The Black Perspective: February 16, 2025

This week on the Black Perspective, Vanessa Tyler reports on a groundbreaking new documentary that could change the way we see blindness.

Gracie Award winner Esther Dillard highlights Heart Health Month and why it’s especially important this Valentine’s Day weekend. BIN Anchor Alexandria Ikomoni speaks with Black Girl Do Nails founder Desiree Williams about representation in the beauty industry. 

Natasha Williams sits down with ex-pat April Pryce to discuss life abroad, and Doug Davis explores the state of business and whether DEI is on the decline in another edition of Your Black Business.

Listen now! 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Sunday, February sixteenth, and on today's show, Vanessa Tyler
reports about a new documentary that can change the blind
Grease the award winner Esther Dillard talks Heart Health Month.
This Valentine's Day Weekend, BI anchor Alexandria Ecimoni speaks with
the founder of Black Girls Do Nails, Desiree Williams. Natasha
Williams talks with expat April Price and living Abroad, and

(00:22):
Doug Davis talks business and is DEI did as another
segment of Your Black Business. These stories and more are
coming your way on today's program, Welcome to the Black Perspective.
I'm your host, Mike Iland.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Welcome to the Black Perspective, a weekly community affairs program
on the Black Information Network featuring interviews and discussions on
issues important to the Black community.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Good Sunday, everyone, and welcome to the Black Perspective. It
could happen to any one of us, total loss of
our site. We don't have to be born that way,
but anything from an accident to medication can change the
way we see the world. As the Black Information Networks,
Vanessa Tyler reports a documentary because opening our Eyes to
blind divas.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
There is a segment in Black society many of us
do not see. Yet they see us, but not in
the traditional way.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
So I am completely blind, blind, black and fabulous.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
We speak with women with vision even though they cannot see.
They are blind divas and they do it all.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
I went blind in twenty ten from a condition called
pseudo tumor sury bree.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Meet Nicoello, write Privo. She told you at the beginning
she is completely blind. She was not born that way.
How she became blind is another story. Hear that later.
But she became blind at age fifteen. Oddly, she never
saw many blind people before.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
I literally seen one person, one blind person my whole
life at that time, and he was crossed in the street.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Eventually, she did meet other blind people, one in particular,
Crystal Allen. They bonded like sisters.

Speaker 5 (01:57):
I am legally blind and me and Nicola we actually
are the first to meet each other with our condition
because we were both teenagers when we were diyagnosed and
beginnings in our ice sight.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
The two black women started the nonprofit Eyes Like Mine.
That was ten years ago. Since then they became part
of this unseen world. They created their own community of
mostly black women who are fierce and fabulous, so much
so somebody has to do their story how they navigate
the world White Cane and All. Somebody did documentary producer

(02:32):
Lisa Durton. She met Crystal first at an event in Newark,
New Jersey, where Lisa and Crystal were both being honored
for their community involvement.

Speaker 6 (02:41):
I saw her walking toward me with a cane, and
people kind of know in our society, we're kind of
used to people with canes, so we know, oh, that's
a blind person, so that's a common thing.

Speaker 7 (02:50):
So she walked with me and said.

Speaker 6 (02:53):
Oh, I heard them read your bio and it seems
like you do a lot of great things and you're
always out in the battle of love. She didn't even
say why, she just said, I'd love for us to
get together, just to learn more about each other.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
She said, can you text me?

Speaker 7 (03:07):
Nothingness? And you know I have to have my insa voice.

Speaker 6 (03:11):
So when she said can you text me, this is
only in twenty seventeen, I was thinking, bitch, ain't you blind?

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Lisa's funny, Yes, she was blind. But what blew Lisa
away was how Crystal moves, not just getting around but
making it all happen with that black girl attitude. So
they connected.

Speaker 8 (03:31):
Boom.

Speaker 6 (03:31):
She got back to me quickly. I'm thinking okay. So
we got together and I hop in Nork and we started.
We had a little late lunch and when we were talking,
she came in there walking in the room with the cane.
She came by herself with nobody escorting her. Thinking she's
by herself, how does she get here?

Speaker 3 (03:46):
They ordered their lunch.

Speaker 6 (03:48):
So as we started talking, her phone began to talk.
We all have that technology, we just don't think to
use it. You have another text and it reads a
text to her out loud, and think, oh, that's how
she saw my teach.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
It tells her.

Speaker 6 (04:00):
So I'm thinking wow. So I'm thinking to myself not
saying this is interesting. So she wanted to meet with
me for me to for her to invite me to
be the MC of their one of their anchor events
called the Miss Blind Deve Impairment Pageant, because she knows
my TV personality.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
I said, oh, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 6 (04:16):
So that's how we initially met by me being asked
to m see their big event and then a second
big event called Dance with the Blind. So from there
I would go to rehearsals, we'd hang out and.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
It was eye opening. Lisa also met Nicola again. She
was in awe how Nicuola did her thing.

Speaker 6 (04:33):
So when it's a dunkin Donuts and I was so
used to being around them, I just ordered my stuff
and stepped aside. She walked up and ordered her her
coffee and then she took money of her person paid.
Now I had been with them about two years at
that time, but I'd never seen her purchase anything in
the store. So I got I said, I said, how
did you know how much money you had? So I
still as asked questions a little bit at that time.
She said, oh, I put my money in particular order

(04:54):
they'd figure it out.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
People need to see this, which is how the documentary
Blind Divas was born.

Speaker 6 (05:00):
When I began this film and trying to make people
aware because all of my documentaries seem to end up,
you know, activism type of documentaries speaking about the underserved
communities or you know, amplifying voices that are not heard often.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
And these women have a lot to say and show
so how they became blind again, both were not blind
at birth. Naquella rite Prevo is now thirty and diagnosed
with pseudo tumor cerebray, which ends in total blindness.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
So I am completely blind. It actually for down Holm
birth control I was taken at the time.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Did you say as a result of birth control pills. Yes,
and that's a side effect. I've never even heard of
that before.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
So it can be a side effect, and so women.
It is a class action suit going on because of that.
It's not even on alone a label. At the time
when I went blind, it was very rare. And now
pseudo tumors orbris becoming more common as a result of
birth control pills as a result of malpractice period, because

(06:08):
there's a bunch of different medications than different ingredients in
medication that can cause an overdose that can cause pseudo
tumor in somebody. It's more common in women. It's more
common in women who are overweight. It can happen if
you have any type of head trauma. It's what pseudo
tumor is is a false tumor. So my body made

(06:32):
too much spinal fluid. It's final fluids with your brain
sustinse so it don't knock against your skull and that
acces's fluid acted as if it was a tumor and
basically put too much pressure on my octave nerves. And yeah,
it's stemmed from the birth control I was taken at
the time.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
And Crystal Allen, who is now forty years old, again
her blindness stemmed from a medical issue.

