they were that afraid to fire him, doesn't mean that when he leaves, NVIDIA is not going to be what it once was. And it may not be as powerful. It may revenue may fall. Partners may flee. They may have suffered a big blow to its reputation that gives competitors a chance to fill in that gap. You know, we don't want to be affiliated with them. So

we're going to go to a competitor. Who knows? I'm not someone who buys individual stocks like that. So but what I can say is, There's plenty of ETFs, exchange traded funds, that have stocks from a similar like basket of companies. You can hedge your bets and also be invested in, you know, nine to 15 other companies that are in similar spaces. A couple of examples are, I mean, I looked it up. There's over 2,000 exchange traded funds ETFs that cover, that include NVIDIA stock in it. You've got, I mean, Vanguard, you got the ETF VOO. So I'm an NVIDIA, you know, investor. But because those ETFs included several other companies, because NVIDIA stock has gone down, it's not like, you know, my retirement account, my brokerage account is going to be suffering because I had that diversification that ETFs offer. I just saw that President Trump is calling for Tim Cook to replace Jensen for the long term. I'm getting this from CNBC. Now that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wang, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there's only one man to take his place. Tim Cook of Apple, a legend replaces a legend. listen. Meanwhile, Tesla, or sorry, Elon Musk has said that he wants to hire Jensen Wong. I'm sorry, this man needs therapy. Jensen Wong needs help. Honestly, I think Trump made the bar in hell for what we expect out of our leaders. But I'm so sorry. If you are going to be leading a company with thousands of employees, who wants to work for a man like that? In his own interviews, I saw an interview on Bloomberg that Jensen gave where he is saying how pivotal and important the role of CEO is, how it should be a difficult role. You should be held accountable. You should be held to a high standard by his own words, his own supposed beliefs. He would fire himself for his conduct. The fact that he has created this code of conduct at this company, set this bar for the way that people should be comporting themselves, and then he just threw that whole thing out the window when he wanted to have a good time. Please. What I'm kind of giggling about, too, is that he and his wife apparently don't have a prenup. That lady, God bless her. 00:10:12 Speaker 3: Lori. 00:10:13 Speaker 1: Oh, Lori, girl, you about to get a call from Mackenzie Scott. from Melinda Gates. Y'all are about to, I don't know, y'all are going to take over the world at this point with these men's money because you ain't got no prenup. Take it to the bank. I'm really curious to see what his wife does. They were together for a very long time. I mean, I'm brokenhearted for her. This has got to be enormously embarrassing. And if I know anything about women, it's that we are very aware of what our partners are doing. So Lord knows how long she's known about these affairs and has been grappling with this. And so my heart goes out to her and their family because at the end of the day, they don't deserve the kind of scrutiny, public scrutiny that they are probably getting at this time. But I'm just thinking about I'm like when she bounces back from this and she gets that settlement check. Woo wee. Good for you, Lori. All right. Moving right along to topic number two, Scott Collum, y'all. It came down to five thousand six hundred and eighteen votes, y'all. Five thousand six hundred and eighteen votes the night of election night last week. When we weren't sure, it was down to a few dozen votes. And there was all these jokes about how long it was taking Mississippi to count these votes. But the fact that it took this long, it kind of gave the second wave of optimism and excitement. The blue tsunami was like a second coming because the fact that there has not been a Black senator in Mississippi since Reconstruction, this is huge. This is huge. Huge, huge, huge, huge, huge. Congratulations to Scott. Congratulations to the People of Mississippi, especially in a week where we've had this headline about these racist ass college girls. We're going to talk about that next. The fact that this other side of Mississippi is kind of being raised at the forefront and people are pushing back and saying this is not who we are. We don't stand for this ish. I'm really, really excited for Mississippi. This is one of the states with the bloodiest, the most violent, the most traumatic history of racism in our country in the Deep South. And I don't want you to get it twisted. Scott Collin was not somebody that the Democratic Party was like really throwing their weight behind. He wasn't raising a ton of money. Trump won that state by 23 points the last election. OK, 23 points. If you're looking at that versus like a state like Florida, Michigan, Georgia, where