- 6 weeks ago
Essence Ventures President & CEO Caroline Wanga explores black women as CEOs of home, culture, and community, emphasizing their pivotal roles in shaping society. Her mission extends beyond recognition to empowerment, aiming to unleash the full potential of every black woman and celebrate the leadership qualities inherent within each individual. Through her advocacy and leadership, Wanga champions a vision where black women thrive as influential leaders in every aspect of life, driving positive change and fostering inclusive growth for future generations.
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00:00People in your life will tell you, oh, it's not your time, it's not your turn, nobody like you has done it before.
00:06One of the things I love is they'll say, oh, it's going to be a lot of hard work.
00:11Don't you ever listen to that. I like to say, I eat no for breakfast. I don't hear no.
00:18Madam Vice President, you are speaking to the most powerful ballot community we have.
00:26What do you tell these chiefs about what they need to do with that power?
00:31We, you, we have extraordinary power. And we can never let anybody take our power from us.
00:39So many of you know I was a prosecutor. You may not know one of the reasons why.
00:45When I was in high school, I learned that my best friend was being molested by her stepfather.
00:51So I decided at a young age, I wanted to take on what I could do to protect women and children against violence.
00:59The idea that these so-called leaders would be passing laws that make no exception for rape and incest,
01:07that are essentially telling a survivor of a crime of violence to their body, a violation of their body,
01:13that they have no decision about what happens to their body next.
01:17That's immoral.
01:19Who is Kamala Harris?
01:24The Vice President of the United States of America.
01:26Ah, the facts!
01:33I'm not going to waste a lot of time because this is about to be a really important conversation.
01:37So what I'm going to do is simply invite you to what we here at Essence call Chief to Chief.
01:44It's a franchise we have where we engage with black women who are playing chief roles in community,
01:51in corporations, and in several other places.
01:53And its only intent is to do one thing.
01:56It is to tell the story of people who are playing chief roles so that you know the chief within yourself.
02:02And so today, as a part of this series that continues to be an emblem for how great the black woman is
02:10as the CEO of Home, Culture, and Community,
02:13we have with us the first black female Vice President of the United States,
02:20Vice President Kamala Harris!
02:22That's your Vice President!
02:50Now listen here, we time-constrained.
02:58I don't need to say nothing else.
03:02But ladies and ladies, gentlemen, community, family,
03:07one of the beautiful things about history is once it happens, it can't unhappen.
03:13That's right.
03:14And so what that means is there will never be another day
03:17where we didn't have a black female Vice President of the United States of America.
03:23They can't take that away.
03:24But today, I'm going to have a conversation with our Vice President Kamala Harris about
03:32the mantle she holds, the seat she has to fill.
03:36Every time we have a chief-to-chief conversation, we start with a really simple question.
03:43And we ask, who is Kamala Harris?
03:49The Vice President of the United States of America.
03:52Ah, the vice!
03:57She said, in case you did enough.
03:59I can't even repeat that.
04:03And I am a wife.
04:06There you go.
04:06We have children.
04:08I am a god mommy.
04:09I am an auntie.
04:11I am a best friend.
04:13I am a good cook.
04:15Oh, hold on.
04:15Wait, wait, wait, wait.
04:16What do you cook?
04:17I cook just about everything.
04:19You know, today I picked up some tasso
04:21and some andouille sausage to take back to D.C. with me.
04:25Gumbo and Kamala.
04:26Oh, sorry.
04:26You weren't inviting them to nothing.
04:28Keep going.
04:28And I am a fighter for the people.
04:35Yeah.
04:35I care about the people.
04:36Yeah.
04:38Will you do me a favor and just hear a little bit more about why you said that twice?
04:43What does that mean to you?
04:45So I am a child of parents who met when they were active in the civil rights movement,
04:51marching and fighting for justice.
04:53I grew up in a community where it was an extended family of people who told all of us as children we are young, gifted, and black.
05:07That we could do anything, that we could do anything, that there was no boundary or border to what we could pursue or believe.
05:15And that we have a duty.
05:18It's not about that you have the charity.
05:22It's about duty to give back to your community.
05:25To know that you've been pulled up and each one must then pull one.
05:30And so living a life of service is something that I was raised to feel a sense of responsibility to do, as do all of us in various ways.
