Episode 146 - Theresa Merritt-Watson, Author of "Black Tech"

This week I am joined by Theresa Merritt-Watson, the author of "Black Tech". This is the first in a series of books to help African Americans learn and appreciate more about Black participation in the development of the United States! How great is that?

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Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Hi, everybody. My name isLisa Ascali is the Inventress. I'm the
CEO and founder of Inventing a toZ and here on my podcast, The
Inventress Podcast. So I'm beyond excitedbecause I have a fabulous woman on our
podcast today and she's an author,she's an inventor, she's in everything,

(00:24):
a mom my, grandmother, youname it, She's got it all through
the powerhouse. I'd like to introduceto you Teresa Merritt Watson, author of
Black Tech. Yeah. He goodafternoon, Teresa. How are you.
I'm doing well. How are youdoing. I'm so excited to be here.
Actually, I'm excited to have you. We had our conversation a couple

(00:47):
of weeks ago and I was justso happy to hear about you and know
what you're doing. And so rightnow it's my secret. I want to
tell everybody else about who you are. You're going to tell everybody's about who
you are and what you do.You Okay, you got it out on
the floor. Oh well, I'mTeresa Merritt Watson. As we discussed,

(01:07):
I am an author. I do. I do write children books. I'm
on my second one children book I'vewritten a book called Guide to Teen Parents,
which focus on keeping teenage moms anddads in high school so they can
complete that. I am currently what'sthat called. It's called A Guy for

(01:30):
Teen Parents. I'm rewriting it,so I just was given the name is
being rewritten right now. And Iwork on a couple of projects that actually
just focus on changing the trajectory ofAfrican American and education and economics, and
that's what my my thesis is focusingaround. I'm currently working on my doctorate

(01:56):
and that is what I'm focused on. There's so much fitness in African American
children and African Americans that I'm gonnasay layd dormant because I don't fully understand
what exactly is going on to whywe our system always show the African Americans
in the negative? Something is,you know, and I'm not sure that

(02:20):
I understand it. But I'm attemptingto be a solution to some of the
problems that we have in education andeconomics. That's that's what the goal is.
And how are you doing that?I am doing that through a few
things. I've written a book,Black Tech, and it's written. It
started out writing it in Height forHigher grade in fourth fifth middle school.

(02:47):
But then I decided that African Americansto really hope bring this home, we
have to start doing it at amuch earlier age. We have to get
our kids and doctrinated to the greatthings that we have done, that we
have contributed to the development of thiscountry at a much earlier age. It
becomes part of their makeup. Theybecome part of their system. So when

(03:09):
they go to school, they knowGladys West, they know Jesse Russell,
they know Lewis Latimer and so,and they can stand on like Lewis Latimer,
he created the created a filament forthe light that we use today all
over the world. Now we hadlights, we couldn't keep them on.

(03:30):
It was unstable. He made itwhat we have today. And so when
people say, oh, I thoughtGE or some other organization, they will
go and be able to research whatgreatness Lewis Latimer did. In fact,
today I went to a class andI encouraged the students that because we're behind

(03:53):
on knowing our history, and it'snot just like all their fault, but
it's the deliberately done to make surethat the African American is kept it as
a certain frame a smaller frame.And I'm saying, when you walk up
to the elevator, students, justsay Alexander, mouth open, you know,

(04:15):
like say you know, like thesessame. That is genius. So
that's what I tell the kids.Say it again, because I'm going to
be saying it. Say it outloud so everybody can hear you again.
When you walk up to the elevator, you said Alexander, mouths open,

(04:36):
you know, because he created theelevator door opener. And the young kids
today don't know that. We usedto have an elevator person within and usually
it was a woman, usually shewas white, would be on the elevator
stool and she would have to openthe door, close the door, go
to the next floor and all that. But Alexander created the elevator door opener.