the races are a lot tighter and you're trying to decide where your dollars are going to be best spent, you're probably looking at those other races. So Scott wasn't getting a lot of attention or a lot of fundraising there. But he was really supported by grassroots organizations, some that I've heard of for the first time, but I want to shout them out. You have Cassandra Welchin and the Mississippi Black Women's Roundtable, who are widely credited as some of Scott's biggest supporters. You have Jakari Holland and the Mississippi Access Project. This is a 21-year-old Jackson State University senior who founded Mississippi Access Project to expand voter registration and voter rights ahead of the midterms. He was organizing shuttles for students, and he honestly helped secure this razor-thin margin by Scott Collum. And of course, Stacey Abrams yet again. I mean, Stacey Abrams and her organization Fair Fight. They really created the blueprint for an organizing model where you can turn out Black voters in these deep red states. So more flowers for Stacey Abrams. And in his own speech, Scott Collum credited... civil rights icons, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Frank Figures, veterans of this movement for having faith in Mississippi's potential for change when it has seemed impossible for so, so long. So all right, Scott Collum,

you've got the win, you got the W, now let's get to work. And let's not just forget Black women in general. Black women were 20% of Mississippi's electorate and 99% of Black women in Mississippi voted for Scott. 99%, y'all. All right, we're going to keep it in Mississippi for the next topic on Brown Buzz. We got to talk about those racist girls. Honestly, this story was very triggering for me. It was triggering for me because I once, I was a student at a PWI at the University of Georgia, and we lived in a building. I mean, when I saw the ring camera of those women's apartment, I was like, wow, that looks just like Abby West, where I used to live when I was in college. And you'd be surrounded by the sorority girls. Nothing like that ever happened to me. But when I saw it, I just imagined what it would have felt like to be 19, 18 years old in my apartment in the middle of the night and to have an act of aggression like that. And yeah, an act of aggression is what it was. This is three white women. I know some people are trying to say it was only two. I'm sorry, I counted three white women, two of them making the gorilla sounds and the beating on them chest and those gestures. enthusiastically. They love that shit. They were doing it on purpose. And the third one, yes, she kind of kept her head down and kept walking. But that in and of itself, you are complicit. One of the girls has identified herself. Last name is Cunez. Turns out like her family owns this chain of car dealerships in Wisconsin. And some news reports have shown that that dealership itself has been caught up in some racist incidents one of their customers a black woman actually was texted a gif of an ape wearing a bikini beating his chest by one of the car dealers there like another customer said that when she got her car there was a sticker on it with the n-word typed onto it so listen the apple don't fall far from the racist tree at this point so that girl has actually issued a statement her last name cunas she's issued a statement She's like apologizing, but not apologizing. Oh, we didn't know who lived there. You know, we had no idea. We've apologized. No. Meanwhile, the actual women, the women in the apartment, interviewed this week on CBS. They are Jakira Metcalf, Kayden Caldwell, and Victoria Johnson. Metcalf is the one who posted the original video on TikTok, which at this point has over 13 million views. They were on CBS, and here's what they had to say about the incident. 00:15:55 Speaker 2: Who was first to discover this video on the Ring camera? 00:15:58 Speaker 1: Me. And what did you do? 00:16:01 Speaker 3: We actually went outside and tried to like approach them and like get them to like explain why they did that. 00:16:11 Speaker 1: One girl was apologizing. 00:16:12 Speaker 4: She was like, I'm sorry. 00:16:13 Speaker 1: We did that to like four doors. And mind you, we didn't see anyone else. It was just ours that was targeted. 00:16:20 Speaker 3: And she was like, we didn't mean any harm. 00:16:22 Speaker 2: Metcalfe says she went outside with her roommate, Victoria Johnson. They say the first person seen in the November 6th video, Elena Cunes, apologized. But the second person, who they say lives in their complex, doubled down off-camera. 00:16:36 Speaker 3: She continued to make the gestures after the girl was apologizing. 00:16:39 Speaker 1: It was like a slapping face. 00:16:41 Speaker 2: And what did you guys say back when she continued? Because now, I would imagine it's really hard for you to keep your cool. 00:16:49 Speaker 3: Yeah, I had said that I don't think they should go around. Even if they did go to other people's door and do that, I don't think they should do that because it's very disrespectful. 