September 19, 2025 • 23 mins
Welcome back for a special episode 10 years in the making. Today, Mandi unpacks the real cost of speaking out in a climate where your voice can cost you your job, especially if you’re a Black woman.
She celebrates 10 years of Brown Ambition (yes, 800+ episodes!), but the focus quickly shifts to the headlines: journalists, teachers, and professionals are losing their livelihoods for what they say online, with Karen Attiah (Washington Post) as just the latest in a chilling pattern.
SAVE THE DATE: sign up for Mandi’s free AI & Careers webinar (September 25, 8pm ET). This episode is a reminder: Your voice is power. Protect it, plan for it, and—when you can—use it.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey ba fan. Before we get into today's episode, I
had I've only done this one other time. After the
election of twenty twenty five. I got on here and
I read. I just really didn't have any words. And
sometimes when I don't have the words, I turned to
poetry and other brilliant writers who have some words that
(00:25):
I can share. And today it really was on my heart,
on my spirit to read this poem for y'all. It's
by Audre Lord. It's called a Litany for Survival. I'll
try to read this without crying. But here we are
for those of us who live at the shoreline, standing
upon the constant edges of decision, crucial and alone. For
(00:46):
those of us who cannot indulge the passing dreams of choice,
who live in doorways, coming and going in the hours
between dawn's looking inward and outward at once, before and after,
seeking a now that can breed futures like bread in
our children's mouths, so their dreams will not reflect the
(01:07):
death of ours. For those of us who were imprinted
with fear like a faint line in the center of
our foreheads, learning to be afraid with our mother's milk,
for by this weapon this illusion of some safety to
be found. The heavy footed hoped to silence us. For
all of us, this instant and this triumph, we were
(01:30):
never meant to survive. And when the sun rises, we
are afraid it might not remain. When the sun sets,
we are afraid it might not rise. In the morning.
When our stomachs are full, we are afraid of indigestion.
When our stomachs are empty, we are afraid we may
never eat again. When we are loved, we are afraid
(01:52):
love will vanish. When we are alone, we are afraid
love will never return. And when we speak, we are
afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed. But
when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it
is better to speak, remembering we were never meant to survive.
(02:19):
This poem to me by the Great Audrolord. At a
time like this, it just reminds me of the human
experience that the money of us are feeling right now.
The fear of not knowing what to say, if we
should say it, when do we speak the truth on
our hearts, the fear of things that we have today
(02:42):
being taken from us tomorrow, so that we can't even
really enjoy what we already have. This poem is really
the truth of that experience, the last part. When we
are silent, we are still afraid, So it's better to speak,
remembering we were never meant to survive. What I love
about it is that it's a call to action to
use our voices. We are walking around on tenterhooks and eggshells,
(03:04):
unsure of what to say, afraid that if we speak
out against what's happening, that our livelihoods could be taken
from us, and for so many of us that means
our jobs. And at the same time, what are we
actually fighting for? What are we actually fighting to maintain?
What are y'all listening to? What poems, what writers? What
(03:24):
voices are inspiring y'all today? I could use some more.
I hope Brown Ambition is one of those spaces for y'all.
But if you want to send me what's giving you
hope and inspiration these days? Can you email me Brownambition
Podcast at gmail dot com. Can you DM me at
Brown Ambition Podcast on Instagram? Can you take the link
(03:45):
for this episode for this show and send it to
five friends, sisters, colleagues, neighbors. Can you share Brown Ambition
I'm truly scared at a time like this, I'm truly
scared for their survival of mid size, smaller platforms like
Brown Ambition, that we're really created with us at the
(04:10):
center of them, really created with our survival, our success
in mind and at the forefront of the work that
we do. And just thinking about that top twenty podcast
in the country right now, and thinking about who is given,
who is being lauded, and whose platforms are being amplified,
(04:31):
and very much starting to have this little bit of
dread seep in that in the midst of all of this,
shows like ours are going to be forgotten, that they're
going to be taken down in some way, And I
think I can't fix that. I can't prevent it without
(04:55):
y'all support. So if you could share this show with
five people you know have never listened to it, tell
them they must download it, they must subscribe. If you're
someone who has been referred to Brown Ambition by your friend,
by your sister, by a colleague, I just really appreciate you.
Thank you for showing up, and now it's your turn
turn around. Share the show with five people, let them
(05:16):
know they need to listen to Brown Ambition. Make sure
that you subscribe, follow, leave a comment, engage with us.
We're on social media at Brown Ambition Podcast on ig
in particular. You can also go to Brown Ambition podcast
dot com to sign up for my newsletter and support me.
I'm going to have a book coming out called Brown Ambition.