Speaker 5 (06:53):
I was sixteen and mine started through a medical malpractice
from a Jennet Colleges who was treating me for EXINMO.
I've had eggs and since I was five, but it
was very severe, even to the point where for a
whole entire week when I was in third grade, I
could not walk because the joints in my legs locked

(07:17):
because my skin became infected from the invitation. So my
family on my mom's side are from under Central America,
and they would always bring a lot of remedies to
kind of treat my skin naturally, but that wasn't working.
And my cousin she had EGGMO as well. She lived
in New York and she was seeing these dermatologists who

(07:38):
actually happened to be named Michael Jackson, and she found
that she was receiving great results. So she recommended him
to my grandmother and we started seeing him and it
was great results. I was having clear skin. My skin
wasn't as irritable. I was wearing shorts for the first

(07:58):
time at sixteen accidents. But within that year of treatment
from the dermatologists, I started having really really bad headaches
all day and night, vomiting clear fluid, being unbalanced when walking.
And my vision wasn't yet affected. But I noticed that
some of my peers and even some doctors sometimes when

(08:20):
they would look in my eyes, they would say wow,
and I'd be like, what are you guys saying wow?

Speaker 7 (08:25):
At?

Speaker 5 (08:26):
And it was that my eyes looked like they were
bulging in a more extreme way, and ultimately I wound
up going to an eye doctor. The eye doctor just
told me I needed to get fitted for prescription eyewear
because my eyes seemed inflamed, meaning spoollen.

Speaker 9 (08:42):
And I was just gonna be needing that.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
In reality, what she had a pair of prescription eyeglasses
could not fix.

Speaker 5 (08:49):
But I noticed I wasn't receiving any relief, and I
came back to the same eye clinic at the hospital
and there was a different atometrist there who did more
of a thorough examination of me, and by the end
of the visit he declared that I had pseudo tumor Cerebrie.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Both women with the same diagnosis.

Speaker 5 (09:07):
I am permanently legally blind, and the reason for we
saying permanently is that my opten nerves are too severely
damaged for me to be able to use prescription I
wear and there's no procedure that can restore my vision
currently because of the damage from the aptic nerve trauma.

(09:30):
The way it was determined that I developed this pseudo
tumor because of the medication I was on from the dermatologist,
the neurologist who was trying to figure out the route
on why I developed this. He told me that when
he evaluated my prescription history, there were seven out of
the twenty five medications prescribed by the dermatologists that contain textracycling.

(09:55):
And you know tetracycling when it's in certain medications, especially
if it's in more than one, and depending on what
it's being prescribed for, your body can react with it
as an older dose. And so that's will ultimately up
there with me.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
Devastating. But these women have a saying they lost their
sight but not their vision, and what they saw was
a full life starring them.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
I had to learn how to cook clean though, and
used computer in a different way, so it was different.
But I just had to grin and bearry because that
was my life. And I never was the one to
sit down and just take just let life happen.

Speaker 9 (10:33):
I took life by the balls.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Documentarian Lisa Durden saw it too when.

Speaker 6 (10:39):
I saw this young lady go in the kitchen. She
walks in the kitchen, she's blind, opens the cabinet. I'm like,
this is a couple of years ago. I'm like, she's
in the house alone. She takes out a can of
stream beings, opens the can, she gets the pot, turns
on the stoveness and said, woosh, I saw the flames.
I said that she's going to burn the house down,
and she makes the I had never seen even though

(11:01):
I didn't know them that long at this time, I
maybe knew them about two years by this time.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
And I'm like, they can cook in the kitchen. Their
lives are busy. In fact, Naquela is a wife and mother.
In this clip from the documentary, she is giving her
a terrible little daughter a bath.

Speaker 10 (11:16):
Do you want to say a bath? Now?

Speaker 11 (11:18):
Yeah? I don't know.

Speaker 8 (11:23):
I've got some.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
It's not always easy when Nicula had her first child.
At that time as a single mother, hospital officials tried
to stop her from bringing her baby home.

Speaker 4 (11:35):
Now, I was in a hospital in there asking me, well,
food's going to be home with you?

Speaker 3 (11:40):
Who's do you live with?

Speaker 4 (11:42):
Anybody?

Speaker 12 (11:43):
Like?

Speaker 4 (11:43):
They wasn't gonna let me go home with my son
if my father was with me to take me home.

Speaker 9 (11:48):
If I didn't have my father did.

Speaker 4 (11:50):
Not come to take me home with my son, And
they wasn't gonna let me go home.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
With my son. They was gonna let me go, but
my son was gonna stay. Hear what dating is like
for these blind divas how Nuquela met her husband who
was fully cited. Plus the blind divas have a warning
to every one of us in the black community about
our eyesight and how to make sure you can see
this eye opening documentary. All of that and more on

(12:14):
my podcast black Land. Listen on the iHeartRadio app or
wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Vanessa Tyler with a
Black Perspective. Mike back to you.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Thanks Vanessa. Some of you listening may have celebrated Valentine's
Day on February fourteenth. It's often a holiday many associate
with young love. But one young Black woman wants others
her age not to forget the larger observance of American
Heart Health Month. That's because about three years ago, the
woman in her late twenties suffered a heart attack. The
Black Information Networks Ester Dillard has that story.

Speaker 13 (12:47):
Our heart beat, most people don't think about it. It
beats whether we're sleeping or awake, no breaks. It beats
during the sixty seconds of every minute four and forty
minutes a day in seventy week, and you certainly don't
think about it when you're twenty eight years old and
pregnant with your third son. Like African American Taylor little John.

Speaker 11 (13:06):
I was a mother of two boys, already working, traveling,
working out, just living a normal life. I didn't have
any health issues or anything like this.

Speaker 13 (13:16):
Taylor sense her through pregnancy seemed normal until around Christmas
time twenty twenty one.

Speaker 11 (13:21):
Because my son originally was supposed to be induced January sixth,
so I remember it was a little bit before New
Year's Of course, after Christmas, I just wasn't feeling well.
I remember going to the doctor and just kind of
letting you know, my old ving no like you know
my feet are swell and everything, and they checked everything.
They were just like, well, you know, you're pregnant. It's
part of pregnancy, you know, so it's like, you know,

(13:41):
it's almost over with.

Speaker 14 (13:42):
I'm like okay, and.

Speaker 11 (13:46):
I just remember leaving that doctor appointment getting home, but
I just did not feel I didn't feel well, so
I ended up going to the emergency room and they
admitted me. They said I did have a hot fever,
I was tessing negative for or a lot of the
you know flu and stuff, but they just wanted to
monitor me because you know, me having a high fever
and being pregnant, it just you know, it wasn't the best.

(14:08):
But literally, from the time they admitted me, I didn't
leave the hospital. I ended up having him during that
duration and everything. I went into a spontaneous labor of
about three days later, January second. I will say my
delivery was very strenuous. It was very different than what

(14:31):
I had experienced previously. But again, I mean, you know,
you always hear every baby, it's different, every leg It's
not gonna always be the same. So no way was
I thinking anything life or death or heart related or
heart disease related. I'm just thinking like, Okay, maybe this
is just you know how it is. And I'm a
little older, you know, I did have my two older boys,

(14:55):
you know, like nineteen twenty, so I was like maybe
later twenty now, maybe it's normal. And then when I
got released from the hospital, I literally was home one day,
first day at home, getting settled, new baby, you know,
everyone's home, and I just remember going to reach for
him and I just felt like something had I just

(15:19):
felt like I couldn't breathe, like I was caught for breath,
and like.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
Like an elephant was hitting on me.