00:16:58 Speaker 1: I'm telling you, it's really hard to hear responses like that because they're doing what far too many women of color, people of color have to do when these ignorant, racist attacks are thrown our way, which is to take the high road and to have dignity and to not be petty. And all I'm going to say is I'm glad that they're doing that publicly. But I'm saying on the Internet, girls, we got your back on the Internet. I think it's been people been having a field day seeing these white girls so publicly ruin their own lives. Like I know at this point people are going to say like, oh, cancel culture and like The internet mob, the mob mentality, like we're tearing these girls down, ruining their careers. No, I'm so sorry. You made a decision. You're an adult. You made a decision to in a camera on purpose. Y'all knew there was a camera there. Please, on purpose, you went in front of that camera. You did your little racist gesture and you screwed it up for yourself. That is accountability. I don't want to hear none of this. It wasn't my fault. And oh, people were too harsh. No, no, no, no, no. You did that. And honestly, I'm glad that y'all put yourselves on camera doing that so that we can see exactly who you are. No one's ever going to believe that you're not a racist. Now we're going to know it no matter where you go in your life. This will follow you. People will know exactly who you are. What's really disgusting to me is that there is a fundraiser. It's people have been saying it's called GoFundMe. It's not a GoFundMe page. It's some some page similar called Give, Send, Go. But there is a fundraiser that's been started by apparently this like known conservative group. fundraiser called Tim Hennison. And as of this recording on Thursday afternoon, it's raised almost $ 80, 000, but only for one of the girls who made the racist gestures, not the one who apologized about it. No, no, no, no. This one is for the second girl. She has not issued any kind of apology. And this particular fundraising page is specifically set up for her so that she doesn't have to. Page says, we reserve the right to take this page down if she bends the knee. That's how they see it. They want her to have enough

money so that she doesn't feel pressured to, quote, bend the knee and apologize. Please. And isn't it just like the dichotomy? We have Scott Collum winning in Mississippi. You have this racist attack and people pulling money out of their own pocket to donate money to a girl who is so blatantly racist toward these innocent black students. Like, come on now. It just shows you that even though Scott Collum has won in Mississippi, there's still a long, long way to go. We can't take our eye off of the prize there. Ole Miss says it's investigating. Now, in my opinion, what is there to investigate? It's the evidence is right there. Get those girls out of your school. Kick them on out. Kick out anybody who's on that campus who's donated to that Give, Send, Go page. we need some accountability and some action. Now, one of the girls has taken herself. She's resigned or what do you call it? Unenrolled from Ole Miss herself. She's, I don't know, go back to Wisconsin girl. Like, you know, maybe you can work at daddy's car dealership where you probably have a lot of fans waiting for you. That's great, but completely and truly disgusting behavior. Hope, honestly, one of the things that the Ole Miss does is like give these, give these three girls, these victims, give them like a full ride, full scholarship. In fact, give them a full ride in scholarship to any other institution. Let them leave if they want to leave. I know the girls said in their interview on CBS, like, we're not going to let this dissuade us from our studies. They're studying psychology and nursing and radiology, and they deserve to have to feel safe where they live. And if they don't feel safe on that campus, I'm saying, Ole Miss, give them a full ride to wherever they want to go. Write that check. OK, VA fam, let's take a little quick break. And when I get back, I'm going to tell you all about how I got to breathe the same air as Oprah Winfrey. I'm still pinching myself. Be right back. All right, I'm back. BA fam, I just need to preface this by saying, like so many of us millennials, Oprah raised me. When I came home off that school bus around 3.30 or whatever, I would get my snack. I would steal the remote control before anybody else got to it. And I would turn it on channel two over the channel to channel four, whatever it was. So I could watch the Oprah show girl. I don't care what they were talking about. I was sat for it. I remember saying like, I would love to go to Chicago someday and be on that show. It'd be a dream of mine. But then, you know, she ended the show and it felt like there goes that dream. But Oprah has been back on it, y'all. I mean, she looks