Essence Ventures President & CEO Caroline Wanga explores black women as CEOs of home, culture, and community, emphasizing their pivotal roles in shaping society. Her mission extends beyond recognition to empowerment, aiming to unleash the full potential of every black woman and celebrate the leadership qualities inherent within each individual. Through her advocacy and leadership, Wanga champions a vision where black women thrive as influential leaders in every aspect of life, driving positive change and fostering inclusive growth for future generations.
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00:00People in your life will tell you it's not your time. It's not your turn. Nobody like you has done it before
00:06One of the things I love is they'll say oh, it's gonna be a lot of hard work
00:10That ain't don't you ever listen to that. I like to say I eat no for breakfast. I don't hear no
00:18Madam Vice President you are speaking to the most powerful
00:23Ballot community
00:25We have what do you tell these chiefs?
00:29About what they need to do with that power we you we have
00:34Extraordinary power and we can never let anybody take our power from us
00:39So many of you know, I was a prosecutor. You may not know one of the reasons why
00:45When I was in high school, I
00:47Learned that my best friend was being molested by her stepfather. So I decided at a young age. I wanted to take on
00:55What I could do to protect
00:57Women and children against violence the idea that these so-called leaders would be passing laws that make no exception
01:06For rape and incest that are essentially telling a survivor of a crime of violence to their body a violation of their body
01:13That they have no decision about what happens to their body next
01:18That's immoral. Who is
01:21Kamala Harris
01:24The vice president of the United
01:28I
01:32I'm not gonna waste a lot of time because this is about to be a really important conversation
01:37So what I'm gonna do is simply invite you to what we here at essence call chief to chief
01:44It's a franchise we have where we engage with black women who are playing chief roles in community in
01:51Corporations and in several other places and its only intent is to do one thing
01:55it is to tell the story of people who are playing chief roles so that you know the chief within yourself and
02:03so today as a part of this series that continues to be an
02:08Emblem for how great the black woman is as the CEO of home culture and community we have with us
02:14The first black female vice president of the United States
02:20Vice president
02:25I
02:27I
02:55Now listen here
02:57We time-constrained I
03:00Don't need to say nothing else but ladies and ladies gentlemen community family
03:08One of the beautiful things about history is once it happens it can't unhappen
03:14And so what that means is there will never be another day where we didn't have a black female vice president of the United States
03:21of America
03:23They can't take that away
03:25But today I'm gonna have a conversation with our vice president Kamala Harris about
03:32the mantle she holds
03:35the seat she has to fill
03:37Every time we have a chief to chief conversation
03:40We start with a really simple question and we ask who is
03:47Kamala Harris
03:49The vice president of the United
03:56She said in case you didn't know I
04:01Don't I can't
04:03And I am a wife. There you go. We have children. I am a god mommy. I am an auntie. I
04:11Am a best friend. I am a good cook. Oh, wait. Wait. Wait. What do you cook?
04:17I cook just about everything, you know today I picked up some tassel and some andouille sausage to take back to DC with me
04:25Gumbo a comma. Oh, sorry. You weren't inviting them to nothing. Keep going
04:29and
04:31And I I am a fighter for the people. Yeah, I care about the people. Yeah
04:38Will you do me a favor and just hear a little bit more but why are you why you said that twice?
04:42What does that mean to you?