Speaker 11 (15:24):
And I just remember going backwards on the couch and
just holding my chest and just yelling for my oldest son.
It was just only us there at that time, and
I was just like I need you to call.

Speaker 10 (15:34):
Nine one one.

Speaker 11 (15:35):
He was nine years old at the time, and me
just telling them please hurry up and get here. I'm
here by myself. I have my three kids here newborn,
and I really in that moment, was like I do
not want to die here.

Speaker 13 (15:48):
Taylor told the paramedics she thought she was having a
heart attack. They told her she was too young for
that to be the case, but by the time she
got to the hospital, blood were confirmed Taylor was having
a heart attack.

Speaker 11 (16:00):
They did not They were running around with like chickens
with their head cut off, like they did not understand
why is this young black girl here just had a baby.
Everything else perfectly fine, no diabetes, no nothing, Why is
she here having But my condition was declining as I
was there, so that's why they didn't have a choice

(16:24):
but to transfer me to the hospital in Dallas. But literally,
like it's just so crazy how God works because I
just remember my mom just so upset, like, Okay, well,
can we transfer to an actual heart hospital. We know
it's heart related. You guys don't really know what's going on.
Get her to a heart hospital. Like, had I not
got to that second hospital within the hour that I did,

(16:45):
I will not be here today. My last artery. Three
of my arteries had just dissected off, but the last
one that was hanging on to keeping you what they
call the widows maker. It was literally closed at ninety
seven percent.

Speaker 13 (17:00):
Suffered from a spontaneous coronary artery dissection, often referred to
as a SCAT heart attack. The American Heart Association says
that SCAT can happen during a pregnancy, or up to
a year postpartum. Due to the additional strain on a
woman's heart, she was transferred to a Dallas, Texas hospital
for a triple bypass surgery.

Speaker 10 (17:18):
Pregnancy can be described as a stress test for the heart.
You're gaining a lot of weight in a short period
of time, a lot of fluid. It puts a lot
of demand on the heart.

Speaker 13 (17:28):
Doctor Mercedes Carnathon with Northwestern University Finberg School of Medicine
says heart attacks for pregnant women are not unusual.

Speaker 10 (17:35):
Pregnancy and the pery natal period. When we rever to
the pery natal period, we're talking about the period before, during,
and immediately after pregnancy is associated with a lot of
an unmasking of underlying cardiovascular problems. And there are people
who may not have known that they had certain conditions
but during pregnancy. Here about people developing preeclampsia, or high

(17:59):
blood pressure that develops during or immediately after pregnancy. Unfortunately,
black women are much more likely to develop preeclampsia as
well as other adverse pregnancy outcomes like gestational diabetes, which
is the diabetes that you would develop while you're pregnant.
These conditions can cause an elevated risk for having significant

(18:23):
heart related events such as heart attacks, heart failure. There's
something called perry partum cardiomyopathy, where you have an enlargement
of one of the ventricles of the heart which impairs
its ability to pump. And a lot of the symptoms
of this type of cardiomyopathy or heart failure overlap with pregnancy.

(18:44):
It's oh, you're tired, you're short of breath, and people
don't notice these things. And unfortunately, there are organizational factors
within our healthcare system and biases that will often have
doctors not think about asking questions and say, oh, you're tired,
that's just pregnancy, when in fact we're to higher risk
for heart failure, for heart attacks. So I you know, unfortunately,

(19:08):
I wish her experience was unique, but it is in
fact quite common.

Speaker 13 (19:13):
The American Heart Association says heart disease is the number
one killer of new moms, and black women are more
likely to develop pregnancy related cardiovascular problems than other women. Connorthon,
who is also a black woman, says heart disease in
the black community is often connected to other risk factors.

Speaker 10 (19:30):
You know, when I think about how many people in
my family have hypertension and they have diabetes. And the
number of people who even have you know, in stage
renal disease, you know, and they're on dialysis. You know,
individuals with those conditions, what they tend to die of
most often is heart disease Obesity. Obesity is one of

(19:52):
the leading risk factors for developing diabetes, over something like
ninety percent of people who have type two or adult
onset diabetes.

Speaker 13 (20:00):
Orbis Taylor spent four months away from her newborn in
the hospital. Doctors told her, although her heart surgery was successful,
she would have to live with the effects of heart
failure due to the damage caused by her heart attack.
She says it's something she never factored into her life
before because she had no family history of heart disease.

Speaker 11 (20:18):
It's changed my perspective on a lot of things. A
lot of people think that you're exempt from certain things
happened or well, now that wouldn't happen to me, like
I know.

Speaker 9 (20:28):
Prior to this happened.

Speaker 11 (20:29):
By when if you asked me about heart disease or
a heart attack, I automatically assume, oh, you're not healthy,
or you maybe smoked a lot, are you? You know,
I don't know you just didn't take care of yourself,
but no, that's not what that means. I was completely healthy.
Didn't find any black in my arteries, completely healthy, No,
no other health issues. So it just changed my perspective

(20:51):
to know that anything can happen to anyone.

Speaker 13 (20:54):
Both doctor Carnathan and Taylor are raising awareness with the
American Heart Association Go Red for Women campaign. In February,
they celebrate American Heart Health Month and Black History Month,
highlighting tips women should be aware of when it comes
to a heart attack. Carnavon's advice for Black Americans taking
control of their health is it goes beyond exercise and

(21:14):
healthy eating. She says, before all of that tackles stress.

Speaker 10 (21:18):
A lot of us face a lot of stressors, interpersonal stressors.
There are a lot of barriers that are present. Discrimination,
discrimination for being female, for being black, discrimination in the workplace,
in the ways that the healthcare setting interacts and engages
with us. These are sources of stress that are very real.

(21:40):
They're very entrenched and difficult to manage, and so finding
stress management strategies is a way in which an individual
can start to take back control and focus on themselves.
And the reason that I started with that high level
upstream risk factor is if you're stressed out, is your
next thought, Okay, we go drive to two extra stores

(22:02):
to find a healthy vegetable to prepare. Is your thought
when you're stressed out or not sleeping and feeling terrible,
let me get up early to go exercise. It's not.
You know, you have to be in the headspace to
adopt and sustain lifestyle behaviors that are healthy, but that
aren't always easy, particularly in the environment here that we

(22:25):
live in. You know, it's an obesogenic environment.

Speaker 13 (22:28):
These days, Taylor closely monitors or health with her doctor's guidance.
Something much different than in the past.

Speaker 11 (22:35):
After I got out of the hospital was just you know,
back better. But no, that was like the real start
of the struggle because it was a lot of stuff
I couldn't do anymore. Like I was just completely out
of breath. I couldn't pick him up at all because
of waiting. You know, my chest is healing, can drive.
I was out of breath walking up three steps. I

(22:56):
had a duplex at the time, so I had to
go upsteps and then another pair of steps because I
had steps in my in my apartment, so it was.
It was really it was really really hard.