(04:57):
And so I'm trying to get themto catch up to what we have
done, the greatness that we havedone. Can you imagine a world with
no elevator door automatic door opener?Is this in your book? Yeah?
It is, It's in my book. It's in your book. Yeah,
wait before we continue, this isso interesting. I love it. So

(05:18):
where can your book be found?Where can we find your book. You
can go to Synergy Network LLC dotcom. Synergy Network LLC dot com,
and you also can go to SynergyTraining Solutions dot org. And that is

(05:38):
primarily for people that want to buya book for a for other students that
may not be able to afford thebook. So if you know, if
an organization wants to buy some booksfor students, we do it through the
nonprofit. And you can get thebook off Amazon, Barnes and Noble and
those those places. And so thisis what I'm telling the kids. Age

(06:00):
yourself. We have to make thisan effort, a conscious effort and bringing
ourselves up to and knowing who weare. So what's the best way to
do that. You start the kidsyoung, You start them from home.
And if the parents do not know, and I know the parents do not
know because I sent the book outto from two adults between the ages twenty

(06:23):
and eighty five and no one cameback, no more than two people.
You so what I mean, Well, we're not taught. We were not
taught that in school, we werenot taught that in pool. And this
is where it does come from parentsand our parents looking at you know,
doing our due diligence researching our history. When I was a little girl,

(06:43):
my father would tell me about peoplelike doctor Tolls Drew. Yes, okay,
you know who that is, right, I know tells Drew exactly the
blood clotting system and that nobody evenunder knows about you know what I mean?
Great, don't know unless and thiswas my This was my punishment,
right, my dad, great punishment. Look up, You're gonna look up

(07:06):
this inventor and this inventor and doctorCharles Jordan read all about and give me
a thesis. I was nine.That's why I do what I do.
Thank you, daddy, right,Uh just but yeah, I love this.
I love this because we don't knowbecause we're not taught. But it

(07:27):
does come from the parents. Ifyou're you're definitely not learning it in school.
You're not learning you're not learning blackhistory in school. I mean,
today is better, It's I haveto say, it's a lot better than
it was. It's a lot better. But the presentation of black history does
not give you the sense of ownership, the sense of belong and the sense
of connectivity in the manner in whichit is taught to students in school,

(07:53):
and still students will be in thefourth grade, and who do they know?
They know Martin Luther King, maybejust In Jacson, maybe Rows Apart,
that is not a substance of history. It's yeah, they know for
four people, it's the truth.So I mean, so what do you
propose besides your book? Are yougoing into schools? Are you going into

(08:13):
different districts? Well, in fact, I was at Dione Warway School today
earlier this morning, and I gointo the schools, I do libraries.
In fact, I did a seniorsenior group this on Monday. So I'm

(08:39):
going because when I was asked,one of the things I know for a
fact is that everybody needs to knowthe history. Yes, I when I'm
reading or talking about black history,talking about the importance of black history,
very seldom do I have. Iknew the people that that I called out

(09:01):
in the audience. It was aboutseventy five people, not one Like as
I said, do you know whohad created a GPS? Not one senior.
I'm talking about senior. Everybody isfifty five or older. I think
the oldest lady is about eighty five. No one knew did anyone know know
who created the security system? Noone knew and so I have to encourage

(09:24):
them too when you hit those numbersto turn your security system on. Think
about Mariam Van Britton Brown. Thisis what I'm telling you that Miriam van
Britton Brown, she you know,she has a full name, but she
did a marvelous job. And sowe have when we think about Marion Krog

(09:48):
she did voice over IP. Thisis the reason why I can talk to
you right now. But we don'tthink about our black people when we're doing
something that's so profound. It isa miracle. I call myself that I
can see you and talk to you. But I didn't know that, Okay,
so I did not know that.I did not. So I have
to tell you. You know,many of my clients, I mean,

(10:11):
I've been doing what I do foryears and years and years, right and
so years ago my clients not thatlong ago, would say, you know,
I really don't want to put mypicture on the package. You know,
as a black person, I don'twant to put my picture. I
said, you better put your pictureon the package. I want your picture
on your bio. I want yourpicture everywhere. Because people don't know,

(10:33):
they don't think, they don't thinkabout you know who the inventor is right,
Tipperary mm hmm. I mean evenfor you're talking about proper and gamble
and some things like that. Butthere are people of women and men of
color who are inventing the products thatyou see on shelves today. Exactly.