04:45So I am a child of parents who met when they were active in the civil rights movement
04:51marching and fighting for justice
04:54I
04:55grew up in a community where
04:58it was an extended family of
05:01People who told all of us as children. We are young gifted and black
05:07That we could do anything
05:10that there was no boundary or border to what we could pursue or believe and
05:16That we have a duty
05:18It's not about
05:20That you have the charity it's about duty. Mm-hmm to give back to your community
05:26To know that you've been pulled up and each one must then pull one. Mm-hmm
05:30and so
05:32Living a life of service is the thing that I was raised to feel a sense of responsibility
05:37To do as do all of us in various ways and for me, it's an elected office and some of that happened in the Bay Area
05:45I mean, maybe just a little bit of your life happened. I was born in Oakland, California
05:49Tell them the story of public service coming out of the Bay Area. I am also a proud HBCU graduate
05:59It must be noted the first HBCU Vice President of the United States
06:05There's a H you or something like that, you know, I was just checking
06:11Don't come for me y'all but your journey in started in the Bay Area in this life of public service
06:18Where does where does that start for you? You talked about it being important for your parents
06:22But like what led you to stay in that path because you did quite a few things in, California
06:27Well, there are a number of things. I was so in extended family my our second mother
06:34Miss Regina Shelton and my Shelton my Louisiana family is here. She was from where to go
06:41They were here earlier
06:44There they are and
06:46and
06:47We I grew up we grew up. I lived we lived on the apartment above miss Shelton's nursery school
06:53Okay, so she ran the nursery school. Okay, and she was part of that flow of folks from the south that moved to California. Yes, so
07:02She ran this nursery school. We lived in the apartment on top and she was a matriarch for the community
07:08hmm, and we would work at the nursery school as young young people and
07:13I would watch miss Shelton as she would
07:17Nurture and advise a young mother. Mm-hmm. I would watch her as she would
07:23counsel young parents on how to get through
07:27When times were rough, and I would see and I saw in my mother the same type of person
07:34My uncle's the same type of people, you know, I had my uncle Sherman
07:38Who was one of the first black?
07:41graduates of
07:42Berkeley Law School
07:43Who every time anybody in the community had a problem?
07:47They'd say call Sherman Sherman to help you figure that out
07:49and so I was raised by and among a bunch of people who really felt a
07:56Responsibility to give and to serve. Yeah, and it was expected of all of us that we would do the same
08:01Yeah, and that is the life I've chosen to live
08:04So go ahead because I think many people understand
08:08Especially for black right we live in community and the lawyer in the community is everybody's lawyer
08:14That's right for every reason the store owner is everybody's store owner whether you got money or not
08:19You get an IOU all those sorts of things. And so I think it is very
08:23familial and and and
08:25selfless to exist in black community
08:29When you think about then and one of the things we are hearing a lot in this season is about how consequential
08:37This election season is that is a word that's being used a lot
08:41But means something different as we look at what this particular season
08:47Will leave us with if it doesn't happen in a way that this community needs to participate to make it happen
08:53Tell us a little bit about what?
08:56Consequential means in this time and why this consequential is very different than any other one. We've had in recent history
09:03Caroline and everybody here. This is probably the most significant election of our lifetime
09:09You know, we have said it every four years
09:11But this here one is it?
09:14We are looking at an election that will take place in 122 days
09:21122 we're on one side
09:24You have the former president
09:27Who is running to become president again?
09:30Who is running to become president again
09:32Who has openly talked about his admiration of dictators and his intention to be a dictator on day one?
09:39Who has openly talked about his intention to weaponize the Department of Justice against?
09:45his political enemies who has talked about being proud of
09:50taking from the women of America a most fundamental right to make decisions about your own body and
09:57then last week understand that
10:00Sadly, the press has not been covering it as much as they should in proportion to the seriousness of what just happened
10:06when the United States Supreme Court
10:10Essentially told this individual who has been convicted of 34 felonies
10:17That he will be immune
10:20From essentially the activity he has told us he is prepared to engage in if he gets back into the White House
10:30Understand
10:31What we all know in a hundred and twenty-two days
10:36We each have the power to decide what kind of country we want to live in
10:43understand what we know
10:46When there has been a full-on
10:48intentional attack
10:50Against hard-fought hard-won freedoms and rights when I talk about the family that raised me
10:56Yes, they took me in a stroller as they were marching and shouting for justice
11:00knowing that justice will not be achieved unless we are prepared to march and shout and fight for it and one of the
11:08Ways we do that is through our vote
11:10this here election
11:12Let's think about the significance of the United States Supreme Court
11:17two years ago in some days now
11:20We commemorated a decision by the United States Supreme Court the Dobbs decision
11:25That undid the protections of Roe v. Wade
11:29Understand how that happened the former president who wants to be president again hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court
11:37with the intention
11:39That they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade and they did as he intended
11:44the court of Thurgood and
11:48RBG
11:49Took a most fundamental right the right to make decisions about your own body and on this subject. I
11:57think we all believe and know one does not have to abandon their faith and
12:02Deeply held beliefs to agree. The government should not be telling her what to do with her body
12:12If she chooses she will talk with her priests or her pastor her rabbi her imam
12:18But the government should not be telling her what to do
12:21Understand that the former president who is up for re-election has said he is proud of what has happened
12:27Proud of the fact that our daughters will have fewer rights than their grandmothers
12:34That we have seen in state after state they're passing laws
12:38punishing health care providers in Texas providing for prison for life
12:43for a doctor or nurse who provides reproductive care
12:47Understand laws being passed and proposed that make no exception for rape or incest Caroline
12:52You asked me about the things that have influenced my career, right?