Speaker 13 (23:08):
So I know you said you have to change your lifestyle,
but do you also have to have like separate medications
and is that all also pilot?

Speaker 5 (23:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 11 (23:17):
Yeah, I took way more medicines the first two years.
I took almost about ten medics, ten different pills a day.
I was second of blood, and it's just like they
treated me like a normal heart patient, no matter even
though I'm young. I was on some of the same
medicines as my grandmother, literally still for problems I didn't

(23:37):
even have. But it was all precautionary. My life definitely
changed in a in a major way, but even eating habits,
just a lot of stuff. I just wanted to be
precautionary because although I know my heart disease wasn't bought
on because of the normal person. I know eventually I'm

(23:59):
only going to get older thirty one.

Speaker 14 (24:00):
Now, you don't.

Speaker 11 (24:01):
Age down, you age older, So I feel like I'm
already up against a lot of.

Speaker 13 (24:06):
Odd Tailor encourages every pregnant women to educate themselves and
what could go wrong?

Speaker 11 (24:12):
Educating yourself on what are things that can happen while
I'm pregnant. I know it's scary, but just being prepared
to know those things so that you can look for
the signs and the symptoms if you ever are in
that situation. Because never in a million years what I've
ever thought that I was having a heart attack in
the living room with my three kids twenty eight years old,

(24:33):
a day after you.

Speaker 14 (24:35):
Know, having a baby.

Speaker 11 (24:37):
But and then advocating for yourself. I mean a lot
of us. I know, I can speak for myself, but
doctor tells you something, you just kind of like, Okay,
you're kind of scared to push it, but if you
don't feel comfortable with it, go get a second opinion,
double you know, ask them, and you know, just really
let them know what your concerns are. So really always advocating,
you know, for yourself, and just knowing, like now, I

(24:59):
wish it was a lot of things that I did
know then, Like I didn't know that America was dealing
with a major maternal health crisis. I didn't know that
women are literally dying buying these things. I didn't know
that it's more prone in black women unfortunately. So really
just getting getting your education and trying to research and

(25:21):
find out these things and just really paying attention to
your body.

Speaker 14 (25:25):
Definitely.

Speaker 13 (25:26):
Taylor is truly thankful for her heart this February and
every day, never taking any beat of that heart for granted.
I'm Esther Dillard on the Black Information Network, Thank you, Esther.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Many black women express themselves through their nails, but they
also struggle to find a black owned nail texts to
support in the process. BI in anchor Alexandria Ikimoni spoke
with the founder of one of the largest platforms called
Black Girls Do Nails to connect people with black nail texts.

Speaker 15 (25:53):
What's up, guys is to girl Alexandria Ikimoni in the
studio iHeartRadio, where Daz the founder of Black Girls Do Nails.
How are you today?

Speaker 3 (26:01):
I'm doing well.

Speaker 9 (26:01):
How are you?

Speaker 15 (26:02):
I'm doing well.

Speaker 3 (26:03):
Thank you.

Speaker 15 (26:03):
I always have to ask about the nails. What color
we got red on today?

Speaker 9 (26:06):
Yes, we have read on today rich Auntie Red. That's
what I like.

Speaker 15 (26:09):
Yes, absolutely, I'm all for the vibes. Red has such
a strong, like powerful message to it. When people were reds,
I love that. I'm more about a neutral type person.
I kind of stay right here.

Speaker 9 (26:19):
You're quiet, luxury, quiet, luxury. We'll go with that.

Speaker 15 (26:21):
We'll go with that I do want to dive more
into nails in a second, as far as like our
personal nails, but I first want to talk about what
exactly Black Girls Do Nails is.

Speaker 16 (26:30):
So Black Girls Do Nails is a platform created to
empower and enlighten the community the world about black mail takes,
nail takes of color right. It was founded in twenty fifteen.
I was looking for a nail tick that looked like me,
same he as me and couldn't find one. I looked online,
looked on social media, and I just couldn't find anybody.

(26:53):
Called my friend and I said, hey, you know what,
do you know any black mail tacks?

Speaker 9 (26:56):
She said no, And I said, wow, so there needs
to be something called black Girls too, And yeah. It
went from there. I had to find a black nail
tech to like, hey, what's happening?

Speaker 3 (27:05):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 9 (27:07):
My daughter's father's.

Speaker 16 (27:08):
Cousin, right, her cousin too, was a black nail tech,
and I said, hey, where are y'all at?

Speaker 9 (27:13):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 16 (27:14):
Like, come in and talk to me and counsel me
through like reaching people and getting this started. And so
she's stuck with me for a couple of months and
then she said, Hey, I gotta go. You gotta fly
on your own, and I was like no, but I
flew and I kept going and it kept growing, and
I've met some amazing entrepreneurs, just some women who do

(27:34):
great things. They have multiple salons, they teach, Wow, they
do it all.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
I love that. I love that.

Speaker 15 (27:40):
So tell me more about how it grew to one
person that was working with you to now a platform
with tens of thousands of people who pay attention to
it to find their nail texs. How do we get
to this point? Consistency, discipline, I love it.

Speaker 16 (27:56):
I'm pretty much very just heavy social media marketing, organic growth,
focused on first finding the nail text right, spend some
money on advertising to reach out to different communities that
had larger concentrations of women of color.

Speaker 9 (28:10):
Right, and the words started to spread. Right people started.

Speaker 16 (28:15):
To say, oh wow, like I found my nail tech
on Black Girls Do Nails. That was exciting when I
first saw that, because that's what it's for.

Speaker 12 (28:22):
Right.

Speaker 16 (28:23):
We want to be able to connect people with nail texts,
and nail texts with people. And so we're up to
one hundred and thirty four almost thirty five followers on Instagram.
We got about twenty thousand people on Facebook, and we're
still growing TikTok because we kind of didn't know where
it was going to go.

Speaker 9 (28:38):
But yeah, and fan base. You know, we're trying to
be everywhere.

Speaker 15 (28:41):
I love it. And are you actually in all fifty
states right now? Are we working towards them?

Speaker 9 (28:46):
Were working towards what you say.

Speaker 16 (28:47):
So our directory has been as has had as many
as like two hundred nail texts as things slowed down
with the economy and after COVID and things like that.
So now we're down to like twenty five, which is
fine with me. The whole purpose of the platform, which
is two audiences. It serves two audience and audience of
nail texts and then a larger audience of people just
who are nail enthusiasts and not getting their nails done

(29:08):
beauty enthusiasts. Right, So, oh my goodness, I forgot your
questions pretty bad.

Speaker 15 (29:12):
Oh No, I was just trying to figure out, you know,
being in all fifty states and you're working towards that,
work towards.

Speaker 16 (29:18):
That goal, right, So we post often online we advertise
that we have a directory right for the nail texts
to come and get listed, and they inquire and join,
and then we find them through nail text sharing their stories.
We have a couple of stories on our website of
nail text and people say, oh my gosh, we never
knew you were there.

Speaker 12 (29:36):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 15 (29:36):
So yeah, yeah, tell me more about, just briefly a
couple of success stories that you have really seen where
it's like, wow, this made it all worth it, It
all makes sense because people are really finding what they need.