05:41And for me, it's an elected office.
05:43And some of that happened in the Bay Area.
05:45I mean, maybe just a little bit of your life happened over there.
05:47I was born in Oakland, California.
05:50Tell them the story of public service coming out of the Bay Area.
05:52I am also a proud HBCU graduate.
05:59It must be noted, the first HBCU vice president of the United States.
06:04Listen, there's an H-U or something like that?
06:08You know.
06:08I was just checking.
06:11Don't come for me, y'all.
06:12But your journey started in the Bay Area in this life of public service.
06:17Yes.
06:18Where does that start for you?
06:20You talked about it being important for your parents.
06:22But, like, what led you to stay in that path?
06:24Because you did quite a few things in California.
06:27Well, there are a number of things.
06:29I was so in extended family.
06:32Our second mother, Miss Regina Shelton, and my Shelton, my Louisiana family is here.
06:39She was from Palmetto.
06:41They were here earlier.
06:43There they are.
06:45And we, I grew up, we grew up, I lived, we lived on the apartment above Miss Shelton's
06:53nursery school.
06:54Okay.
06:54So she ran the nursery school.
06:55Okay.
06:56And she was part of that flow of folks from the south that moved to California.
07:01Yep.
07:01So she ran this nursery school.
07:04We lived in the apartment on top.
07:06And she was a matriarch for the community.
07:08And we would work at the nursery school as young people.
07:13And I would watch Miss Shelton as she would nurture and advise a young mother.
07:20Mm-hmm.
07:21I would watch her as she would counsel young parents on how to get through when times were
07:29rough.
07:29Mm-hmm.
07:30And I would see, and I saw in my mother the same type of person, my uncles, the same type
07:36of people.
07:37You know, my Uncle Sherman, who was one of the first black graduates of Berkeley Law School,
07:44who every time anybody in the community had a problem, they'd say, call Sherman.
07:48Sherman will help you figure that out.
07:50And so I was raised by and among a bunch of people who really felt a responsibility to
07:57give and to serve.
07:58Yeah.
07:58And it was expected of all of us that we would do the same.
08:02Yeah.
08:02And that is the life I've chosen to live.
08:04So, go ahead.
08:05Because I think many people understand, especially for black, right?
08:10We live in community and the lawyer in the community is everybody's lawyer.
08:14That's right.
08:15For every reason.
08:16The store owner is everybody's store owner.
08:18Whether you got money or not, you get an IOU, all those sorts of things.
08:21And so I think it is very familial and selfless to exist in black community.
08:29When you think about that, and one of the things we are hearing a lot in this season is about
08:35how consequential this election season is.
08:40That is a word that's being used a lot, but means something different as we look at what
08:44this particular season will leave us with if it doesn't happen in a way that this community
08:52needs to participate to make it happen.
08:54Tell us a little bit about what consequential means in this time and why this consequential
09:00is very different than any other one we've had in recent history.
09:05Caroline and everybody here, this is probably the most significant election of our lifetime.
09:10You know, we have said it every four years, but this here one is it.
09:17We are looking at an election that will take place in 122 days.
09:23122.
09:25Where on one side, you have the former president who is running to become president again, who
09:33has openly talked about his admiration of dictators and his intention to be a dictator on day one.
09:38Who has openly talked about his intention to weaponize the Department of Justice against
09:45his political enemies.
09:47Who has talked about being proud of taking from the women of America a most fundamental
09:53right to make decisions about your own body.
09:57And then last week, understand, sadly the press has not been covering it as much as they should
10:03in proportion to the seriousness of what just happened, when the United States Supreme Court
10:08essentially told this individual who has been convicted of 34 felonies
10:14that he will be immune
10:19from essentially the activity he has told us
10:23he is prepared to engage in
10:25And if he gets back into the White House, understand what we all know, in 122 days, we each have
10:37the power to decide what kind of country we want to live in, understand what we know, when
10:46there has been a full on intentional attack against hard thought, hard won freedoms and rights.
10:52When I talk about the family that raised me, yes, they took me in a stroller as they were marching
10:58and shouting for justice, knowing that justice will not be achieved unless we are prepared to march
11:04and shout and fight for it.
11:06And one of the ways we do that is through our vote.
11:09This here election, let's think about the significance of the United States Supreme Court.
