August 18, 2025 • 8 mins
The internet feels invisible, but the data centers that power it leave a heavy footprint -- and too often, that footprint lands in Black and Brown communities. In this episode of I Didn't Know, Maybe You Didn't Either, B Daht breaks down how the NAACP is fighting "environmental racism 2.0" and why the Cloud might not be as clean as it looks.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I welcome back. Know it alls to another episode. If
I didn't know, maybe you didn't either. I'm your host
B Dots, and I start today's episode with an announcement.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
You are listening to the voice of the mister.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Alumni of Winston Salem State University. And I just want
to say thank you to everybody that donated to my
campaign for twenty twenty five twenty twenty six. B Dot
is Winston Salem State University's mister Alumni.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
And that is absolutely amazing. I don't usually get a.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Little competitions and stuff like that bad, so to actually
win is gonna be awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We're gonna be celebrating for homecoming.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
I will actually get crowned Homecoming Friday, which is October seventeenth.
We got a huge gala. I'm doing all types of
promo for it on my social media. Would love for
you to come through if you're in the North Carolina
area of close and like HBCU homecomings. But I'm excited
man a king a crown. What's funny is when I
(01:02):
went to Winston Salem State University in undergrad I always
wanted to run for mister Ram, but I knew that
the way I carried myself was not a great representation
of what that position was like. I knew how to
pull it up to the events high late. I was
just real immature in that space. So I don't vow
to be perfect during this reign as mister Alumni twenty
(01:23):
twenty five. But I do vow to represent myself in
the best way possible for myself, for my family, for
those who thought enough of me to donate to my campaign,
and of course for my illustrious alma mater, Winston Salem
State University. So to prepare myself for my reign, I
started to look up different kings and what royalty means.
(01:44):
So I will kick off today's episode of I didn't know.
Maybe you didn't either, with three of the most useless
facts you'll never need, never not a day in life
about being a king and royalty. A first, King Charles
was called the pampered Prince for his lavish requests. I mean,
King Charles would get his shoelaces ironed, He had a
(02:07):
personal toothpaste squeezer. He was sort of like Addie Murphy
and coming to America. The royal penises clean, your Highness,
they said, my boy King Charles liked to travel with
his own toilet. They said his bath water had to
be a certain temperature, as well as his biscuits and
dig this. When King Charles would travel, he would take
many of his personal items along with him, not just
(02:29):
the toilet, but his bed, furniture, even pictures. Bruh wanted
it to feel like home on the road. Your second
useless fact. When the Queen traveled, she traveled with her
own supply of blood. Yeah, when traveling by plane, Queen
Elizabeth wouldn't leave her castle without her own supply of
blood because you know, sometimes you go to them countries
(02:51):
where you know they don't have a reliable blood supply.
So the Queen and the Prince of Wales both traveled
with their own personal packs of blood following their convoy.
And third and final useless fact. The crown that the
Queen wears is made of gold and set with two thousand,
eight hundred and sixty eight diamonds, seventeen sapphires, eleven emeralds,
(03:14):
two hundred and sixty nine pearls, and four rubies. Wow,
those would be your three useless facts about kings and monarchy.
King Charles was the pampered prince because of his lavish request.
Queen Elizabeth used to take trips with her own blood,
and the crown she wore was made of gold with
(03:34):
two eight hundred and sixty eight diamonds, seventeen sapphires, eleven emeralds,
two hundred and sixty nine pearls, and faux rubies. I
had a grandma named Ruby. I guess you're gonna make
that four useless facts. But today's episode, if I didn't know,
maybe you didn't either, has me a bit conflicted. Do
you use chad GPT like I used chad gpt a
(03:55):
lot to come up with ideas to schedule my grocery list,
to come up with useless facts? Two deep diving ideas
for the podcast. I've used chat gpt to think of
ways to respond to my wife and we're in an argument.
Nice ideas to do for my kids to send them
off to college. I used chat GPT regularly, and I
was talking to my sister Jessica the other day and
(04:18):
she says, I don't know if I can keep using
chat GPT. I said why, she said, because of what
is doing to the black neighborhoods. I said, what the
hell is chat GPT doing to the black neighborhoods? So
who better to ask? I asked chat GPT. I said, Chat,
are you damaging to the black neighborhoods? And what chat
GPT shared with me blue my mind.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I didn't know. I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I
didn't know.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Okay, First, because chat knows that I do this podcast,
they gave me three useless facts to open up with.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
The ridge.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Google search uses about zero point three watt hours of electricity.