It's going to be a financial and career guide for
(05:38):
black women, coming out hopefully in twenty twenty six. We'll see.
So there's a lot lot coming from Brown Ambition. I've
never been more grateful to have this platform. Thank y'all
so much. Now let's get into the show. Uh oh
uh oh, it's a black woman with a micro phone, y'all,
(06:00):
everybody panic listen. I have never Ugh there's times as
the host of broad and Vision that I have certainly
felt called to do the work that I do. And
there's days when I've woke up wondering if anybody cares
about the work that I do. And I just have
(06:21):
to say, today is not one of those days. Today
is one of those days where I'm so damn happy
to have this microphone. I realize how powerful it is
that I have this platform and I can show up
and I don't have to be afraid that my opinions,
my thoughts, what's true to my heart and the work
that I'm doing is going to rob me of my
(06:44):
livelihood because I've created a livelihood for myself. Yes, God
damn I have, and I am in this rare position
for this was not my intention when I started broad
and Vision a decade ago. By the way, happy anniversary,
Brown Ambition. It's officially our ten year anniversary, and I
(07:04):
have been so overwhelmed by the feeling about the anniversary
and by kind of thinking about what the next ten
years are going to bring. But I just want to
sit and acknowledge it for a second. We're ten years old,
BA Fam, ten years, eight hundred something episodes, ten years
(07:24):
of showing up week after week after week after week,
no sleep, club, bus, club, another club, plane, no sleep.
I've been showing up and I couldn't have done it without,
of course, my forever sister and original BA partner, Tiffany.
(07:46):
So sending you love, Tiffany, and thank you so much
for helping me build this platform that we built together
for nine years. And to be a fam who've held
me down since I took the Helm solo at the
beginning of twenty twenty five. I love you so much,
but yeah, I am so happy to have this platform
right now. I woke up this morning and I had
(08:08):
one of those times. I had one of those times
where I was like, breaking news, gotta, I gotta scrap
what I was planning to air today. I got to
grab that microphone and I got to speak to be
a fan. I gotta, I gotta show up and speak
truth to power. And I really have no I have
no choice. I can't wake up and have this platform
(08:30):
and have the freedom to say what's on my mind
and not do it at a time when we are
seeing dozens of people during a week like this who
have lost their jobs because of what they have said
in the wake of the assassination. And there have been
many people. I mean, they're coming for the white men
to y'all. Jimmy Kimbolod have lost his show before that, Stephen,
(08:54):
Stephen Colbert lost his show. But I'm not here to
talk about them. I'm really here because of Karen Atia.
Karen Atia was a renowned columnist for The Washington Post,
A gorgeous, intelligent, really accomplished black woman journalist. At a
(09:14):
time when we need more black women journalists speaking out
on major national platforms. And when I say the Washington Post,
I know your first thought is like, was she really
going to last that long? The Washington Post has been
on this conservative bent, this conservative journey really since before
(09:35):
you know who won the election last year. But we
have seen the dismissal of other journalists from this plot.
We've seen basically columnists from the editorial side of the
Washington Post leaving their jobs in the past year due
to the Post action to make make the opinion columns
more conservative and to basically try to put a muzzle
(09:56):
on the columnists that they have there. We've had also
another prominent black woman journalists for The Washington Post who
left after an incredible something like two decade ten you
were there. Shout out to Chris A. Thompson. She left
of her own accord. Karen Antia did not. Karen Attia
was fired. She was on Blue Sky in the wake
of Kirk's assassination, and I just wanted to read a
(10:17):
couple of the posts that she published that led to
her firing. One of the first post quote refusing to
tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in
performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is
not the same as violence unquote quote Number two. Part
(10:39):
of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that
people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men
who espoused hatred in violence. Unquote. Karen, you didn't deserve
to be fired. Your whole job as an opinion columnist
is to have opinions on the news of the day.
(11:01):
And I at when we are when we are seeing
opinion columnists losing their jobs over having opinions that their
bosses don't agree with because of the pressure this administration
is putting on the leaders of big businesses and media,
in tech, in all industries, the control, the authoritarianism is
(11:26):
in the room with us. Sis. It's here. It's not
about what if. It's not about this may happen. It's
not about we need to pay attention to the science.