11:15Two years ago, in some days now, we commemorated a decision by the United States Supreme Court, the Dobbs decision, that undid the protections of Roe v Wade.
11:28Understand how that happened.
11:30The former president, who wants to be president again, hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court
11:36with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v Wade.
11:41And they did as he intended.
11:44The court of Thurgood and RBG took a most fundamental right, the right to make decisions about your own body.
11:54And on this subject, I think we all believe and know one does not have to abandon their faith and deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body.
12:12If she chooses, she will talk with her priest or her pastor, her rabbi, her imam, but the government should not be telling her what to do.
12:20Understand that the former president, who is up for re-election, has said he is proud of what has happened.
12:26Proud of the fact that our daughters will have fewer rights than their grandmothers.
12:33That we have seen in state after state, they're passing laws punishing healthcare providers in Texas providing prison for life,
12:42for a doctor or nurse who provides reproductive care.
12:46Understand laws being passed and proposed that make no exception for rape or incest.
12:51Caroline, you asked me about the things that have influenced my career.
12:53That's exactly right.
12:54So many of you know I was a prosecutor.
12:56You may not know one of the reasons why.
12:59When I was in high school, I learned that my best friend was being molested by her stepfather.
13:07And when I learned, I said to her, you have to come live with us.
13:12I called up my mother.
13:13My mother said, of course she does.
13:14And she came and she lived with us.
13:16So I decided at a young age, I wanted to take on what I could do to protect women and children against violence.
13:24The idea that these so-called leaders would be passing laws that make no exception for rape and incest,
13:32that are essentially telling a survivor of a crime of violence to their body, a violation of their body,
13:38that they have no right to make a decision about what happens to their body next, that's immoral.
13:45And that's what's happening in our country right now.
13:49You look at the taking of fundamental freedoms and rights.
13:52In Georgia, passed a law to deny people and make it more difficult to have freedom to access to the ballot.
14:00Passed a law that makes it illegal to essentially give people food and water for standing in line to vote.
14:07The hypocrisy abounds.
14:09What happened to love thy neighbor?
14:12So look at what they're doing.
14:14I want to pick that up.
14:15And all of this is at stake.
14:17Yes.
14:18So you've been on an economic tour.
14:20You've been on a reproductive freedom tour.
14:22Somewhere in this audience or on the internet is my niece Ayo, known as Yo-Yo to me.
14:27And she is somewhere between 8 and 32 years old.
14:31And one of the things that happened when you became vice president is Ayo told me that when she becomes president,
14:38her platform is going to be ice cream.
14:41All right.
14:42Why do I share that?
14:44Because I was excited about Ayo thinking that she could be president and that ice cream would be the most important issue in the country.
14:54Because the other stuff ain't a problem no more.
14:57As I look at the upcoming election, I'm looking at Ayo and I'm trying to prepare myself to have a conversation with her that her doctor may not think her health care is important.
15:07Yeah.
15:08That she may not be able to make a minimum wage to aspire to meet a worker occupation that matches her intelligence.
15:16I am worried that I have to have a conversation with Ayo about why her brother Xavier may not be safe and it's a conversation I didn't have to have with my little brother.
15:25I am going to be handing off a world that has gone backwards.
15:28Yeah.
15:29Not a world that just didn't go forward.
15:31Yeah.
15:32So while we've talked about what we know are some of the topics that come from those that aren't looking out for us.
15:37How do we make sure that things that are important to our community and again you've been on reproductive freedom, you've been on economic freedom.
15:44How do we make sure because we don't all sit in an administration and we don't all know the technicality for the woman that's going home and is taking care of home family and community.
15:56How do I make sure that Caroline doesn't have to have that conversation with Ayo in 122 days?
16:03There are many ways but in 122 days it's your vote.
16:06I mean here's the thing about elections and this is maybe the inside deal that my former colleagues at the Congressional Black Caucus can tell you.
16:17The people who make decisions at that level often will pay attention to either who's writing the checks or who votes.
16:27That's a cold hard reality.
16:30And so when we vote that is in a democracy as long as we can hold on to it.
16:38The power that we have as individuals to weigh in on who is making decisions based on what we value and care about.
16:47You know I'll give you an example of why elections matter.
16:49Yeah.
