00:00what's going on essence family it's your girl sheree nicole i am the branded video content
00:06producer here at essence and it's a little wintry outside as you can see because we are here at the
00:11home base for the ncaa women's final four tournament right in minneapolis you want to know
00:16why it's because we are celebrating some amazing women for essence's black women in sports brunch
00:20and again it's cold out here but it's warm inside with lots of love check it out
00:30essence is not for black women the black women at essence are for everybody else i want this to
00:42become a movement for the culture not just black culture i want to not be able to find a venue big
00:47enough to put everybody in i want to run out of people who can help finance the revolution i want
00:52to run out of people that we could like i want to be overwhelmed with the number of people we can honor
00:56you guys coca-cola and essence are at the women's basketball tournament like
01:01the most important thing to me is growth and i think that that's really why coke and essence want
01:06to do these things not just so that they can throw parties and mingle and have great food and have
01:10awesome music but because we want to get together in these respective towns and talk about not only
01:16the issues that affect black women in these towns but how we can use these opportunities to grow
01:22what we're looking to do in the sports space one of the things that's critical for me
01:26is that our players are focused on generational wealth my objective really is to make sure people
01:32understand the difference between making money and having money right because that comes with
01:37having future wealth when you're not working and so really understanding how your money can take you
01:42further in the future i had a checking account at 12 or 14 and then like i remember the cheerleaders
01:48were selling cookies or whatever in high school and i wrote him a check for like six dollars and
01:52fifty cents i was balling you know and you felt you're writing that check too i think it's important
01:59like to be here with essence of coke at the final four to really like you know like the panel said like
02:04if you're gonna be if we're in this we got to be able to give to that next generation right and so a
02:09lot of the things financial literacy building wealth whatever it is brand identity brand equity my biggest
02:14thing is like started earlier we just got to be way earlier by the time you get to college you know
02:19you're college athlete i was college you've already learned all the bad habits what i like about what
02:25you're doing at essence is black women in in right the ecosystem because i think that you can like
02:32sports and you think you can only be a player and so what's happening now is that the exposure to
02:37what's possible is being presented and it's being presented with excellence and the more we do that the
02:44more we help dreams come true we're at a moment in which we can celebrate progress when you talk
02:48about the 50th anniversary of title nine i think we can look at this year's project that brought us
02:52to minneapolis the final four i think espn has done a tremendous job of blowing it out and giving it
02:56resources and so yes we can pat ourselves on the back but we would be naive to believe that we have
03:01arrived what is the accountability that the states and the environments that a lot of the institutions
03:06they get recruited to what responsibility do those environments have for giving them the same amount
03:11of safety and celebration in the community they're a citizen of versus just within the walls of a
03:16school the the institution does not do a great job of taking care of players period and if you look
03:22at it socially and you look at where black women fall socially they're at the bottom so in the
03:26institution they it's the same type of thing the hierarchy system of it they the universities just
03:31want to figure out how to make more for themselves when you're a young person you're going into these
03:37situations you don't absolutely understand what it is what you need or really what you want you know
03:43you have some ideas but it's important to have a conversation especially when you're talking about
03:48nurturing black women black athletes to make sure that you fill them up you feel their spirit you
03:53understand what they need you talk to them you listen to them and you give them as much guidance as
03:56you can all those things you said that the sisters need send them to me i got them the edges the
04:02soul food everything they need come to delaware state and i'm sure i take care of our sisters one of the biggest
04:06challenges for me is that the change the myth of hbcu uh reputation and that it's you know we don't
04:11have the resources yes we do but you got to give us an opportunity to present ourselves and show that
04:15that stuff is not true so yes i'm it's a great opportunity the kids are excited and then you know
04:20what we have women and people in place that look like us and it's all about relationships
04:27what we had here today was we had women that work in the sport that support women that are in the sport
04:33so i think it's a huge progress and we need to continue to get there for women to support women
04:39no matter what they're doing and no matter what stage of life they're at these young women put their
04:45goals their dreams and their life in there in my hands and they say coach help me get there
04:53and i give everything i can to make sure they get there i coach in a suburb but i'm from north minneapolis
05:02and i want to find ways to always give back to the kids that can't get to me caroline
05:11no for real come here seriously i need you listen listen y'all this is my first time meeting her
05:19and i this is my new bff she don't know it but i've been trying to get a hook up to the essence festival
05:26for a long time girl you had you good okay okay okay you had some powerful words for this room today
05:38and i just thank you for just pouring into each and every one of us and for the vision that you've had
05:47to recognize and honor black women in sports so thank you from the bottom of my heart
05:51i struggled when i retired and i struggled because the wmba said thank you for your services
06:02but we got to move on to somebody else you have to have a plan for after sports and unfortunately for
06:09me i didn't have that plan until much later in my life so i take it as a responsibility to be able to
06:16share that and you know it's black women in sports it's minneapolis it's the women's final four and
06:22there's so many negative things that has happened i wanted to be able just to shed some light and some
06:30encouragement for all of our youth out there who may hear this and say you too could possibly go down
06:38that road but just listen to those people who have been there before because we're all here to help you
06:43and make you better the vision behind this like i said before was not about these women need help it
06:49was about highlighting who's doing it the obligation of the audience is to pick up that baton and take
06:54it further ahead than where they picked it up the panelists have to get out of their seats so the
06:58people in the audience can take that seat and then the people coming behind them can take the audience's
07:02seat it's about activating the power that we already have but it is not for us this event is at the
07:08women's final four but it should be at the men's it's not a conversation that should only happen with
07:12the community that gets it it should be a conversation with community period
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