It's already happening. It's here. I'm not fear mongering. I
have two eyeballs on my head. We're watching it happen live,
all right, we're watching it happen live. I'm thinking about
(11:47):
Uba fam. I'm thinking I was thinking about how y'all
are doing at a time like this. It's giving the
summer of twenty twenty, when you know, we were having
blow after blow of murdering black bodies by at the
hands of law enforcement, and we walked into our offices
and we're expected to not be upset by it, to
(12:08):
not say anything that might make others feel uncomfortable. And
they really created the summer of twenty twenty, this sense
of false security that, oh, well, bring your authentic self
to work. We are we're holding space for you. I'll
never forget when my company, a big fintech kind of
financial marketplace company, the CEO hosted these zooms right that summer,
(12:31):
things felt like ere things kind of changing. Is it
becoming a little bit safer to be who we are
at the office. And it was a trap, baby, it
really was. It was a whole trap. Not only did
that summer lead to this huge wave of hiring women
of color, people of color into roles that were supposed
to promote diversity, equity, inclusion. It was like they corralled
(12:55):
us into a booby trap and they said, here, it's
going to be great. We're gonna put all this funding
behind this. Sure, bring your authentic self. We really care
about people's well being blah blah blah blah blah, until
the political tables turned, and now we are seeing I mean,
I don't have to tell y'all the DEI jobs poof. Overnight,
(13:17):
just got another email from a woman who was working
in DEI at a big BBA company poof, her job
is gone. We've seen it time and time again that
they have sort of corralled us into this false sense
of security, and we tied our livelihoods to it, and
now we are feeling the repercussions. All of that is
just to say that if you're a little bit of
color and you're going into the office this week, you're
(13:39):
showing up and you're not sure how to feel. You're
not sure if you should say something. You're thinking about
going to HR, you're thinking about, you know, speaking with
your colleagues or chatting in the company slack. Please don't,
please don't. It's not No, it's not worth it. I
we should be speaking out, and we should be speaking
out with one another, and we should find them space,
(14:00):
safe spaces to do that. The workplace, ay, it's safe.
The workplace is not safe. It is not safe. These
right wingers on the internet saying like, let's go find
people who are speaking out, let's expose them, let's get
them fired. Okay, like you're you're at a time like this,
in an economy like this, when we have families to support,
(14:22):
we have our mouths, other mouths to feed people relying
on us. Let's not be let's not make ourselves an
easy target. Okay. I'm not saying that we shouldn't, you know,
speak truth to power, and that we shouldn't, of course,
like link arms with one another and support each other
and talk about what's going on and how we're feeling
(14:43):
about it and process what's happening in real time, but
we have to think differently. This is not twenty twenty.
I'm trying to learn from the lessons, the really tough
lessons I learned myself in twenty twenty, and I wish
I could say more about it, but in das, I
just want to give y'all permission to say nothing when
it comes to your career. You know, your career at work,
(15:04):
in your in your professional capacity, you don't have to
say anything. It doesn't make you a coward, it doesn't
mean that you're not a real one, because the way
that they're coming for our livelihoods at a time like this.
This is not a free speech type vibe in corporate
America right now. It truly isn't. But hello, I'm Andy
Wood of Santo's. I had this microphone here, I paid
(15:24):
for it with my own money. I have this platform here.
I built it. I built it, baby, with my own time. Blood, sweat, tears, Okay,
not a lot of blood. Tiffany and I were not
out here fighting in the streets. But I'm so lucky
that I have had my own platform for a while,
and that I have this microphone and I can speak
the way that I want to speak now. According to
(15:46):
multiple sources and the research that I have been doing,
I've been trying to keep track of the number of
people who've lost their jobs because of statements they've made online.
Right now, it's looking like a few dozen. So something
like thirty three people have lost their jobs or they
face professional repercussions due to public remarks. We've got Matthew
Dowd at MSNBC, Karen Attia from The Washington Post. This
(16:08):
is what's really chilling to me. Something like two dozen
teachers and faculty from various school districts, universities have lost
their jobs because of remarks they've made online, and this
continues a pattern of attacking our educators. If you're gonna
want to speak out, I would say, let's make a plan, Like,
let's make an exit strategy for this career path. If
(16:30):
you're in no, I'm not getting a higher education because
I don't want us to stop speaking out, but to
jeopardize a career that quickly without having like a game
plan in place, I just want to like take a
step back for a second and talk about how we
might prepare to liberate ourselves from these types of career paths,
(16:51):
or these types of environments where our voices, you know,
may cost us our jobs. Let's think in advance, you know,
how can we save up, How can we start to
build our own platforms so that slowly but surely we
are less reliant upon these institutions for our pay and
for our livelihoods, so that we can have more freedom
to speak out. I think the people who are able
(17:12):
to speak out and speak truth to power during a
time like this, we are essential workers. The thing about
at will employment is that yes, we have free speech,
we have the First Amendment, but when you work for
a private company, we lack some protections against getting fired
for what we say. There's a law in California apparently
that protects people for what they say in their political beliefs.