incredible. Incredible. She looks so healthy, so vibrant, so vivacious, even in her 70s. And I don't know. So what happened? A few months ago, I was back in September, I was on Threads and I saw a post. One of one, actually, my publisher, shout out to Krishan, she DM'd me this post. But at that point, I'd already seen it and applied. It was a post from Oprah, her account anyway, saying, you know, we're looking for women entrepreneurs who want to join Oprah for a taping of her podcast in New York City. featuring Emma Greed. It's going to be talking about motherhood and business ownership. And I was like, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. It's me. It's me. So that was it. They wanted you to email this particular email and I had to send a headshot. I had to basically write what my feelings are about being a mom and a business owner. And then they wanted you to write, what would your question for Emma be? What I had sort of shared was the fact that as a business owner, I hate to say it, but I will sometimes use motherhood stuff like kid stuff as an excuse to avoid doing business things that I know I ought to be doing. Spending time with my son reading his 10th book or helping him with a school project or making cakes for the election day bake sale like I did for four hours for election day this year. Ain't nobody asked me to do that. With four hours, I could have been doing a lot more things for my business or for the book that I probably ought to have been doing. But sometimes I do let these, you know, kid-centric or like motherhood sort of things, responsibilities and duties, I do prioritize them over my business and how I am wanting to recognize that. And I can't even use the fact that like, oh, I feel guilty if I don't do it. I genuinely am just kind of hiding behind those tasks because I don't know, you can still feel like you were productive and you did something good for your family. And at the same time, I also need to realize that doing well in my business is also good for my family. And so I need to be prioritizing that a lot more in this season. So I kind of wrote that in the email and then I thought nothing of it. I was like, girl, thousands of women are going to be applying for this. I saw them posting on Instagram, on threads, on TikTok. I mean, I saw it everywhere. So I was shocked when I got this email saying, you're confirmed. You're going to be at an Oprah podcast taping in November. And congratulations. Oh, my God. And the email said I could bring a guest. And the first person I thought of was my sister friend, Jessica, who I met, I think I've talked about her on the show before. I live in an area where it is diverse, but my son's daycare is not particularly diverse. And there was one other Black mom Five, six years ago when I first started my son there, one other black mom that I would see in the parking lot and one and we kind of like smiled, you know, and then one day I just rolled my window down and I straight up asked her, I was like, do you want to be friends? I really could use I could use a friend. It was like Jess immediately got what I was trying to say. And that week I invited her to the playground with her son for a play date. And it's been a wrap ever since. We are tight. She's one of my closest friends. And she was the person I thought, OK,

that's that's my guest. I want to I want to go with her. By the way, I was terrified it was a scam. It wasn't like they were asking for money or anything, but the email that it came from, it wasn't like Oprah.com or something like that. It ended up being a third party live event studio planning organization that's run. And once I researched it, it's run by two Black sisters, twin sisters. Shout out to Sherry and Shelly. Like I said to you yesterday when I finally got to meet you in person, why did your mama do that to y'all? Sherry and Shelly, twin sisters. who run that business. So that was amazing. So we got the confirmation. We signed our NDA and we got the details. And the NDA basically said, don't tell nobody about this. So I had been just like biting my tongue, like knowing I'm going to be in the same room as Oprah, but not able to talk about it for all this time. And so the day finally came yesterday. We had to be there at 930 in the morning. I told Jess, pick me up at 730. It's a 45 minute drive. And I was like, girl, pick me up two hours before because I was so nervous about being late. And we got and I even like I wore a really nice outfit, but I was nervous. I would find a way to spill something on myself. So I brought a backup dress in the car just in case. And I got up at 5 a.m. to do my hair because, you know, it's the Oprah show. You got to look good, right? Like I remember that. The audience at Oprah shows was always so beautiful and like always so well put together. So I was like, I need to come. We get there. We were like the second and third person people to arrive at this space. And it was confusing because it was like an empty kind of like