Speaker 16 (29:48):
Creations by Kiki, I had no clue that someone is
talent scout from New York Fashion Week, from one of
the fashion houses follow up black Girls Do Nails Wow.
She was looking for some manicurists and nail texts to
perform at certain shows, to help with certain shows. And
one dad of the Blue I got a DM from
Creations by Kiki and she says, hey, you know, someone

(30:11):
found me on your page because she was looking for
nail text to do nails at fashion shows in New
York Fashion Week. And I was like, no, what, yeah,
pretty cool. Oh my goodness, that just blew me away.
So yeah, so that's one word of mouth. Suddenly one
day my dad called me, who's like, just not into

(30:31):
nails at all, but he listened to Tom Joiner Wow,
and just randomly one morning, Tom Joiner and I don't
know who his co host was, started talking about Black
Girls Do Nails. I hadn't sent a pitchon, I hadn't
reached out to anybody. I don't even know how that
came about, but it did. It was very, very amazing,
and we've been fortunate to see some pretty amazing people
follow us that you just wouldn't even believe we're into nails,

(30:54):
you know what I mean, just like, Wow, who is
this person? I don't want to put anybody on the spot,
but yeah, I'm just I'm very appreciative and share the news. Right,
We've had nail techs who had classes in Chicago, TNT
Tony and and Tisa.

Speaker 9 (31:08):
Right, they have a nails.

Speaker 16 (31:10):
Line in a beauty school and called me one day
and said, hey, we want to advertise our classes on
your your website, your website and your social media page.
They did a thirty day ad and people called them
all the time, oh my gosh.

Speaker 9 (31:21):
This is this a Black Girls do Nails class? And
so they called me.

Speaker 16 (31:23):
This was like around forty five thousand followers and they said,
oh my goodness, Dez, do you know what you have here?
Like We've been getting calls like all week long just
from your ad And I said, oh wow, that's that's beautiful.

Speaker 9 (31:33):
So being able.

Speaker 16 (31:34):
To help bring awareness to nail texts of color, being
able to enrich the lives of others by helping them
build their clientele, and then being able to empower others, right,
because if you look at the page, it's not so
much always about nails as much as it's about just.

Speaker 9 (31:48):
Keeping people encouraged.

Speaker 16 (31:50):
Being an entrepreneur is really hard, right, They're ups their downs.
Even if you're not an entrepreneur, you just work for somebody,
life can be it can be a just hard. So
offering words of encouragements to keep people uplifted. Right, You
can go to a bunch of other pages and find entertainment,
news or just what's happening in the day. But now
I want you to come and feel good. I want
you to enjoy the nails. Visit the directory, find a

(32:12):
nail tech or find a nail tech on the page,
and go and plan your joy.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
I love it.

Speaker 15 (32:16):
I love it, and it's really amazing that people are
able to really just find somebody that really fits what
they like to do. There's so many different styles out there,
so I think it's absolutely fantastic. But you mentioned this
earlier talking about the economy and how that has changed,
really how people how often I would say, people are
getting their nails professionally done. So I did want to
get your take on this. What are your thoughts about

(32:36):
the fact that people were really, you know, leaning into
the press on now it's got's been really popular, or
even doing their gel manicares at home seeing more of
that post pandemic. Honestly, what are your thoughts about that shift?

Speaker 9 (32:49):
So lean into press ons?

Speaker 15 (32:51):
Right?

Speaker 16 (32:52):
Most of the nail tacks that we follow sale press ons, right,
That's how they are growing their business. So should you
happen to what's something that's customed for you or you
want something that's just really luxurious, right, you can go
to their pages and fine press on nails. They're amazing
people doing their nails at home. If you're just getting started,
go visit one of the nail techs. They have classes, right,

(33:15):
so they offer classes on nail art, different nails trends
that are out. So if that's what your interest is
and you're learning and you can't really get it from YouTube.
Then you want a professional opinion, then come on black
to black girls to do nails.

Speaker 9 (33:26):
And if you see some nails you like.

Speaker 16 (33:27):
Certainly more often than not, the nail text on my
page offer classes, so go learn how to do some
nail art.

Speaker 9 (33:33):
It's always a way to support.

Speaker 15 (33:34):
I always absolutely definitely support the black owned businesses as well.
We'd love to see that. Okay, So I was talking earlier.
I have neutral nails or almond shape, neutral color. This
is kind of where I stay. Sometimes I'll do French
tip and you know that's me getting a little razzle
dazzle on. See you have the red nails. I want
to know your go to nail color or nail style
and what is your favorite?

Speaker 16 (33:56):
Okay, so okay, my go to nail color is red
or nudes.

Speaker 9 (34:01):
Right, So red. When I'm feeling like I.

Speaker 16 (34:05):
Need to feel a little bit more empowered or confident,
I knew I was coming to see you today and
I just needed to boost boost myself up a little bit,
so that brought on the red. But when it's not this,
it's a nice newd or neutral color pretty similar to
your own. Sometimes I'll go really out there and do
a green or a blue green. I think it's the

(34:26):
color of life, right, and then blue for the water
because we're surrounded by water all the time.

Speaker 9 (34:31):
It's on earth. So yeah, so that's kind of that's
how I move around.

Speaker 16 (34:35):
I like op I jail, right, and then I like
a build of jail on my my natural nail.

Speaker 9 (34:41):
It helps the jail color stay a little bit longer, right.
And then I like D and D.

Speaker 16 (34:45):
Their reds are always popping, their colors are bright and vibrant,
and the polor stays on long. So yeah, so o
P I or D and D is kind of what
I do.

Speaker 9 (34:53):
I like early too, Oh, I love it.

Speaker 15 (34:54):
I'm a D and D girl typically, So that's kind
of where I stay.

Speaker 9 (34:57):
I love that, you know that, Yes, that's like so
and forort.

Speaker 11 (35:00):
I'm on line.

Speaker 15 (35:00):
I'm in the Nol Salona over two weeks, like I
am faithful. I don't like that my nail grows out
too much, like I know right now, I have one
week left with these nails before it's hump for filling.
So I'm definitely in the Neil Salon every two weeks
like clockwork.

Speaker 9 (35:12):
So I love it.

Speaker 15 (35:12):
I'm there I'm there. I do have one more question,
because you're on social media and you kind of see
what's going on. What do you think is going to
be the biggest trend for nails in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 16 (35:21):
The biggest trend for nails in twenty twenty five is
definitely gonna be nail art, right, Definitely abstract nail art.

Speaker 9 (35:30):
I've seen a lot of bold colors, right, just.

Speaker 16 (35:35):
If you went to visit a museum, just works of art,
abstract bold I've seen.

Speaker 9 (35:43):
Uh, and let me think about.

Speaker 16 (35:45):
Like, I've seen some bling, not as much bling, not
as much more just hand painted nail art. You're looking
for someone who can paint a silhouette of a woman
or maybe some type of green leafy you know, picture,
but just real, just artistic nails. People are really beginning

(36:05):
to make a statement with their nails. And I see
that so much more often more than just the regular
just blee nail or you know, a regular French tip.
They say, hey, I want my nails to represent who
I am today, this week, where I'm going, you know
what I mean. So yeah, definitely bold colors, lots of
abstract nail art, and length short stiletto coffin square. Like

(36:31):
all types of nails, everyone is enjoying the opportunity just
to make a statement and feel more confident because their
nails are done.