(17:33):
In the workplace. Yes, there's free speech, but when it
comes to at will employment, most relationships in the US
are at will. That means that your employer can fire
your butt at any time, for any reason or no
reason at all, without even giving you prior notice. That
does work two ways. It also means that we can
up and leave with no reason at all or no notice.
(17:56):
That being said, yes, companies very much can fire us,
and we have. This is not new. It's not new.
Since the dawn of social media, people been losing their
jobs for what they have tweeted, what they have said online,
and typically what employers what's driving them to fire you
is if they deem the post to be quote unquote
in conflict with their values, if they threaten the company's reputation,
(18:16):
or they suggest that you may harm workplace productivity. Those
are very broad, broad categories of problematic and they will.
What we're seeing right now is they're using very broad
definitions of this. I would pay close attention. If I
were working at Corporate America to how my company's leadership
has been in communication or is tied to Washington, d C.
(18:39):
And the administration. What benefits are there for your company's
leadership to please this administration. Remember these companies, it's capitalism, baby,
It's about their bottom line. They're trying to survive for
the next until the next election and the one after that.
And if that means making some unpopular decisions about the
(19:01):
way that they treat employees and how they act, and
there are certain policies and you know whether or not
they're cutting that budget or they're they're cutting ergs, or
they're fire up and firing the heads of DEI initiatives
at their company. And yes, they may get some blowback,
but they don't care. They're thinking about their bottom line
and they're thinking about this federal government. Like we've seen
(19:22):
the White House now the United States is taking a
ten percent stake in Intel, Okay, and they're all running scared.
And so the fact that you know they are willing
to fire people over a hint that they may upset
the administration just to prove their loyalty, to save their
bottom line, to save their companies to save their stock prices,
(19:44):
to save their value on Wall Street like tales old
as time. Okay, so let's not get it twisted. That's
where our leaders, these different corporations, this is where their
loyalties are lying. Okay, they're not with us. I want
to just wrap this all up by reading this sub
stack from Karen Atia. So in the wake of her firing,
she's I don't know if she probably had the substack already,
(20:05):
but I'm going to post a link to it in
the comments so we can all join, subscribe and support her.
Here's what she had to say. My journalistic and moral
values for balance compelled me to condemn violence and murder
without engaging an excessive false mourning for a man who
routinely attacked black women as a group, put academics in
danger by putting them on watch lists, claimed falsely that
(20:27):
black people were better off in the era of Jim Crow,
said that the Civil Rights Act was a mistake, and
favorably reviewed a book that called liberals unhumans in a sense.
Deleted post, a user accused me of supporting violence and fascism.
I made clear that not performing over the top grief
for white men who espouse violence was not the same
(20:48):
as endorsing violence against them. She goes on to say,
I was the last remaining black full time opinion columnist
at the Post in one of the nation's most diverse regions,
Washington DCS. I see no longer has a paper that
reflects the people it serves. What happened to me is
part of a broader purge of black voices from academia, business,
(21:09):
government and media, a historical pattern as dangerous as it
is shameful in tragic miss Atia, I know you're not
going to stop writing and sharing your your feelings, your opinions,
your thoughts are so valued, they're so necessary. We are
proud of you, Karen Atiya. We love you, We support you.
Here at Brown Ambition. I don't usually do this, but
I was on Apple Podcasts at some morning this week.
(21:32):
I was trying to find the latest episode of Brown
Ambition to make sure that the show uploaded properly. And
the first thing I see when I open up Apple
Podcasts is the top podcast in America right now right.
It gave me chills. It truly gave me chills. Have
y'all recently looked at the top these are the top
podcasts in America right now. Number one, Charlie Kirkshow number three,
(21:55):
The Joe Rogan Experience of Course number four, Candice Owens,
Megan Kelly number six, then Shapiro number nine, number twelve,
Tucker Collison, the whole, the top voices in the country
right now. These are the voices that are being lifted
up and being celebrated. We have to be engaging with
(22:15):
other creators and other voices and making sure that we
still have a platform and that we're not being crowded out.
It's this top ten, this top twenty. I'm not liking
in America. I'm not liking it at all. All Right,
I want to close the show by reminding y'all to
check the show notes. I want to make sure that
I see y'all This coming Thursday, I'm doing a webinar
(22:38):
where I'm going to be talking about the power of
AI and how we can use AI to better manage
our finances, reach our financial goals, and also yes, stand
out in this batch crazy job market so that we
can so that we can so we can keep a
roof over our heads and continue our livelihoods in this
insane world. Going to be sharing strategies beyond just getting
(23:00):
your resume up by chat GPT. I'm going to be
showing you how AI can take the pain out of networking,
how it can take the pain out of finding opportunities
to get your name out there to build your professional brand.