studio space. But there is no studio. There is no there are no cameras. No, this is not where the podcast is going to be taped. It ends up that they have like a holding space for us down the street from where the studio was. And I knew I was in the right place because I saw, you know, that account. Do you follow Jay-Z? Not that Jay-Z. It's her. social media manager or assistant guy, Jonathan. And I saw him in the room and I was like, Ooh, this is it. Jay-Z, Jay-Z, not that Jay-Z is here. And he's like constantly in their social media content. So I was like, okay, I'm in the right spot. And slowly, but surely more women showed up and there must've been about 50 or so women, I want to say. And I kind of joked about this, but I'm telling you, that was the best smelling room I have ever been in. Not only was everybody gorgeous, well-dressed, dressed to the nines, hair did, nails did, everything did, makeup to a T, smelled amazing. Honestly, I think You would have expected like, oh, maybe they have like snacks and waters. Girl, I think like an hour in, somebody brought a case of water bottles and kind of slammed them on a table. And I was like, nice. But I think we were all just so genuinely excited to be there that no one really cared that there were no amenities and that the place wasn't really set up for us. When we first got there, we had to wait. Well, whatever. So finally, they say, OK, gal, it's time to start heading over to the studio. Then we're there. It's this beautiful studio. And I'm like, oh, this is an Oprah show taping. 00:26:50 Speaker 2: Yes. 00:26:50 Speaker 1: It was so intimate, actually. There was, like I said, like 50 women, so only like a few rows of seating. And then they ushered us to sitting behind where Oprah and Emma were going to be sitting. And at first I was like, oh man, I want to like make eye contact. But then the way that the chairs were angled, I could tell Oprah was going to be angled toward me because... Emma's book was on her table. And because I'm a super fan, I know. And I saw the little sticky notes. I was like, that's Oprah's copy of Emma's book. She's going to be sitting there, you know, talking to Emma. So I'm going to, yes, eye contact. And they did a lot of like moving us around. I think I was changed seats like three times in the same area because they wanted like color balance to be right and people wearing different colors. Anyway, I finally get sat at the end of the row in the back directly behind Emma and I can see Oprah at the angle and then we're all kind of waiting and the energy is buzzing and then there's like directors like the production team and cameras kind of milling around and I see people taking their cameras out and I'm thinking about this NDA and I'm like terrified to take any pictures but then everybody else is taking pictures so I'm like, well shit, let me get some content. I would have done a much better job with my content if I wasn't like if I hadn't thought, oh, you're not allowed to do that. This is the Oprah taping. No, you can't do that. But everyone was doing it. And so I was like, OK, I guess this is fine. But then it was time. Next thing you know, the air kind of shifts. And I look to my right and there's Oprah and her beautiful golden highlights and her like beautiful tan suit. And then you have Emma Greed, who's Emma Greed's exciting enough to be in the room with like, she's phenomenal. But Oprah, like Oprah was, Oprah was it for me. I was, I was there for Oprah girl. And when Oprah comes in, she's like talking to the audience. She's turning around saying, she's like, you guys are the most beautiful audience I think I've ever seen. And I don't know. I think she says that to all of her. She said she doesn't say it, but I do feel like she said that before. So, but anyway, I believe it. And she turns around and I'm like, I'm like, hi, Oprah. I'm like turning into my mother. I can tell in this instant. But I just wanted to just connect, you know, just like make eye contact. And we did. We like locked eyes. She acknowledged my presence or maybe she was looking behind my head. I don't know, but it felt like we locked eyes. And then the conversation, you know, it just it was great. She and Emma talked a lot about it wasn't just about Emma's book. Emma's book