Speaker 9 (36:38):
So yeah, I love it.

Speaker 6 (36:39):
I love it.

Speaker 15 (36:39):
Shout out to all the nail girlies out there. And
how can people follow the social media pages and find
details on one becoming a part of your directory and
two finding somebody in the directory? Where do they go?

Speaker 16 (36:54):
So black Girls do nails dot com. If you're looking
for a nail tech, if you love the nails you
see are in our page. Try to encourage people to
chase the vision, as I say, right and plan your joy.
I got that from Michelle Obama and her Becoming documentary.
I thought it was such an important thing to just
remember about life ye and make an appointment to get
your nails done. So often we find ourselves in a hurry,

(37:14):
and we rush into a nails line and rush out
of a nails line. But really you should enjoy the experience.
Nail technicians sometime are considered therapist.

Speaker 9 (37:23):
Right.

Speaker 16 (37:24):
You may talk about what's happening in the news, or
what's happening at work, or just how you're feeling better,
or you know, whatever, you're going through, and so you
want to be able to connect with someone and touch
is so important, right, So energy is so transferable. I
believe that, And so when I'm working with someone barber
nail tech, like, I want to know that that person
has some good energy, that they they care, you know

(37:45):
what I mean. And so yeah, go to Black Girls
studentails dot com to find a nail tech and if
you want to get listened in the directory, send us
an email. Right, I've had that open in the past before,
but I find it better when we have a better idea.

Speaker 9 (37:57):
We know who wants to come in. We can see
their work.

Speaker 16 (38:00):
We can see that they have some nails posted, because
when our followers go to your page, they want to
see that.

Speaker 9 (38:06):
That's really important.

Speaker 16 (38:07):
We can see if they have a little bit of
marketing happening, right, you might post reviews, or you might
give people directions about your booking policies or something like that.

Speaker 9 (38:15):
And so we want to make sure.

Speaker 16 (38:16):
That we are listing nail techs who definitely have it
somewhat together, you know, one hundred percent.

Speaker 15 (38:22):
And what is a social media handle.

Speaker 16 (38:24):
At Black Girls Do Nails. You can follow us anywhere
any social network. At Black Girls Do Nails.

Speaker 15 (38:29):
I love it once again. Alexandria Gimoni in the studio
with Daz, founder of Black Girls Do Nails. Thank you
so much for coming in.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
Thank you, Thanks Alexandra and Dez. Go to Black Girls
Do Nails on social media and Blackgirlsdo Nails dot Com
for more information. Black Information Network anchor Natasha Williams talks
with April Price, a young black woman who moved away
from the United States in twenty fifteen and now is
settled in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and is happy to remain there.

(38:57):
Natasha talks with her about why the move away from
the US was necessary, along with the discussion about the
merits of her living in such a far away place.

Speaker 17 (39:05):
I am talking with African American April Price, a Virginia
native who is now an American expat living in Amsterdam. April,
I am so thrilled to tell your story. Let's get started, okay,
So let's start at the very beginning. You went to Rutgers.
You know, I've known you since college. You know, I

(39:25):
knew that you know, you were a competitive athlete. I
knew that you were going to do some different things.
I knew that you were going to try some different things.
Tell me what led you down this path, April Price,
I mean, tell me what you know? How did we
get here? I mean tell first of a right, let's
let's start. Okay, So where are you? How long have
you been here? Tell me what got you here?

Speaker 14 (39:47):
Gotcha? Okay?

Speaker 12 (39:49):
Currently based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I've been there for
almost ten years. I'm going to do a ten year
celebration party in March this year. I moved to wait
from in the US. In twenty fifteen, I moved to London,
England to do a graduate degree, and then after that degree,
it was one year long. I was living there and

(40:10):
then I had a student visa. But while I was there,
I met a man who lived in the Netherlands, and
after knowing him for six months, I moved there for him.
So it was romantic and things that you do when
you're young.

Speaker 14 (40:26):
So yeah, I was twenty five.

Speaker 12 (40:28):
And then once I moved to the Netherlands, I had
a two year visa, so I said, let me try
to make it work, let me see what I can do.
Even though the romantic relationship didn't work out, it still
brought me to the Cerio city in the world, I think,
so yeah, going on ten years now. But going back
to your first question of what happened after college's that's

(40:48):
actually funny story. So twenty twenty eleven is one of
you and I met actually, and after that I played
soccer for a bit, so.

Speaker 14 (40:58):
That's what it was.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Soccer, that's right, Yes, soccer.

Speaker 12 (41:01):
So yeah, so I've been traveling on the orld playing
soccer for a while, but I just had an ankle
surgery six months ago and that honestly, I'm a bit
getting too old to be out there running around with
those spring chickens. So no more soccer than me, but yeah,
that's kind of Also, what brought me to Europe was

(41:22):
this dream of mine, always wanting to play.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
So how long did you play soccer?

Speaker 17 (41:27):
I mean, what was it? Tell me about your your
whole soccer, because yeah, soccer brought you here. You played
what professional soccer for like a number of years? I mean,
tell me about that.

Speaker 14 (41:35):
Yeah, yeah, So after college I played.

Speaker 12 (41:40):
I played in Dayton, Ohio actually for the Dayton Bush
Lions while I was in college, and then after college
I got a job in Naples, Florida. But I realized,
like this is not the end for me, I can
still play. I still have gas and gas in the tank.
So I got a student visa to London, England, and
then I trialed with a few team was there just

(42:00):
to see who would pick me up. And I was
lucky enough to get picked up by a few teams
out there, but the main one that I played for
was the London Beat. And I was there for one
year and then yeah, I had my big love story,
and yeah I stopped playing.

Speaker 14 (42:18):
I think I achieved my dream.

Speaker 17 (42:20):
So okay, you achieved your dream, but you kept staying.
So you got a job, you got your degree, you
got a job, but something kept you living, you know, abroad?
You know what kept you living here? What made what
was the draw? I mean, what made you want to
live abroad? What made you want to stay?

Speaker 14 (42:42):
Two things come to mind right away.

Speaker 12 (42:45):
One is that I saw it as a challenge and
I just kept I kept not impressing myself, but I
kept like proving myself right, like I can do this.
And then as I started to build my network. So
I'm a freelancer. I freelance as a project manager. So
as I started to my experiance network and I started
to get better jobs, and like just kind of build

(43:05):
up my repertoire, it got harder to leave. So now
at this point, I'm very comfortable, so it's going to
take a lot to.

Speaker 14 (43:13):
Yeah, to disrupt that comfort.

Speaker 12 (43:15):
And I'm my friends circle, my friends are my family here,
so that's also going.

Speaker 14 (43:20):
To be hard to leave eventually. But Amsterdam is a very.

Speaker 12 (43:23):
Transient city, so everybody does kind of leave eventually if
you're not Dutch, so there will come a time, but
not yet.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
So what do you do there? What is your job?
I mean, what do you do?