This is free. The sign up link is in the
show notes. There's still time to sign up. It's all
going down September twenty fifth at eight pm on Zoom,
(23:21):
so make sure that you register and tell a friend
to tell a friend. I'll see y'all there until then.
By BA Fam
Hey ba fan. Before we get into today's episode, I
had I've only done this one other time. After the
election of twenty twenty five. I got on here and
I read. I just really didn't have any words. And
sometimes when I don't have the words, I turned to
poetry and other brilliant writers who have some words that
(00:25):
I can share. And today it really was on my heart,
on my spirit to read this poem for y'all. It's
by Audre Lord. It's called a Litany for Survival. I'll
try to read this without crying. But here we are
for those of us who live at the shoreline, standing
upon the constant edges of decision, crucial and alone. For
(00:46):
those of us who cannot indulge the passing dreams of choice,
who live in doorways, coming and going in the hours
between dawn's looking inward and outward at once, before and after,
seeking a now that can breed futures like bread in
our children's mouths, so their dreams will not reflect the
(01:07):
death of ours. For those of us who were imprinted
with fear like a faint line in the center of
our foreheads, learning to be afraid with our mother's milk,
for by this weapon this illusion of some safety to
be found. The heavy footed hoped to silence us. For
all of us, this instant and this triumph, we were
(01:30):
never meant to survive. And when the sun rises, we
are afraid it might not remain. When the sun sets,
we are afraid it might not rise. In the morning.
When our stomachs are full, we are afraid of indigestion.
When our stomachs are empty, we are afraid we may
never eat again. When we are loved, we are afraid
(01:52):
love will vanish. When we are alone, we are afraid
love will never return. And when we speak, we are
afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed. But
when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it
is better to speak, remembering we were never meant to survive.
(02:19):
This poem to me by the Great Audrolord. At a
time like this, it just reminds me of the human
experience that the money of us are feeling right now.
The fear of not knowing what to say, if we
should say it, when do we speak the truth on
our hearts, the fear of things that we have today
(02:42):
being taken from us tomorrow, so that we can't even
really enjoy what we already have. This poem is really
the truth of that experience, the last part. When we
are silent, we are still afraid, So it's better to speak,
remembering we were never meant to survive. What I love
about it is that it's a call to action to
use our voices. We are walking around on tenterhooks and eggshells,
(03:04):
unsure of what to say, afraid that if we speak
out against what's happening, that our livelihoods could be taken
from us, and for so many of us that means
our jobs. And at the same time, what are we
actually fighting for? What are we actually fighting to maintain?
What are y'all listening to? What poems, what writers? What
(03:24):
voices are inspiring y'all today? I could use some more.
I hope Brown Ambition is one of those spaces for y'all.
But if you want to send me what's giving you
hope and inspiration these days? Can you email me Brownambition
Podcast at gmail dot com. Can you DM me at
Brown Ambition Podcast on Instagram? Can you take the link
(03:45):
for this episode for this show and send it to
five friends, sisters, colleagues, neighbors. Can you share Brown Ambition
I'm truly scared at a time like this, I'm truly
scared for their survival of mid size, smaller platforms like
Brown Ambition, that we're really created with us at the
(04:10):
center of them, really created with our survival, our success
in mind and at the forefront of the work that
we do. And just thinking about that top twenty podcast
in the country right now, and thinking about who is given,
who is being lauded, and whose platforms are being amplified,
(04:31):
and very much starting to have this little bit of
dread seep in that in the midst of all of this,
shows like ours are going to be forgotten, that they're
going to be taken down in some way, And I
think I can't fix that. I can't prevent it without
(04:55):
y'all support. So if you could share this show with
five people you know have never listened to it, tell
them they must download it, they must subscribe. If you're
someone who has been referred to Brown Ambition by your friend,
by your sister, by a colleague, I just really appreciate you.
Thank you for showing up, and now it's your turn
turn around. Share the show with five people, let them
(05:16):
know they need to listen to Brown Ambition. Make sure
that you subscribe, follow, leave a comment, engage with us.
We're on social media at Brown Ambition Podcast on ig
in particular. You can also go to Brown Ambition podcast
dot com to sign up for my newsletter and support me.
I'm going to have a book coming out called Brown Ambition.
It's going to be a financial and career guide for
(05:38):
black women, coming out hopefully in twenty twenty six. We'll see.