came out this past earlier this year called Start With Yourself. She already was on the Oprah podcast at the beginning of the year. And it was in that interview where she started to make viral headlines for some of her stances, like on remote working, how she said that women, it's career suicide, she calls it, to work remotely. That was one of the most incendiary things she said at the time. And then also her admission in the book about being a three-hour mom, where at most she's spending three hours with her kids on a daily basis. So she talked about that. And I got to respect Emma. When you hear her speak, it's really hard to to not respect and appreciate her point of view because she stands 10 toes down on what she believes. And she did not apologize or hedge anything about what she said. She's like, I said what I said and I meant it. And, you know, respect for that. I will say one of the things that she said in an interview before the taping yesterday, Emma, and She said it again during the podcast taping, which is that she said, I will not apologize for privileges that I have afforded myself or privileges that I have created myself for myself. And I get what she's saying by that. What she's saying is I was raised by a single mom from a poor neighborhood in East London. I am a self-made woman. Blood, sweat and tears worked my way up to where I am now. And everything I have is because I put work into it. I understand what she's saying. So she's not going to apologize anymore. for the fact that she has a nanny and that she can afford to live well and that, you know, she can have personal trainers and personal chefs accoutrements and amenities of being really wealthy. And she doesn't need to apologize for that. But as I was talking to my friend afterward and we were kind of, you know, debriefing, I said the reason that never really sat completely right with me is, yes, I know what she's saying, but she is ignoring privileges that she did not necessarily earn, privileges that she was born with. So let's talk about those privileges. This is a woman who is British, who is beautiful, who is a Black woman, but has attributes that I believe are sort of fall into that category of very attractive, acceptable version of a Black woman in America. I'm talking long, straight hair, even though she wears it wavy. She is brown skinned, but she's not dark skinned. She has very like you know, delicate feature. She's petite. She's skinny. She's beautiful. And I don't want to be here. And I don't want someone to say, oh, you're just, you're admonishing someone for being beautiful. But Emma is never going to experience corporate America in the way that a dark skinned black American woman will experience corporate America. Y'all know we have a thing for British accents. And Emma speaks, her voice speaks. her inflections, her tone, it's like intoxicating. It's charming. It draws you in. And I do believe that if you put an Emma Greed next to dark skinned, black, natural hair wearing American, and let's say she grew up on the East side of Atlanta, and you put them with the same qualifications next to an Emma Greed, and you ask a round table of company CEOs and key stakeholders in business, Who's the one that you believe is CEO potential or you want to buy her book or listen to her podcast or take her advice? Just based on what I know about this country that we live in, they're choosing Emma Greed every day. I'm sorry. And I do think that comes down to the package that she's in. And of course, not taking nothing away from her skills and her and her talents that she clearly has and her business savvy and her hustle mentality. Mad respect for that. But we need to be willing and ready to have a conversation about the privileges that she did not earn and the privileges that she has in particular being here and leading in the United States. Okay. Now, apart from that... I really enjoyed the taping. There were now some people in the audience were like business. Well, most of the audience was women business owners. I mean, I talk women who own their own publicist firms, who one of the women I was sitting next to, um, shout out to Nicole, Nicole Sancho. She's a Dean at a public high school in Staten Island. And we had a really cool conversation. I met a woman, uh, what was her name? She owns a tea company, Imani Ellis, the founder of CultureCon. I know she was there. Um, Yeah. So it was just really dope. And when they were wrapping, Oprah and Emma stood up and they were like, hey, we're going to go around and kind of take selfies with the sections of the audience. And so annoyed. When they got to our section, because I was on the end, they kind of skipped the end and went right to the middle. And I wasn't able to get a good selfie with Oprah and Emma. But until the end, I kind of snuck an extra one with Emma. And I did have to embarrass myself. I mean... I'm not going to fangirl for everybody, but I had to put my dignity on the floor under my chair and stick it under there and say, you know what? I'm going for it. I'm going to try to get the selfie. I'm going to try to get their attention. It was like Oprah. Emma, over here. 00:33:53 Speaker 4: Hi, over here. 00:33:54 Speaker 1: Can I get it? You know, but anyway, it was really cool. I'm going to post the videos and like the pictures, the terrible selfies that I got just because why not? But yeah, such a cool opportunity. And I they're going to sound I mean, they were taping this Oprah show all week in New York City. So if you feel like you are local in New York and you missed out on this chance or this opportunity, I'm like, follow their social accounts because, you know, everybody I talked to was there because they responded to that social media post. So shoot your shot. Shoot your shot for sure. Now, how am I going to find a brown boost to top going to the Oprah show? I'm going to do a cute little boost. I want to boost this Instagram account. It's called Tiny