12:55So many of you know, I was a prosecutor you may not know one of the reasons why?
13:00When I was in high school, I
13:03learned that my best friend was being molested by her stepfather and
13:08I when I learned I said to her you have to come live with us
13:12I called up my mother. My mother said, of course she does and she came and she lived with us
13:16Mm-hmm, so I decided at a young age. I wanted to take on
13:20What I could do to protect women and children against violence
13:25The idea that these so-called leaders would be passing laws that make no exception
13:31For rape and incest that are essentially telling a survivor of a crime of violence to their body a violation of their body
13:38That they have no right to make a decision about what happens to their body next
13:44that's immoral and
13:46That's what's happening in our country right now. You look at the taking of fundamental freedoms and rights in Georgia. Mm-hmm passed a law
13:55To deny people and make it more difficult to have freedom to access to the ballot
14:00Passed a law that makes it
14:03illegal to essentially give people food and water for standing in line to vote
14:08The hypocrisy abounds what happened to love thy neighbor?
14:12So look at what they're doing I want to pick that up and all of this is at stake
14:17Yes
14:18So you've been on an economic tour you've been on a reproductive freedom tour
14:22somewhere in this audience or on the internet is my niece I oh known as yo-yo to me and
14:28She is somewhere between 8 and 32 years old
14:32And
14:33one of the things that happened when you became vice president is I oh told me that when she becomes president her her
14:39Platform is going to be ice cream
14:42Why do I share that?
14:44Because I was excited
14:47About I oh thinking that she could be president and that ice cream would be the most important issue in the country
14:54because the other stuff ain't a problem no more as
14:58I look at this the upcoming election
15:00I'm looking at I oh and I'm trying to prepare myself to have a conversation with her that her doctor may not think her health care
15:07is important that she may not be able to make a minimum wage to aspire to meet a
15:13Worker occupation that matches her intelligence
15:16I am worried that I have to have a conversation with IO about why her brother Xavier may not be safe
15:22And it's a conversation. I didn't have to have with my little brother
15:25I am going to be handing off a world that has gone backwards
15:29Not a world that just didn't go forward
15:31Yeah
15:32So while we've talked about what we know are some of the topics that come from those that aren't looking out for us
15:38How do we make sure the things that are important to our community and again you've been on reproductive freedom
15:43You've been on economic freedom
15:45How do we make sure because we don't all sit in an administration and we don't all know the technicality for the woman
15:52that's going home and
15:54Is taking care of home family and community?
15:56How do I make sure that Caroline doesn't have to have that conversation with IO in a hundred and twenty-two days?
16:03There are many ways but in a hundred and twenty-two days. It's your vote. I mean, here's the thing about elections and
16:10This is maybe the inside deal that my former colleagues at the Congressional Black Caucus can tell you
16:17the people who make decisions at that level
16:21often will
16:22Pay attention to either who's writing the checks or who votes
16:27That's a cold hard reality and
16:31So when we vote that is in a democracy as long as we can hold on to it
16:38the power that we have as
16:41Individuals to weigh in on who is making decisions based on what we value and care about
16:47You know, I'll give you an example of why elections matter. There are many. Yeah
16:52The issue of black maternal mortality, let's talk about that
16:55So I have been working on that issue for years with my colleagues from the CBC when I was in the Senate and now as vice
17:02president
17:03Why?