(10:54):
You know what I mean. Soput your picture there, tell your story,
don't stop your story. I thinkthe reason that one of the things
when you say that, I lookat people. When I was thinking about
putting my house on the market,it said, well, okay, but
you got to take all your blackpictures down, you know. And until

(11:15):
we start pushing back on the ideathat if it's black, it's not good,
if it's black, it won't sellif it's a black and get low
volume, low quality. And soif we don't start pushing back on some
of these things we always accepting.I think for education, now I am
getting a doctor in education leadership andpolicy. So but I think that I'm

(11:43):
not the traditional education person because Idon't I think the changes need to be
made, and a lot of timespeople want to make the changes, but
they don't want to go against.And you don't want to go against because
there is there there are billions ofdollars being made off of black people deficiencies,
so they claimed deficiency. So younever tap into it. So I

(12:05):
want to give you an example.You give the kid. So I say
this because I've tutored all my entirelife since I've been six years old,
and so you know, I grewup with most of my cousin I have
forty five first cousins, and soyou know where you have an array,
a teeny little family you have whenyou have an array of people in your

(12:31):
family, one of the things thatyou do. Everybody has strength and you
know weaknesses, and so you helpwhere you need to be. But I
look at a kid in first grade, and by nine weeks, by the
ninth week, you can see thedeficiency in a child. That is a
point in time that you correct correctthose deficiencies so that the child can move

(12:52):
on. But in our system,and a lot of time in our system,
we just kept keep going because wehave this curriculum we have to follow.
We have this test that the kidshave to be prepared for, and
as you see, the kids arenot generally prepared for it. It's you
know, it's marked for the thirdgrade. So what happens is that we
keep passing on, passing on,and then by the third grade, any

(13:15):
child is not proficient, they knowit, you know. So you you
teach the kids morning just the factthat you're passing them on, you're teaching
them how to lie and try tosneak and get by with it. And
so that's what our system do.And so the people that's most profoundly impacted
by that are the African American kids. And so what I'm saying is that
you could take a kid that theysay deficiency and work with that child and

(13:37):
you just try to and you lookat the brilliancy and the child why you
know. And so this I thinkI keep telling myself Teresa. School was
not designed with us in mind initially, and then we never insisted on when
they did give us black history.I went to school, they gave us

(13:58):
history. Africa was presented in asavage type way. And now we have
to look at our map. Wehave to look at our map. It's
Africa being a small country, whenin fact you got five countries Germany,
Ireland and you got five country fivesix country could sit in the in Africa.

(14:22):
But it's presented in a smaller frame. So it tells you if you
take a look at some of thethings that's related to black people is in
a smaller frame than the traditional thingthan other people, and so we have
to buy into it. So whatI did, well, what my company

(14:43):
has done, what we as ateam have done, is that we created
this program called Lead and Read becauseit is it is time that we get
back on track and lead and read. What they do is an African American
church, well joined, they becomea member, and that they member,
they're members of that church will geta student of African American student in the

(15:05):
community and that student will call thevolunteer from the church once a week and
they will read to that volunteer forten minutes. And you have to start
out with ten minutes because you don'tyou know, if a kid is not
used to reading ten minutes a longtime, right, that's right. So
the goal here is to reach morethan what some of our organizations are doing.