Talk NYC. And it's the same Instagram account behind the Meet Cutes NYC. So this is where they go around and they find people on the street who look like a couple. And it's like, are you a couple? Tell us a story of how you meet and how you met. And it's just really adorable to see these couples tell their meet cute stories. They do. Now they have a little version of asking tiny New Yorkers to tell their story. And the one that I saw, it's gotten three million views already. It's these two little boys who call themselves Schmigga dudes because it turns out they're two child actors, two little black boys who are child actors. And they're acting in a play on Broadway right now called Schmiggedon. I don't know what it's about, but if these kids were in it, I'm trying to get tickets. And it was just so adorable. Their whole conversation. Here's a little taste if you're interested. 00:35:17 Speaker 2: Excuse me. Sorry. 00:35:18 Speaker 1: Are you two friends? 00:35:19 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:35:20 Speaker 1: Would you mind telling me the quick story of how you met? 00:35:23 Speaker 2: Um, sure. 00:35:24 Speaker 4: We met at like a rooftop party and I was like, oh no, this is going to be horrible. Then he came in and was like, hey, you want to be friends? 00:35:33 Speaker 3: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. 00:35:34 Speaker 4: That rooftop party. Yeah. We became friends. Just like that. 00:35:37 Speaker 1: How old are you both? 00:35:38 Speaker 4: 10. And I'm 11. 00:35:41 Speaker 1: What is your favorite thing about him? 00:35:43 Speaker 4: He's really funny. We get along really well. We both like the same thing. We both act calm. 00:35:49 Speaker 2: Cool, and collective. What advice would you have for a couple of adults trying to stay calm, cool, and collective like you? 00:35:55 Speaker 4: If you get mad, try to take some deep breaths. 00:35:59 Speaker 2: Don't overdo it. 00:36:00 Speaker 4: We're in Broadway in Schmigadoon. 00:36:03 Speaker 1: So check out that account, Tiny Talk NYC, for just a little bit of joy. Because at the end of the day, kids just, they make me happy. And then for my brown break, I have to brown break the Trump White House in a move that just proves why we just had a blue tsunami. The Trump White House has proposed to cut nearly 18% of SNAP recipients. This is food stamps, a.k.a. food stamps. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. So that means 6.3 million people. In addition to the 5 million people that have already lost SNAP benefits since 2025, another 6 million people are potentially going to lose their benefits if this proposal goes into effect. There's still time to stop this, or there's still time at least to put in our public comments. So I'm going to link in the show notes if you'd like to make a public comment telling the Trump White House why this is completely egregious and why they should not be stealing benefits from 6.3 million people who clearly need them. You can go to the link in our show notes for that. It's through the Federal Register website. All you have to do is click submit a public comment and tell them in a few sentences who this action would hurt. You can send a form letter, but if you give a personal story from your family or someone that you know, it can really it can have an impact. And I remember because I used to have to pour through the federal register looking for public comments on big law or policy changes back when I was a news writer for a site called Law 360. And anyhow, these are public. So, you know, your comments can make a difference. All right, VA fam. I think that's the show. Thank you so much for tuning in to Brown Ambition. This was your Brown Buzz. And don't forget, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure you send it to a friend or a family member or a neighbor or whoever you think would enjoy Brown Ambition as well, just to help the show continue growing. I would appreciate it so, so much. Happy Friday the 13th, y'all. Don't believe the hype. It's a lucky day. Go get lucky. Go get lucky. Okay, well, maybe you do want to go get lucky. Go have a wonderful rest of your day. I'll see y'all next time on Brown Ambition. Take care. And before I go, BA fam, I want to shout out the team that helps make Brown Ambition possible. Huge thanks to my fam at iHeartRadio, Katrina Norvell and Jenna Cagle. my worker bees behind the scenes, booking assistant, Brittany Laie, and virtual assistant, Cameron McNair, who keep me organized. And of course, my editor, Courtney Dean. Thank y'all so much for supporting the show. If you love Brown Ambition, share it with a friend, tag us on social, and don't forget to leave a comment or review. Until next time, bye BA fam.