Speaker 12 (43:33):
Yeah? So I'm a creative project manager, which means that
companies that do big marketing campaigns hire me for project
management support. And right now I work for a chocolate company.
It's called Tony's Chocolate Only. I don't know if you
know it, but yeah, I work on some very very
cool creative marketing campaigns. And before I was there, I

(43:54):
was at Adidas, which is it was a dream, dream job.

Speaker 14 (43:58):
Really.

Speaker 12 (43:58):
I was there for four years, so I will go
back there eventually, just in a different fac they one day.

Speaker 17 (44:03):
So have you worked for other companies other than Adidas?

Speaker 3 (44:06):
Have you worked for Nike? Have you worked for different ones?

Speaker 7 (44:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (44:10):
Definitely, I think in the last nine years, it's probably
been at least twelve to fifteen companies just because Netherlands
has a law where you can't freelance for more than
two years for one specific company at the time, just
because they don't want to have any false employment issues.
So I guess some of the main ones would be

(44:31):
we Transfer Zuro, which is a project management tool, Adidas
Tony Truck alumni rebook. So yeah, and there have been
definitely some terrible jobs that have done just to get by,
but I see them always learning experiences.

Speaker 17 (44:46):
So what is it about living abroad that you like
so much?

Speaker 12 (44:52):
Yeah, I love the fact that there's a wonderful work
life balance that is.

Speaker 14 (45:00):
Promoted in the Netherlands.

Speaker 12 (45:02):
I've currently worked for days a week and there is
really not a culture of working after hours, so nobody's
going to stay in the office after five point thirty pm.
People really work efficiently and it's not a culture of
like you need to prove yourself by doing more. And
I like the fact that I can jump on a
plane and go somewhere new in a weekend. So currently

(45:24):
I'm in Portugal working remotely, So tomorrow morning I'll put
my laptop and I'm one hour ahead of Amsterdam, so
I'll work from eight to four and then I'll go
catch some sum.

Speaker 17 (45:35):
So you talk about how you've been doing this kind
of like for ten years, and you know what about
other black people though, I mean, is there a need
to see other black people? Do you see other black people?
I mean, are there lots of other black people? I mean,
help me with that picture.

Speaker 12 (45:52):
Yeah, So yes, first off, there are other black people.
There are not a lot of Black Americans. So in
the Netherlands, there are probably three different minority groups that
are Dutch speaking, So you have Seranims blacks, you have
Island or Caribbean blacks, so you have like Presaw people

(46:15):
from Presu, people from bomb Air, people from a Ruba,
and then you have blacks from Goma. So these are
like your three main minority black groups.

Speaker 14 (46:25):
African Americans.

Speaker 12 (46:26):
I actually do have a small network of African American
women in Amsterdam. So that's how I met some of
my first friends when I first met there. But there
are not a lot of people doing it right now,
not a lot of people doing what I'm doing.

Speaker 17 (46:38):
So other things like how do you get like hair
care stuff? I mean, do you have things like that.
I mean, are there a need for things like that?
I mean, how do you how do you make it work?

Speaker 14 (46:50):
Great question?

Speaker 12 (46:52):
I think there is there is a There is a
black hair care industry in the Netherlands. It's mainly Syer
enemies women. So in the syrename you have people who
have the same hair type as me, which is like
a three B four four B texture, So there are shops.
I do also like to get my hair braided, and

(47:13):
when I travel so here in Portugal you actually have
a big black community of people from Angola and Mozambique,
and yeah, mainly those two, but they have hair braiders.

Speaker 14 (47:23):
So it's not like in your face all of the
hair care products, but you look for them and you
can find them.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
So what about this though?

Speaker 17 (47:32):
Makes it attractive enough to make you stay though? I
mean if you miss things enough that you're like, I
wish I had this, I wish I had that. What
makes it attractive enough today? Is it the money? Is
it the just the difference, is that the you know,
just being tired of America?

Speaker 3 (47:50):
Is it just you you want the you know?

Speaker 14 (47:54):
No, there's a few things. I think.

Speaker 12 (47:57):
So when when I was living in the US, I
had a knee injury, and it was during a time
when I was seventeen and I wasn't working and my
mom was a contractor freelancer, so I think my insurance
was a bit up in the air or something, and
I just remember her telling me like, oh, seventeen thousand year,
seventeen thousand dollars to fix me. And in my mind,

(48:19):
that just blew my mind that you know, just one
a small accident could derail me.

Speaker 14 (48:24):
So maybe there's a trauma there.

Speaker 12 (48:25):
But I think affordable healthcare, I never have to worry
about just an accident debrailing my life finances. I think
that dating is different as a black woman. I think
dating other cultures and other types of people is easier.
I'm seeing first as an articulate, smart, beautiful woman and

(48:47):
then second as a black woman, which I think is
different than in the US. And workwise, i think I've
really focused. I'm focused on my career and for me
to move back at this point, I would need to
take a few steps back to me. So they're pluses
and minuses. But I think now as well, I just
secured my permanent residency, so I have all of the

(49:09):
rights of the Dutch person. And I can get my
Dutch costport if I wanted, but then I would need
to give up my American coastport, so I don't want
to do that.

Speaker 14 (49:16):
But yeah, I think.

Speaker 12 (49:18):
What's attractive to me is that it's a challenge every
day that I'm excelling at.

Speaker 17 (49:27):
This is Natasha Williams and I have been talking with
April Price. She is an expat living in Amsterdam and
has been living there for about ten years, and she
says she really has no plans right now to return
to the United States. April Price, thanks so much for
sharing your story with the Black Information Network.

Speaker 14 (49:43):
Yes, Zerah, Natasha, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
Thanks Natasha, is DEI did well? If you ask President Trump,
his answer is yes. To talk more about the death
of diversity, equity and inclusion as Doug Davis and another
segment of your Black Business, Doug.

Speaker 7 (49:59):
Hey, Thanks Mike. This is Doug Davis.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
In our discussion today centers around the elimination of DEI
and the federal government. Of course, President Trump's executive order
has led to Texas, Alabama, Georgia and.

Speaker 7 (50:08):
Other states to do away with DEI.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
With me is Alan Neville, my Ohio homeboy and CEO
and managing partner of in Tethic, a consulting firm dedicated
to fostering inclusive organizational cultures and systems. He's got over
twenty five years of experience in DEI and has successfully
guided fortune five hundred companies through large scale cultural transformations.
My brother, mister Neville, welcome to the bi n again.

(50:32):
Happy New Year, and Happy Black History Month.

Speaker 8 (50:34):
Happy Black History Month, Happy New Year, and it's a
privilegent of pleasure to be with you.

Speaker 7 (50:38):
Again, Blackwise, Sir so hey Man.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
DEI is one of many Trump executive orders that some
of us are deeply concerned about. Is there a way
that the nation can still keep DEI initiatives alive in
a changing political landscape without using the name, Like do
you think DEI will evolve into something new or just

(51:01):
given a different name.