Now that don't seem like a lot, but you multiply
that by billions. You're talking power plant numbers. Your second
useless fact. Some data centers use millions of gallons of
water a day.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Just to stay cool. And your third useless fact.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
In rural Georgia, black residents protested a proposed data center
because it would drain their only water supply, and they
won well for now. So imagine you just chilling in
your neighborhood and out of nowhere a massive building shows
up and it's hunting like a jet engine. There's drinking
(05:43):
up all the water. It's spiking your electric bills. That
ain't science fiction. That's what some black and brown communities
are facing when tech companies come and build their data
centers right next door. Like when we think of the cloud,
we think about Google Drive, Netflix for me asking chat GPT,
what was Prince's last name?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
But here's the thing. The cloud ain't actually in the clouds.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
It's on the ground, in big buildings called data centers,
and them data centers can be real bad neighbors. Data
centers are like the gym rats of the Internet. They
lift heavy, They processing billions of searches, videos, and tiktoks
every single day. But all that muscle needs a lot
of energy and a lot of water. Some of these
(06:30):
centers use millions of gallons of water a day just
to keep from overheating, and they burn up electricity to
power a whole city. Now here's where it gets messy
because guess where a lot of these massive server farms
are built right Not next to the country club, not
in the middle of downtown where the tech companies are. No,
they end up in black, brown, indigenous, and low income neighborhoods.
(06:54):
Why you ask, Well, there's a mix of zoning laws,
cheaper land, and the sad truth is these communities usually
have less political power to push back. They don't have
finances for lawyers and the length of time in court
it would take to beat these big businesses. That's why
the NAACP is stepping in. The NAACP saying, hold up,
you can't brag about innovation while polluting our neighborhoods, draining
(07:16):
our water, and spiking our light bills. They calling it
what it is, environmental racism. And this ain't new. Think
about it. Highways, factories, landfills all historically dropped right where
black folks live.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
It's the same play, just with a high tech jersey on.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
So you see, I'm conflicted because our instagrams and tiktoks
and chat GPTs just as much as the next person,
and had no clue that it was damaging black and
brown neighborhoods. So yeah, the cloud might seem clean and invisible,
but behind the screen, it's smoked, and far too often
that smoke is blowing straight into our neighborhoods.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either, but no,
do do
I welcome back. Know it alls to another episode. If
I didn't know, maybe you didn't either. I'm your host
B Dots, and I start today's episode with an announcement.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
You are listening to the voice of the mister.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Alumni of Winston Salem State University. And I just want
to say thank you to everybody that donated to my
campaign for twenty twenty five twenty twenty six. B Dot
is Winston Salem State University's mister Alumni.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
And that is absolutely amazing. I don't usually get a.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Little competitions and stuff like that bad, so to actually
win is gonna be awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We're gonna be celebrating for homecoming.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
I will actually get crowned Homecoming Friday, which is October seventeenth.
We got a huge gala. I'm doing all types of
promo for it on my social media. Would love for
you to come through if you're in the North Carolina
area of close and like HBCU homecomings. But I'm excited
man a king a crown. What's funny is when I
(01:02):
went to Winston Salem State University in undergrad I always
wanted to run for mister Ram, but I knew that
the way I carried myself was not a great representation
of what that position was like. I knew how to
pull it up to the events high late. I was
just real immature in that space. So I don't vow
to be perfect during this reign as mister Alumni twenty
(01:23):
twenty five. But I do vow to represent myself in
the best way possible for myself, for my family, for
those who thought enough of me to donate to my campaign,
and of course for my illustrious alma mater, Winston Salem
State University. So to prepare myself for my reign, I
started to look up different kings and what royalty means.
(01:44):
So I will kick off today's episode of I didn't know.
Maybe you didn't either, with three of the most useless
facts you'll never need, never not a day in life
about being a king and royalty. A first, King Charles
was called the pampered Prince for his lavish requests. I mean,
King Charles would get his shoelaces ironed, He had a
(02:07):
personal toothpaste squeezer. He was sort of like Addie Murphy
and coming to America. The royal penises clean, your Highness,
they said, my boy King Charles liked to travel with
his own toilet. They said his bath water had to
be a certain temperature, as well as his biscuits and
dig this. When King Charles would travel, he would take
many of his personal items along with him, not just
(02:29):
the toilet, but his bed, furniture, even pictures. Bruh wanted
it to feel like home on the road. Your second
useless fact. When the Queen traveled, she traveled with her
own supply of blood. Yeah, when traveling by plane, Queen
Elizabeth wouldn't leave her castle without her own supply of
blood because you know, sometimes you go to them countries
(02:51):
where you know they don't have a reliable blood supply.