(15:30):
I know there's a huge church,I know and in their reading program
they have ten students and the churchprobably have four hundred people. And so
that's one of the programs that comesoff on It starts on July first,
and so July first, and sothat's one of the other reading program one

(15:52):
of the program that we are reallypushing to impact the reading for our kids.
And a lot of people, mywhite friends will say, well,
we want to join it is everyI think it's important that African Americans jumpstart
our movement in education and economics.And so you know, we have programs

(16:15):
that we teach and tutor, likeparenting. We also have a three P
program that focuses on it and focuson building children's self esteem, focus on
their academic impact, the academic theself esteem. I don't know why I

(16:36):
couldn't get that out because I knewit about except the water. It's hot
outside today. So yeah, sothose are things that we're doing that to
make sure that we have a profoundimpact on our community. So when you
say we so this is the company, I want to make sure that the

(16:56):
listeners and the viewers out there aregetting where they can go to find all
of these these these texts that you'redoing. So you have, you have
the church, you have lead andread. Can could everybody be a part
of this? Is there a website? Yeah? The website is. The
website is Synergy Training Solutions dot org. Synergy Trainingsolutions dot org. So when

(17:19):
they go to Synergy Training Solutions dotorg, they can find uh where they
can go for a lead and read, or they can you're providing this for
is it children in one community?Have you started small? Are you telling
me? Actually, it's funny yousay that because we have a teammate in
Washington State, Okay, and wehave a I want to know, and

(17:42):
I'm taking notes when I put myhead, when I look down, I'm
taking notes. We have a teamin Washington. Go ahead. We have
a team in Washington State. Uh, he's so excited he called me today.
Is you know you want to changethe date to earlier or you know?
I mean? And so we havea team in Sacramento and they actually

(18:04):
are starting later uh than July firstbecause and we have a team that's in
North Carolina one in Georgia. Sowe have teams that are people that are
committed to joining and so were havinga training session just information session, is

(18:27):
what I should say. And sothat's that's one of the one of the
key things. Everything is on online. Can anybody join this training session?
Is it a zoom call? Areyou aggregiz Yeah? I am advertising.
So when they register, we sendthem back to Zoom. Okay, okay,

(18:48):
you know, because we have alimited amount of people that can go
on Zoom, but they could callin. So we put the number on
and when people register, we justgo on and do that. But I
mean, and so you know,it's just it's it is. It is

(19:10):
an effort, an active effort forus to really try to change how we
fit in because I look at wheneven the kids that's misbehaving. You know,
when you have deficiency, one ofthe things you do, you do
act out. You know, peopleare talking about what she misbehaved. And

(19:32):
then when you start talking to thekids, talking to the kids and working
with them, you see that theyhave some type of psychologists probably explain it
better feeling our notion about where theyare in relationship to the rest of their
peers. And so this is theway that I can get attention is by

(19:55):
misbehaving, right, And so Ithink that that is one of the things
we sort of fly by and wedon't nurture like a gift of a child.
Every child, actually every child hasa passion. I agree with you.
So I mean, I I doa lot of teaching. I teach
at the Dion Work Institute as wellin Asprey Park and all of these incredible

(20:17):
young people. My classes uh uhmy inventing classes. Uh problems challenging solutions
right. So in the class,it's a free for all for me.
I want them to speak and notI mean people say acting out and but
they're they're showing themselves, right,They're showing who they are, right,
because school is so academically structured thatchildren are typically not able to vocalize or

(20:47):
verbalize what they're feeling or what theirthoughts are. So you may be putting
abc D on the on the boardand that's something different to say about it.
But they're so it's so structured ina way that they're not able to
be their own creative selves. Justbe themselves and talk about right, vocalize
what they're right. So I lovewhat you're doing and going into the schools

(21:10):
and doing, you know, teachingthem and giving them an opportunity. I
would rather, you know, oneof the things I think that I think
teachers. You know, when Ifirst started my program, in my mind,
what I wanted to do was createa curriculum that overlay the teachers.
Whatever curriculum a teachers using because whatI wanted to be able to do is

(21:33):
overlay the ability for them to nurturea student passion. And so what I
found I remember this in one ofthe classes of a student. The student
went in and the teacher told askpeople what did they do for the summer?
And she's and people said, shetold she was telling the story to
me. She said, well,I only have one kid in there that

(21:56):
probably did anything that's worth any valueduring the summer. And I took a
step back and I said, well, how did you conclude that? She
said, well, their parents can'tafford to do this, this, that,
and the other. And if Isaid, well, that's not that's
not that's not the marker determine whetheryou did anything intriguing during the summer.