So there's a lot lot coming from Brown Ambition. I've
never been more grateful to have this platform. Thank y'all
so much. Now let's get into the show. Uh oh
uh oh, it's a black woman with a micro phone, y'all,
(06:00):
everybody panic listen. I have never Ugh there's times as
the host of broad and Vision that I have certainly
felt called to do the work that I do. And
there's days when I've woke up wondering if anybody cares
about the work that I do. And I just have
(06:21):
to say, today is not one of those days. Today
is one of those days where I'm so damn happy
to have this microphone. I realize how powerful it is
that I have this platform and I can show up
and I don't have to be afraid that my opinions,
my thoughts, what's true to my heart and the work
that I'm doing is going to rob me of my
(06:44):
livelihood because I've created a livelihood for myself. Yes, God
damn I have, and I am in this rare position
for this was not my intention when I started broad
and Vision a decade ago. By the way, happy anniversary,
Brown Ambition. It's officially our ten year anniversary, and I
(07:04):
have been so overwhelmed by the feeling about the anniversary
and by kind of thinking about what the next ten
years are going to bring. But I just want to
sit and acknowledge it for a second. We're ten years old,
BA Fam, ten years, eight hundred something episodes, ten years
(07:24):
of showing up week after week after week after week,
no sleep, club, bus, club, another club, plane, no sleep.
I've been showing up and I couldn't have done it without,
of course, my forever sister and original BA partner, Tiffany.
(07:46):
So sending you love, Tiffany, and thank you so much
for helping me build this platform that we built together
for nine years. And to be a fam who've held
me down since I took the Helm solo at the
beginning of twenty twenty five. I love you so much,
but yeah, I am so happy to have this platform
right now. I woke up this morning and I had
(08:08):
one of those times. I had one of those times
where I was like, breaking news, gotta, I gotta scrap
what I was planning to air today. I got to
grab that microphone and I got to speak to be
a fan. I gotta, I gotta show up and speak
truth to power. And I really have no I have
no choice. I can't wake up and have this platform
(08:30):
and have the freedom to say what's on my mind
and not do it at a time when we are
seeing dozens of people during a week like this who
have lost their jobs because of what they have said
in the wake of the assassination. And there have been
many people. I mean, they're coming for the white men
to y'all. Jimmy Kimbolod have lost his show before that, Stephen,
(08:54):
Stephen Colbert lost his show. But I'm not here to
talk about them. I'm really here because of Karen Atia.
Karen Atia was a renowned columnist for The Washington Post,
A gorgeous, intelligent, really accomplished black woman journalist. At a
(09:14):
time when we need more black women journalists speaking out
on major national platforms. And when I say the Washington Post,
I know your first thought is like, was she really
going to last that long? The Washington Post has been
on this conservative bent, this conservative journey really since before
(09:35):
you know who won the election last year. But we
have seen the dismissal of other journalists from this plot.
We've seen basically columnists from the editorial side of the
Washington Post leaving their jobs in the past year due
to the Post action to make make the opinion columns
more conservative and to basically try to put a muzzle
(09:56):
on the columnists that they have there. We've had also
another prominent black woman journalists for The Washington Post who
left after an incredible something like two decade ten you
were there. Shout out to Chris A. Thompson. She left
of her own accord. Karen Antia did not. Karen Attia
was fired. She was on Blue Sky in the wake
of Kirk's assassination, and I just wanted to read a
(10:17):
couple of the posts that she published that led to
her firing. One of the first post quote refusing to
tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in
performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is
not the same as violence unquote quote Number two. Part
(10:39):
of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that
people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men
who espoused hatred in violence. Unquote. Karen, you didn't deserve
to be fired. Your whole job as an opinion columnist
is to have opinions on the news of the day.
(11:01):
And I at when we are when we are seeing
opinion columnists losing their jobs over having opinions that their
bosses don't agree with because of the pressure this administration
is putting on the leaders of big businesses and media,
in tech, in all industries, the control, the authoritarianism is
(11:26):
in the room with us. Sis. It's here. It's not
about what if. It's not about this may happen. It's
not about we need to pay attention to the science.