16:50There are many.
16:51Yeah.
16:52The issue of black maternal mortality.
16:54Let's talk about that.
16:55So I have been working on that issue for years with my colleagues from the CBC when I was in the Senate and now as Vice President.
17:02Why?
17:03Because black women in the United States of America are three to four times more likely to die in connection with childbirth than other women.
17:13And we know that there are a variety of reasons for that.
17:17But we also know that this is a healthcare crisis of the highest order that has received very little attention proportionate to the seriousness of the matter.
17:30So I worked with my colleagues when I was in the Senate.
17:33We passed a number of bills and when I came into the United States when I came in as Vice President I continued to work on it.
17:39And one of the things I found is this.
17:41That I was looking at well for women on Medicaid which states are providing for postpartum care not just for two months but for up to 12 months.
17:52And I realized when I came in as Vice President only three states would extend Medicaid coverage for postpartum care from two months to 12 months.
18:02I don't have a problem shaming people sometimes.
18:07So I challenged the states to extend it and now 46 states have extended Medicaid coverage for postpartum care.
18:18There is a direct connection between this and black maternal mortality.
18:21But here's the other thing back to the other point about freedom of choice.
18:26The majority of black women in America live in the South.
18:29You know that in the South we have some of the highest rates of black maternal mortality.
18:34In the South except for the state of Virginia every state has an abortion ban.
18:39And what I find hypocrisy upon hypocrisy by some of these extremists is the same one saying they're passing these abortion bans because they care about women and children have been completely silent on the issue of black maternal mortality.
18:54So don't come to us gaslighting us about where you've been and where you haven't been on important issues that relate to what we know every day affects our sisters, our mothers, our aunties, our grandmothers and could affect our daughters.
19:13So if you were if we were to take that right because I think that part of what we do with this conversation on chief to chief is make sure that folks really walk away with the call to action for what's different for them.
19:25You talked about this engagement in voting and civically and there are folks in this room that probably have voted and there's folks in this room that maybe haven't voted.
19:34But what are they to see from the vote?
19:37Go in 122 days and vote, but what will be different for them if they do so that those that maybe are considering not doing have a reason to get up that day and do it as well.
19:48So I'm going to what we know is that you can have an idea of what will happen when you look at what has happened.
19:55So I'd ask people in the room to raise your hand if you relieve student loan debt relief because you voted in 2020 and Joe Biden and I came in office and were able to forgive billions of dollars of student loan debt.
20:10Understanding how it impacts all communities and especially ours.
20:17I would ask anyone to think, and you don't have to tell anybody about this, have you or a family member suffered from medical debt?
20:29We are in the process of saying that no longer can medical debt be counted against your credit score.
20:36Right.
20:39Because you see, we came in office and we knew because we are of and care about the people as opposed to the richest billionaires,
20:48which is who the former president gave a tax cut to and then created one of the largest deficits our country has ever seen.
20:54We know medical debt comes about because often, most often, a medical emergency, which nobody invites upon themselves or plans for.
21:05And it can result in tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses that you did not plan for and create debt.
21:14And then would be used against your credit score.
21:16What is your credit?
21:17Most people know the number of their credit score like, you know, you wait.
21:21Especially with all those apps now, right?
21:23That was shade.
21:24Right.
21:25That was shade.
21:26We're going to talk about that later.
21:27But the credit score makes a decision then about who's eligible for a car loan or a small business loan or getting an apartment lease.
21:40And what's wrong about medical debt being used in the credit score is the credit score is supposed to be a measure of whether you're responsible with money.
21:50A medical emergency is not about that issue.
21:54What we have done to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month.
21:59Raise your hand if you have a family member who has diabetes.
22:05Right.
22:08And what we know is that black folks are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes.
22:15We cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month.
22:17We have finally allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices with the big pharmaceutical companies to bring the cost down.
22:24So I say, look at what we've done to know that when you voted in record numbers, people voted in record numbers in 2020.
22:34This is what was able to happen.
22:37And when everyone votes in those numbers again in 122 days, we can see it through.
22:44And seeing it through includes what we intend to do to raise federal minimum wage, what we intend to do to bring down the cost and make affordable childcare a reality for all families.
22:56We have said 7% of your income should be not more than 7% of your income should have to go for childcare.