(22:17):
And this is where I came up. You know, we talked about it
for a long time. She wasvery apologetic because I wouldn't really went into
death about how people learn. Whatyou learn, you learn from your parents
teaching, doing, or involving youin certain things. And so one of
the kids, his father is amechanic, and so what his father would

(22:40):
ask him for is to cut me, cut me thirteen inch pipe so and
he would do that so much hecould his eyeball second grade eyeball with thirteen
inches, and so that gives hima sense of estimation, which gives him
the you know, you think he'sstrong in math because he just it automatically

(23:00):
come to him. But his exposureto that has lend itself to him being
stronger in math because of the workthat he do with his father. That
the family is not wealthy, andso what I what I say, And
he loves working on cars. Hisidea now is to work at a at
a car company and build and designcars. Now that didn't just that didn't

(23:23):
just pop up now, you know, but knowing when you're in school,
you can nurture and say, okay, John, you know, what do
you think is the length of thispencil? You know our John? How
how when he gets I guess thiswould be like what is pie? What

(23:45):
is the meaning of it? Evenyou know, if you're in third or
fourth grade. And so I'm justsaying there's ways that we can do it.
But we take the kids. Butthe parents are are scientists, our
teachers or what have you, andyou figure that they have has some some
exposure and so those are the peoplethat you will go and say, what
do you think it would take foryou to design a dress? You know,

(24:10):
well, here's John over here thatcan that has a purpose and something
for you to nurture as well.Every kid have something that you can nurture.
I don't care where he come from. I don't know. Yeah,
that's what we're missing. And looklook at my punishment, Look at my
behind your own right, And itwas nurtured, right, it was nurtured.

(24:33):
Yes, my father was. Ididn't know that it would turn into
what I do for a living,inventing, you know, yes, an
inventor, right, and then andthat's what that's what I'm saying. And
you can start it at home,and you can. I'm a big proponent.
I feel like I know this tobe true. But I've gone to
school board meetings and it always tookon me that we had a school board

(24:56):
meeting talking about children that belong tosome parent, but you never mentioned the
word parent in the school board meeting. And so what it tells you is
that the school has basically taken overour children and we have allowed it.
What you do is that you needto partner with the parents, and yeah,

(25:21):
you need to be able to partnerwith the parents, and then you'll
be able to see what the kidshave learned. I tell people I came
back. You know, I'm fromthe South right, and it's so funny
because I was telling Gary that oneof the things that used to make me
feel so uncomfortable as a child isMiss Harrison used to come to our house.
She didn't call any of that.She just come on a Sunday afternoon

(25:45):
after church, you know. Butshe was my first and fifth grade teacher,
and I was just totally you know, dinner was quiet, you know.
You know, I have five siblings. My mother and father would be
sitting there talking to Miss Harrison andshe would tell us, tell them all

(26:06):
about what I'm doing and things,take a piece of cake home, you
know, stuff. But she knewwhat we what we knew what we've got
involved in, and you know,so this is this is what I hope
to do and in my life isto actually change and be and important.

(26:30):
You'll make it happen right now.So, yes, you appreciate you sharing
all of this information with us.Again, please repeat where they can buy
your book when you can we putthis up on uh, you know,
when they see this on every everybodyout there will see how to find you,
how to find your book. Appreciateyour ability to educate all of these

(26:55):
children as many children as you canwith the lead and read. Love that
so much. And again, let'slet's talk about your website one more time.
Well, you can order the bookfor Senergy Training. I'm sorry you.
I do this one first. Itis Senergy Network LLC dot com.

