00:00We've been a great partner of a lot of the folks on here, Black Women's Roundtable included,
00:05but we're also a brand that has existed for 50 years for the purpose of highlighting the Black
00:09woman. And I think that's where I'll start my remarks about what yesterday created, right?
00:15The first thing that I would share with you extremely honestly is that although we have
00:21continued to see the world, right, embrace what Black women are, whether it be what people finally
00:29saw in the election, whether it be about Kamala's inauguration yesterday, the reality is we
00:35already knew. We already knew. Black women have been the CEOs of their homes, of their lives,
00:42the CFO, the chief wellness officer, the chief operating officer, the medical doctor, the
00:46lawyer, the pastor, right? The power of Black women and their influence, not just on their
00:52own lives, but the lives of those around them and the communities those people live in and
00:57the communities that those folks interact with has been a truth since the beginning
01:02of time. So while I'm glad that people are now recognizing that we're powerful, I'm not
01:07giving you credit for being woke. I'm just giving you credit for oversleeping and trying to catch
01:11up on your day. So the bar is already high enough. The second thing I would say about yesterday
01:15is that what it also does is continue to open the door to repositioning us from somebody that
01:22is a transactional partner you want to engage with versus a partner who, if you don't engage
01:27with, your engagement is incomplete, right? We are driving culture. We sit there. We are not a
01:34transactional every once in a while, Fred. You need us more than we need you. And so I hope that
01:39yesterday's moment repositioned the power that we've existed in that all entities start to recognize
01:45across public and private is necessary. And if you engage with us, you change communities because
01:51we always pierce through, we take care of them and make sure that they're there. The last piece that
01:56I would share that I think is really critical about what yesterday did, right, that aligns to both
02:01Essence's platform, but of course the platforms of all women of color, right, is related to there is
02:08an awesome moment that happened yesterday that makes a day where we've had a Black and Asian
02:13female vice president in America will never exist again. That will never be a true story again.
02:19And what that means is that for those of us that have benefited from the people and what they did
02:23before us, now have to do even more today than we were planning to do yesterday, because now the
02:29bar is higher and we all picked up a baton that was handed off to us by the people that came before us
02:34and we'll be handing that baton off to the people that come after this. Our goal ought to be to hand it
02:41further ahead than where you picked it up. This is a moment of not just national reckoning on what
02:48women of color are as an entity that is thriving, not an entity that needs charity, right, but this
02:54is also a moment where we tell the difference between equality and equity. Equality is giving
02:59everybody a shoe, equity is giving everybody the shoe that fits, and we want our shoes, right? We want
03:04our shoes and we want them to fit, and if you're not going to give them to us, we're going to make them,
03:08but eventually it's going to be vice versa, right? We have been subject to sticky floors, broken ladders,
03:13and glass ceilings, and that day is gone. Our power exists. Our access was always limited because
03:19that power is threatening, and what I'm excited about, as we go into this next season, the sister
03:25Kamala commemorated, but so many before her also contributed to, is that America, the world, the
03:31societies, the entities, the public and private sector will take notes and do it better, because the
03:35power of what we do is going to exist whether they acknowledge it or not, and if you thought
03:39we were hood rats, now you see we're a little bit more than that.
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