So the Queen and the Prince of Wales both traveled
with their own personal packs of blood following their convoy.
And third and final useless fact. The crown that the
Queen wears is made of gold and set with two thousand,
eight hundred and sixty eight diamonds, seventeen sapphires, eleven emeralds,
(03:14):
two hundred and sixty nine pearls, and four rubies. Wow,
those would be your three useless facts about kings and monarchy.
King Charles was the pampered prince because of his lavish request.
Queen Elizabeth used to take trips with her own blood,
and the crown she wore was made of gold with
(03:34):
two eight hundred and sixty eight diamonds, seventeen sapphires, eleven emeralds,
two hundred and sixty nine pearls, and faux rubies. I
had a grandma named Ruby. I guess you're gonna make
that four useless facts. But today's episode, if I didn't know,
maybe you didn't either, has me a bit conflicted. Do
you use chad GPT like I used chad gpt a
(03:55):
lot to come up with ideas to schedule my grocery list,
to come up with useless facts? Two deep diving ideas
for the podcast. I've used chat gpt to think of
ways to respond to my wife and we're in an argument.
Nice ideas to do for my kids to send them
off to college. I used chat GPT regularly, and I
was talking to my sister Jessica the other day and
(04:18):
she says, I don't know if I can keep using
chat GPT. I said why, she said, because of what
is doing to the black neighborhoods. I said, what the
hell is chat GPT doing to the black neighborhoods? So
who better to ask? I asked chat GPT. I said, Chat,
are you damaging to the black neighborhoods? And what chat
GPT shared with me blue my mind.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I didn't know. I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I
didn't know.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Okay, First, because chat knows that I do this podcast,
they gave me three useless facts to open up with.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
The ridge.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Google search uses about zero point three watt hours of electricity.
Now that don't seem like a lot, but you multiply
that by billions. You're talking power plant numbers. Your second
useless fact. Some data centers use millions of gallons of
water a day.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Just to stay cool. And your third useless fact.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
In rural Georgia, black residents protested a proposed data center
because it would drain their only water supply, and they
won well for now. So imagine you just chilling in
your neighborhood and out of nowhere a massive building shows
up and it's hunting like a jet engine. There's drinking
(05:43):
up all the water. It's spiking your electric bills. That
ain't science fiction. That's what some black and brown communities
are facing when tech companies come and build their data
centers right next door. Like when we think of the cloud,
we think about Google Drive, Netflix for me asking chat GPT,
what was Prince's last name?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
But here's the thing. The cloud ain't actually in the clouds.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
It's on the ground, in big buildings called data centers,
and them data centers can be real bad neighbors. Data
centers are like the gym rats of the Internet. They
lift heavy, They processing billions of searches, videos, and tiktoks
every single day. But all that muscle needs a lot
of energy and a lot of water. Some of these
(06:30):
centers use millions of gallons of water a day just
to keep from overheating, and they burn up electricity to
power a whole city. Now here's where it gets messy
because guess where a lot of these massive server farms
are built right Not next to the country club, not
in the middle of downtown where the tech companies are. No,
they end up in black, brown, indigenous, and low income neighborhoods.
(06:54):
Why you ask, Well, there's a mix of zoning laws,
cheaper land, and the sad truth is these communities usually
have less political power to push back. They don't have
finances for lawyers and the length of time in court
it would take to beat these big businesses. That's why
the NAACP is stepping in. The NAACP saying, hold up,
you can't brag about innovation while polluting our neighborhoods, draining
(07:16):
our water, and spiking our light bills. They calling it
what it is, environmental racism. And this ain't new. Think
about it. Highways, factories, landfills all historically dropped right where
black folks live.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
It's the same play, just with a high tech jersey on.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
So you see, I'm conflicted because our instagrams and tiktoks
and chat GPTs just as much as the next person,
and had no clue that it was damaging black and
brown neighborhoods. So yeah, the cloud might seem clean and invisible,
but behind the screen, it's smoked, and far too often
that smoke is blowing straight into our neighborhoods.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either, but no,
do do
Host
Brian "B Daht" McLaughlin
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