23:03What we are in the process of doing for affordable housing, both for renters and those who want to be first time homeowners.
23:11We have a plan. We need Congress to agree that if you are the first generation in your family to seek homeownership, you'll get a $25,000 tax credit to help you with the down payment.
23:26So one of the things that the Essence brand specifically represents is over five decades of a legacy of showing, demonstrating and equipping the black woman
23:40with the power and influence she has on all.
23:46That's right.
23:47When she turns her head left, the world turns left.
23:49When she decides to do something, other people decide to do it at a different price than they're paying her to do it.
23:55I'm sorry, different speech.
23:57The value of what she delivers is not always returned at the value of what somebody who mimics what she did is delivered.
24:09Right.
24:10So for 50 years, Essence has been teaching this member of human community called the black woman that she has a power that just needs to be unleashed versus she doesn't have a power.
24:21And because she has a power, everybody around her follows her power.
24:26That's right.
24:27Which I would then say that those that are here with us live and those that are here with us virtually have the power to make this country be whatever it needs to be for black community.
24:35That's right.
24:37So with that being known, whether it's the Vice President of the United States or anybody else, Madam Vice President, you are speaking to the most powerful ballot community.
24:49That's right.
24:50That's right.
24:51We have.
24:52They are the CEOs of home culture and community for all.
24:56So if you were to be talking to them about what their power can do for black through the lens of the chiefs that they are of their community, and you knew that it was what you say that's going to make them do the thing that's right for them.
25:10What do you tell these chiefs about what they need to do with that power in 122 days?
25:19First, you've already said it, but I will say it to repeat because it bears repeating all the time.
25:25We, you, we have extraordinary power.
25:30And we can never let anybody take our power from us.
25:34Never let anybody take our power from us.
25:37And never be shy about our power.
25:42We must encourage in each other ambition.
25:46Ambition is a good thing.
25:49It is good to know one's power and then to go for what you want knowing you can achieve it.
25:56That is very important.
25:58We do not need to step quietly.
26:01We don't know how.
26:04But, but, and never we, and never, and never allow the circumstances or the situation that we know we experience, whether it be pay gaps or anything else, to make us feel small or alone.
26:20I'll say in particular to the younger women who are here, you are on many occasions in your life going to be in a room where you will be the only one that looks like you.
26:33Or has had your life experience.
26:38And what I demand of you is that you always walk in those rooms with your chin up and your shoulders back, knowing everybody here is in that room with you expecting that you will carry the voice that is the strength and power of your voice.
27:00I will beseech you.
27:03Don't you ever hear something can't be done.
27:06People in your life will tell you, oh, it's not your time.
27:09It's not your turn.
27:10Nobody like you has done it before.
27:12One of the things I love is they'll say, oh, it's going to be a lot of hard work.
27:17Don't you ever listen to that.
27:19I like to say I eat no for breakfast.
27:21I don't hear no.
27:23I don't hear no.
27:26And don't you either.
27:29I'm stupid.
27:30I'm trying to think what my breakfast word is.
27:32I need some time.
27:33I don't have one, but I'm sure there's one there.
27:36So as we close this conversation but not this topic, as a person who has responsibility to be guide and guardian of this cultural artifact we call essence that belongs to our community, there has never been a more urgent time for the CEOs to make the decisions they have the powers to make.
27:59There has never been a bigger time for you to believe that you can shift the circumstance of the community that you have not just past survival but to exactly what it should be based on how you contribute and exist.
28:11So I'm asking you as being a part of that community to not do anything unearned and do everything to understand what will happen if in 122 days you go vote.
28:26Because what happens after that will be a conversation you have to be ready to have.
28:30That's right.
28:31Do you know which one you want to have?
28:33Ladies and gentlemen, first black female vice president of the United States, Kamala.
28:56There is.
28:57Me month and there.
28:59Sounds ready.
29:00Unexpected land.
29:01If you have 10 years old.
29:03However, if you want to hanged with all of your car and you would like five hours, make sure to attend soon.
29:07So if you wanted to go first.
29:09This faço for us...
29:11I would be 16 years old.
29:13Hallelujah.
29:14I would like to kind of change into something different.
29:16So let's check out if you Orleans maybe in the 1970s.
29:17You Dem эту town have a se remar tedious map.