17:04Because black women in the United States of America are three to four times more likely to die in connection with childbirth than other
17:11women and
17:14We know that there are a variety of reasons for that
17:17But we also know that this is a health care crisis of the highest order that has received very little attention
17:25Proportionate to the seriousness of the matter
17:30So I worked with my colleagues when I was in the Senate we passed a number of bills and when I came into the United
17:36States in when I came in as vice president
17:39I continued to work on it and one of the things I found is this that I was looking at well from for women on
17:46Medicaid
17:47Which states are providing for?
17:50Postpartum care not just for two months but for up to 12 months and I realized when I came in as vice president only three states
17:56Would extend Medicaid coverage for postpartum care from two months to 12 months. I
18:03I don't have a problem shaming people sometimes
18:07So I challenged the states to extend it and now 46 states have extended Medicaid coverage
18:15For postpartum care
18:18There is a direct connection between this and black maternal mortality, but here's the other thing back to the other point about freedom of choice
18:26The majority of black women in America live in the South
18:30You know that in the South we have some of the highest rates of black maternal mortality in the South
18:36except for the state of Virginia every state has an abortion ban and what I find a
18:43Hypocrisy upon hypocrisy by some of these extremists is the same one saying they're passing these abortion bans because they care about women and children
18:51Have been completely silent on the issue of black maternal mortality
18:55So don't come to us
19:00Gaslighting us about where you've been and where you haven't been on important issues that relate to
19:06To what we know every day affects our sisters our mothers our aunties our grandmothers and could affect our daughters
19:13so if you were if we were to take that right because I think that part of what we do with this conversation on chief to
19:19Chief is make sure that folks really walk away with the call to action for what's different for them
19:25You talked about this engagement in voting and civically and there are folks in this room that probably have voted and there's folks in this room
19:33That maybe haven't voted. But what are they to see from the vote?
19:37Go in 122 days and vote
19:39But what will be different for them if they do so that those that maybe are considering not doing
19:45Have a reason to get up that day and do it as well
19:48So I'm gonna what we know is that you can have an idea of what will happen when you look at what has happened
19:55So I'd ask people in the room to raise your hand if you relieve student loan debt relief because you voted in
20:032020 and Joe Biden and I came in office and were able to forgive
20:08Billions of dollars of student loan debt
20:13Understanding how it impacts all communities and especially ours I
20:19Would ask anyone to think and you don't have to tell anybody about this. Have you or a family member?
20:26suffered from medical debt
20:29We are in the process of saying that no longer can medical debt be counted against your credit score
20:36Right
20:39Because you see we came in office and we knew because we we we
20:44Are of and care about the people as opposed to the richest billionaires
20:48Which is who the former president gave a tax cut to and then created one of the largest deficits our country has ever seen
20:54We know medical debt comes about because often most often a medical emergency
21:01which nobody invites upon themselves or plans for and it can result in tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in
21:11expenses that you did not plan for and create debt and
21:14Then would be used against your credit score. What is your credit?