Speaker 8 (51:02):
So you've got a number of organizations that are walking
away from it, but you also have a lot of
organizations and I'm blessed to work with many of them
who have taken this as an opportunity to kind of
reframe the dialogue. So, rather than getting caught up in
the words diversity, equity, and inclusion, what are we really
trying to do. And from a business perspective, you've got

(51:25):
a workforce. If you're trying to realize your full potential
as an organization, you have to make sure that every
single member of your workforce, of your team, feels a
sense of belonging. So a lot of conversations are around belonging,
around employee engagement. There's a lot of studies that have
been shown that on typical teams, a team of ten,

(51:46):
if you were to ask a leader who manages ten people,
how many of those people would they consider to be
their go to people, the folks who they trust, they
know that they're going to get the job done. It's
going to get done right. There won't be any rework.
Most leaders, and this is research that's taking place over
forty plus years. Most leaders will say, I've got one
or two of those folks on my team, and typically

(52:08):
those are the folks who they self identify with in
some way, shape or form. Every single one of us
has bias. Every person on the face of the earth,
we've got biases. Well, in that scenario of the one
versus the ten, typically the biases of that leader lean
toward those one or two people. So they're doing all
the heavy lifting on the team.

Speaker 14 (52:29):
Well.

Speaker 8 (52:29):
In order for your organization to truly survive, and not
long survive, but thrive, you need all ten people pulling
in the same direction, all ten people realizing their full potential.
Because this country is changing in terms of race and ethnicity,
We're becoming very quickly a minority majority country. Your workforce

(52:49):
is going to be made up of people from every race,
every ethnicity, and then some.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
Mister Neville, if you can look at DEI from a
historical perspective regarding African Americans.

Speaker 8 (53:00):
Many people who are not of African descent view the
Civil Rights movement as something that was strictly for black people.
Now you and I know that if you look over history,
white women benefited from the Civil Rights movement. The Jewish community,
the Asian community, the Hispanic community, and others. Folks who
self identify as members of the LGBTQIA plus community all

(53:24):
benefited from what took place during that Civil Rights movement.
I think we're now at this inflection point where with
some of the recent legislation with the executive orders, people
who did not realize that they were marginalized now all
of a sudden realize they are.

Speaker 7 (53:40):
So let me ask you this, what would you call
civil rights DEI.

Speaker 8 (53:44):
I would say that that ultimately DEI is really about
human rights. Every human being has the right to realize his,
her or their full potential. In my mind, from a
work perspective, they should be able to have a sustainable
wage and not have to worry about whether they're going

(54:07):
to have dinner this evening. You know, they should have
the right to have safe, affordable housing, all of those
things that we consider to be the social determinants of health,
and really our constitution says that we should all have that.
So while there's a backlash right now, I'm looking at
this as it's kind of like your golf game. You know,
you got the short game in the long game, the

(54:29):
long game play is in my opinion, we are going
to take some steps backward, but ultimately we are going
to be better further down the line because all of
these organizations, all of these groups who have operated kind
of in silos, are now realizing that their marginalized no
differently than other groups. So I believe we're going to

(54:50):
start seeing coalitions that cut across race, cut across ethnicity,
cut across gender, Whereas before we were all fighting our
individual battles in silo. So I'm optimistic in terms of
the long game where we will end up being a
much better country. However, we are definitely going to take
some steps back.

Speaker 7 (55:10):
Right, Let's talk more about your business. What you do.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
You're consulting firm, and you know you're I'm sure navigating
you know these companies through this challenging time. What kind
of advice are you giving these companies that are hesitant
about whether they should continue or not.

Speaker 8 (55:27):
Yeah, so, so first off, I'll tell you a little
bit about our business and what some of these conversations entail.
So you know, we are a boutique management consulting firm.
What our firm is focused on is really about transforming culture,
the culture of your organization. What we've seen, particularly post COVID,
is you've had a lot of people who all of

(55:47):
a sudden, after working for an organization for ten, fifteen,
twenty years, all of a sudden decided to leave. They've
walked away, and that was called the greater attrition or
the great resignation. Why did they leave because something within
the culture of that organization did not allow them to
feel as though they could realize their full potential and
bring their best to the workplace on a daily basis.

(56:09):
So transforming culture. If you look at culture at a
high level, what does that entail? Are people being treated
and valued and feel valued on a daily basis. That's
really what DEI is all about. We want every single
person within that organization to feel that they bring value
on a daily basis, not only to the organization, but

(56:31):
in return, the organization values them. So those are the
discussions that we're having. It's about transforming your culture, also
optimizing your talent. Knowing that the workforce is becoming browner
if you will across all of these industries based on
the fact that, as I mentioned earlier, we are quickly
moving into a minority majority country, regardless of whether people

(56:54):
like it or not. That's the truth. Okay, So here's
the thing. How do you opt DEMI the talent that's
working for you and your organization? How do you ensure
you've upskilled, You've developed them. You're giving them opportunities for
stretch opportunities, stretch projects, etc. You're educating your workforce. So
again it ties back to dollars and cents. If I

(57:16):
don't have a fully engaged, highly efficient workforce, it's gonna
hurt me in the pocket, it's gonna hurt me in
the wallet. And then, last, but not least, we're working
with leaders to begin to lead authentically and also with integrity.
Because we've got way too many examples. I'm sure you
and I could probably do the rest of this call
talking about leaders that we've seen who lack ethics, who

(57:38):
lack integrity, and who lack authenticity, and quite frankly, people
don't want to.

Speaker 14 (57:42):
Work for those types of leaders.

Speaker 8 (57:43):
So those are the three pillars of our organization, and
all of those have that connective thread, and it's really
around that sense of belonging. I think what we're finding
again when we talk about all these groups that are
now all of a sudden realizing that they're being marginalized.
They're feeling kind of lonely, and they're feeling excluded. And

(58:05):
if I can get any person that I talked to
to remember what it felt like when they felt excluded,
then you begin to listen differently. And I think what's
happened in our country, which is allowed and fueled all
of this chaos, is that people are not listening with
both head and heart.

Speaker 7 (58:22):
Mister Nevill how can people get in contact with you? Man?

Speaker 8 (58:25):
Okay, so so once again, my name is Alan A
L A N. Middle initial k Is and Keith. Last
name Neville N E V E L. You can connect
to me, please do through LinkedIn. The name of our
company is Intechic. That is I N T E T
H i Q, which represents an intentional focus on integrity, ethics,

(58:47):
authenticity and equity for all. Feel free to contact us
go out to our website ww dot and techic dot com.
You can also reach me on social media as well.
We're out there and we're really trying to partner with
the organizations to really change the narrative that's out there.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
Alan Neville, it's been a pleasure man, thank you for
sharing all that great information. We hope to have you
back on the show again soon. I'm Doug Davis. This
is the Black Perspective. You're in Black Business on the
Black Information Network.

Speaker 1 (59:16):
Thanks Doug, and that's our program for this week. For
more on these stories, listen to the Black Information Network
on the free iHeartRadio app or log onto binnews dot
com for all of the latest news impacting the black community.
Also be sure to follow us on social media at
Black Information Network and on Blue Sky and X at
black info Net. I'm Mike Island, wishing everyone a great

(59:38):
Sunday and be sure to tune in next week at
this time for another edition of The Black Perspective