It's already happening. It's here. I'm not fear mongering. I
have two eyeballs on my head. We're watching it happen live,
all right, we're watching it happen live. I'm thinking about
(11:47):
Uba fam. I'm thinking I was thinking about how y'all
are doing at a time like this. It's giving the
summer of twenty twenty, when you know, we were having
blow after blow of murdering black bodies by at the
hands of law enforcement, and we walked into our offices
and we're expected to not be upset by it, to
(12:08):
not say anything that might make others feel uncomfortable. And
they really created the summer of twenty twenty, this sense
of false security that, oh, well, bring your authentic self
to work. We are we're holding space for you. I'll
never forget when my company, a big fintech kind of
financial marketplace company, the CEO hosted these zooms right that summer,
(12:31):
things felt like ere things kind of changing. Is it
becoming a little bit safer to be who we are
at the office. And it was a trap, baby, it
really was. It was a whole trap. Not only did
that summer lead to this huge wave of hiring women
of color, people of color into roles that were supposed
to promote diversity, equity, inclusion. It was like they corralled
(12:55):
us into a booby trap and they said, here, it's
going to be great. We're gonna put all this funding
behind this. Sure, bring your authentic self. We really care
about people's well being blah blah blah blah blah, until
the political tables turned, and now we are seeing I mean,
I don't have to tell y'all the DEI jobs poof. Overnight,
(13:17):
just got another email from a woman who was working
in DEI at a big BBA company poof, her job
is gone. We've seen it time and time again that
they have sort of corralled us into this false sense
of security, and we tied our livelihoods to it, and
now we are feeling the repercussions. All of that is
just to say that if you're a little bit of
color and you're going into the office this week, you're
(13:39):
showing up and you're not sure how to feel. You're
not sure if you should say something. You're thinking about
going to HR, you're thinking about, you know, speaking with
your colleagues or chatting in the company slack. Please don't,
please don't. It's not No, it's not worth it. I
we should be speaking out, and we should be speaking
out with one another, and we should find them space,
(14:00):
safe spaces to do that. The workplace, ay, it's safe.
The workplace is not safe. It is not safe. These
right wingers on the internet saying like, let's go find
people who are speaking out, let's expose them, let's get
them fired. Okay, like you're you're at a time like this,
in an economy like this, when we have families to support,
(14:22):
we have our mouths, other mouths to feed people relying
on us. Let's not be let's not make ourselves an
easy target. Okay. I'm not saying that we shouldn't, you know,
speak truth to power, and that we shouldn't, of course,
like link arms with one another and support each other
and talk about what's going on and how we're feeling
(14:43):
about it and process what's happening in real time, but
we have to think differently. This is not twenty twenty.
I'm trying to learn from the lessons, the really tough
lessons I learned myself in twenty twenty, and I wish
I could say more about it, but in das, I
just want to give y'all permission to say nothing when
it comes to your career. You know, your career at work,
(15:04):
in your in your professional capacity, you don't have to
say anything. It doesn't make you a coward, it doesn't
mean that you're not a real one, because the way
that they're coming for our livelihoods at a time like this.
This is not a free speech type vibe in corporate
America right now. It truly isn't. But hello, I'm Andy
Wood of Santo's. I had this microphone here, I paid
(15:24):
for it with my own money. I have this platform here.
I built it. I built it, baby, with my own time. Blood, sweat, tears, Okay,
not a lot of blood. Tiffany and I were not
out here fighting in the streets. But I'm so lucky
that I have had my own platform for a while,
and that I have this microphone and I can speak
the way that I want to speak now. According to
(15:46):
multiple sources and the research that I have been doing,
I've been trying to keep track of the number of
people who've lost their jobs because of statements they've made online.
Right now, it's looking like a few dozen. So something
like thirty three people have lost their jobs or they
face professional repercussions due to public remarks. We've got Matthew
Dowd at MSNBC, Karen Attia from The Washington Post. This
(16:08):
is what's really chilling to me. Something like two dozen
teachers and faculty from various school districts, universities have lost
their jobs because of remarks they've made online, and this
continues a pattern of attacking our educators. If you're gonna
want to speak out, I would say, let's make a plan, Like,
let's make an exit strategy for this career path. If
(16:30):
you're in no, I'm not getting a higher education because
I don't want us to stop speaking out, but to
jeopardize a career that quickly without having like a game
plan in place, I just want to like take a
step back for a second and talk about how we
might prepare to liberate ourselves from these types of career paths,
(16:51):
or these types of environments where our voices, you know,
may cost us our jobs. Let's think in advance, you know,
how can we save up, How can we start to
build our own platforms so that slowly but surely we
are less reliant upon these institutions for our pay and
for our livelihoods, so that we can have more freedom
to speak out. I think the people who are able
(17:12):
to speak out and speak truth to power during a
time like this, we are essential workers. The thing about
at will employment is that yes, we have free speech,
we have the First Amendment, but when you work for
a private company, we lack some protections against getting fired
for what we say. There's a law in California apparently
that protects people for what they say in their political beliefs.
(17:33):
In the workplace. Yes, there's free speech, but when it
comes to at will employment, most relationships in the US
are at will. That means that your employer can fire
your butt at any time, for any reason or no
reason at all, without even giving you prior notice. That
does work two ways. It also means that we can
up and leave with no reason at all or no notice.
(17:56):
That being said, yes, companies very much can fire us,
and we have. This is not new. It's not new.