(27:15):
Okay, and that one is Umy company. And that's when people just
want to buy the book and SenergyTraining Solutions dot org. If you want
to donate a book to a student, you can go on that website and
you can also order the book fromAmazon, Barnes and Noble. You can

(27:37):
call your library and ask them toorder the book. And I do that.
Black Tech, Black Tech, Yeah, Black Tech Leaders in Technology by
Teresa Merritt Watson. So, butuh, I wanted to people. When
people get the book, they wantedthings. I really have enjoyed learning more

(28:02):
and more about the power of anegle. I work with an organization and
three piece and they talk about soaringand soaring and so as I looked up
some of the things that relates tothe most powerful ones. I came up
with an egle because in life itselfgives you challenges, and an ego can

(28:26):
be attacked by a snake. Rarelywill you ever see him fighting. What
he does is he takes off andsoar into the air and to an aptitude
where the snake can no longer breathe, so he's forced to drop him.
And so when you have the challengesthrough life, if you have some deficiencies

(28:48):
and something, you just keep trying. I can tell you my deficiencies,
and I just keep trying. Andso occasionally if I talk too fast,
you may hear it, but youjust keep more moving. And that's what
I want the students to do isbe a reminder that they are like an
eagle. You get something to stop, you just keep moving into it has

(29:11):
to turn your loose. So that'sthat's the You're amazing. This was so
powerful. We could talk like thisfor three hours. I mean as we
did, I think on the phonea couple of weeks. There's such an
interesting, incredible, powerful person.And thank you for sharing your knowledge and
your book Black Tech. Uh Andare you on social media? I am?

(29:34):
I am? What are your platforms? Well? I am on we
just revamped it yesterday. That sentus some stuff. But I am on
X on Twitter, I am onI got to get that in my head
too X Okay, yes, yes, what is it on X? What
do you call it on X?Ters Sa mere Watson, Teresa Merrit Watson,

(29:57):
Okay, it's as author Lisa MerritWatson and yes author okay, author
to Teresa Merret Watson. And thenInstagram, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

(30:18):
It was you know, we hadthem all redone, you know, so
if they're all Teresa Merritt Watson,author Lisa Merrit Watson, yes, okay,
good, because there's a lot thateverybody out there needs to hear your
voice, read your book. You'redoing an amazing, amazing job. I'm
looking everything up tonight. I'm going, okay, book. Whatever I need

(30:42):
to do to support you and whatyou're doing your efforts, I will absolutely
do that. I want to sayto you before we go, is that
at dm Worlwary School, the kidswere already brilliant. You know, they
knew about it, they knew alot of the people. They they raised
a hand and when I said,well do you know what Gladys West invented

(31:04):
and you know, many of thestudents just shout I said, oh this
is my school. No, makeno mistake that school. And she goes
there, she goes visits, sheprovides whatever they need. It's the amazing
school I've ever walked through any schooldoors, the most amazing school ever.

(31:27):
The kids I enjoyed it, andthat's because of their environment. I mean,
they have parents who are involved ifthey can, and they asked intelligent
questions. I mean just I justlike, oh man, this is good.
You know, knock it socks off, right. You thought you were

(31:52):
going to teach them something they taught. Yeah, they you know, they
really enjoyed it. People ordering thebook while I was there and things.
I just I enjoyed that class.By the way, good, good,
good, Yes, listen, itwas wonderful having you here today. I'm
definitely going to have you back.Would you mind coming back? I don't

(32:12):
mind coming back at all. Good, good, good, So Teresa,
thank you again for being here,and thank you. We have all of
your social media platforms here and everybodycan see it and hear it, and
you have the blessed, blessed day, and thank you again for sharing your
knowledge and information. And we'll seeThank you for having me. You're very
welcome. You take care. Byebye bye bye