21:18Most people know the number of their credit score like, you know, you wait
21:21Especially with all those apps now, right that was shade I just want that was shade right don't talk about that later
21:31But the credit score makes a decision then about who's eligible for a car loan
21:37or a small business loan or getting an apartment lease and
21:42What's wrong about
21:44Medical debt you being used in the credit scores. The credit score is supposed to be a measure of whether you're responsible with money a
21:51Medical emergency is not about that issue
21:55What we have done to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month
22:02Raise your hand if you have a family member who has diabetes
22:07Right
22:09So and what we know is that black folks are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes
22:15We kept the cost of insulin at $35 a month
22:17We have finally allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices with the big pharmaceutical companies to bring the cost down
22:24so I say
22:26Look at what we've done to know that when you voted in record numbers people voted in record numbers in 2020
22:34This is what was able to happen and when everyone votes in those numbers again in
22:41122 days we can see it through and
22:45Seeing it through includes what we intend to do to raise federal minimum wage what we intend to do to bring down the cost and
22:53Make affordable child care a reality for all families
22:56We have said 7% of your income should be not more than 7% of your income should have to go
23:02For child care what we are in the process of doing for affordable housing
23:07Both for renters and those who want to be first-time homeowners. We have a plan
23:12We need Congress to agree that if you are first
23:16the first generation your family to seek home ownership, you'll get a
23:20$25,000 tax credit to help you with
23:24The down payment
23:26so so one of the things that
23:29The essence brand specifically represents is
23:33over five decades of a legacy of
23:37showing demonstrating and equipping the black woman with the power and
23:43Influence she has on all that's right when she turns her head left the world turns left
23:50When she decides to do something other people decide to do it at a different price than they're paying her to do it
23:56I'm sorry different speech
23:59The
24:02Value of what she delivers is not always returned at the value of what somebody who mimics what she did is delivered, right?
24:10So for 50 years essence has been teaching
24:13This member of human community called the black woman that she has a power that just needs to be unleashed
24:20Versus she doesn't have a power and because she has a power everybody around her follows her power
24:26Which I would then say that those that are here with us live and those that are here with us
24:31Virtually have the power to make this country be whatever it needs to be for black community
24:37So with that being known
24:40Whether it's the vice president United States or anybody else
24:44Madam vice president you are speaking to the most powerful
24:49Ballot community
24:51We have they are the CEOs of home culture and community for all
24:56So if you were to be talking to them about what their power can do for black
25:01Through the lens of the chiefs that they are of their community
25:05And you knew that it was what you say that's gonna make them do the thing that's right for them
25:10What do you tell these chiefs about what they need to do with that power in a hundred and twenty two days?
25:17First you've already said it, but I will say it to repeat because it bears repeating all the time
25:24We you we have extraordinary power and we can never let anybody take our power from us
25:32Never let anybody take our power from us and never be
25:38shy about our power
25:41We must encourage in each other
25:43We must encourage in each other
25:46Ambition ambition is a good thing
25:49It is good to know one's power and then to go for what you want knowing you can achieve it
25:56That is very important. We do not need to step quietly
26:01We don't know how
26:04Our but but and never we and never and never
26:09Allow the circumstances or the situation that we know we experience whether it be pay gaps or anything else
26:17To make us feel small or alone. I'll say in particular to the younger women who were here
26:25you are on
26:28Many occasions in your life gonna be in a room where you will be the only one that looks like you
26:35Or has had your life experience
26:37And
26:38What I demand of you is that you always walk in those rooms with your chin up and your shoulders back
26:47Knowing everybody here is in that room with you
26:52expecting
26:54That you will carry the voice that is the strength and power of your voice
27:00I will beseech you don't you ever hear something can't be done
27:06People in your life will tell you though. It's not your time. It's not your turn. Nobody like you has done it before
27:13One of the things I love is they'll say oh, it's gonna be a lot of hard work
27:17That ain't don't you ever listen to that. I like to say I eat no for breakfast. I don't hear no I
27:24Don't hear no and don't you either?
27:30I'm stupid. I'm trying to think what my breakfast word is. I need some time. I
27:34Don't have one, but I'm sure there's one there what so so as we as we close this conversation
27:41but not this topic as
27:43A person who has responsibility to be guiding guardian of this cultural artifact we call essence
27:50That belongs to our community
27:53There has never been a more urgent time for the CEOs to make the decisions. They have the powers to make
27:59There has never been a bigger time for you to believe that you can shift the circumstance of the community
28:05That you have not just past survival, but to exactly what it should be based on how you contribute and exist
28:12So I'm asking you as being a part of that community
28:17Do not do anything unearned and do everything to understand
28:22What will happen if in a hundred and twenty two days you go vote?
28:26Because what happens after that will be a conversation you have to be ready to have do you know which one you want to have?
28:33Ladies and gentlemen first black female vice president of the United States
28:55You