Since the dawn of social media, people been losing their
jobs for what they have tweeted, what they have said online,
and typically what employers what's driving them to fire you
is if they deem the post to be quote unquote
in conflict with their values, if they threaten the company's reputation,
(18:16):
or they suggest that you may harm workplace productivity. Those
are very broad, broad categories of problematic and they will.
What we're seeing right now is they're using very broad
definitions of this. I would pay close attention. If I
were working at Corporate America to how my company's leadership
has been in communication or is tied to Washington, d C.
(18:39):
And the administration. What benefits are there for your company's
leadership to please this administration. Remember these companies, it's capitalism, baby,
It's about their bottom line. They're trying to survive for
the next until the next election and the one after that.
And if that means making some unpopular decisions about the
(19:01):
way that they treat employees and how they act, and
there are certain policies and you know whether or not
they're cutting that budget or they're they're cutting ergs, or
they're fire up and firing the heads of DEI initiatives
at their company. And yes, they may get some blowback,
but they don't care. They're thinking about their bottom line
and they're thinking about this federal government. Like we've seen
(19:22):
the White House now the United States is taking a
ten percent stake in Intel, Okay, and they're all running scared.
And so the fact that you know they are willing
to fire people over a hint that they may upset
the administration just to prove their loyalty, to save their
bottom line, to save their companies to save their stock prices,
(19:44):
to save their value on Wall Street like tales old
as time. Okay, so let's not get it twisted. That's
where our leaders, these different corporations, this is where their
loyalties are lying. Okay, they're not with us. I want
to just wrap this all up by reading this sub
stack from Karen Atia. So in the wake of her firing,
she's I don't know if she probably had the substack already,
(20:05):
but I'm going to post a link to it in
the comments so we can all join, subscribe and support her.
Here's what she had to say. My journalistic and moral
values for balance compelled me to condemn violence and murder
without engaging an excessive false mourning for a man who
routinely attacked black women as a group, put academics in
danger by putting them on watch lists, claimed falsely that
(20:27):
black people were better off in the era of Jim Crow,
said that the Civil Rights Act was a mistake, and
favorably reviewed a book that called liberals unhumans in a sense.
Deleted post, a user accused me of supporting violence and fascism.
I made clear that not performing over the top grief
for white men who espouse violence was not the same
(20:48):
as endorsing violence against them. She goes on to say,
I was the last remaining black full time opinion columnist
at the Post in one of the nation's most diverse regions,
Washington DCS. I see no longer has a paper that
reflects the people it serves. What happened to me is
part of a broader purge of black voices from academia, business,
(21:09):
government and media, a historical pattern as dangerous as it
is shameful in tragic miss Atia, I know you're not
going to stop writing and sharing your your feelings, your opinions,
your thoughts are so valued, they're so necessary. We are
proud of you, Karen Atiya. We love you, We support you.
Here at Brown Ambition. I don't usually do this, but
I was on Apple Podcasts at some morning this week.
(21:32):
I was trying to find the latest episode of Brown
Ambition to make sure that the show uploaded properly. And
the first thing I see when I open up Apple
Podcasts is the top podcast in America right now right.
It gave me chills. It truly gave me chills. Have
y'all recently looked at the top these are the top
podcasts in America right now. Number one, Charlie Kirkshow number three,
(21:55):
The Joe Rogan Experience of Course number four, Candice Owens,
Megan Kelly number six, then Shapiro number nine, number twelve,
Tucker Collison, the whole, the top voices in the country
right now. These are the voices that are being lifted
up and being celebrated. We have to be engaging with
(22:15):
other creators and other voices and making sure that we
still have a platform and that we're not being crowded out.
It's this top ten, this top twenty. I'm not liking
in America. I'm not liking it at all. All Right,
I want to close the show by reminding y'all to
check the show notes. I want to make sure that
I see y'all This coming Thursday, I'm doing a webinar
(22:38):
where I'm going to be talking about the power of
AI and how we can use AI to better manage
our finances, reach our financial goals, and also yes, stand
out in this batch crazy job market so that we
can so that we can so we can keep a
roof over our heads and continue our livelihoods in this
insane world. Going to be sharing strategies beyond just getting
(23:00):
your resume up by chat GPT. I'm going to be
showing you how AI can take the pain out of networking,
how it can take the pain out of finding opportunities
to get your name out there to build your professional brand.
This is free. The sign up link is in the
show notes. There's still time to sign up. It's all
going down September twenty fifth at eight pm on Zoom,
(23:21):
so make sure that you register and tell a friend
to tell a friend. I'll see y'all there until then.
By BA Fam
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