Speaker 1: Good morning, keeps, and welcome to wik f Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
Speaker 1: let me start out today with saying, at the time
Speaker 1: of this recording, we still do not know the charges
Speaker 1: for Donald Trump that will come out later this afternoon
Speaker 1: at around two fifteen, Donald Trump will be arraigned and
Speaker 1: then we will know after he knows how many charges
Speaker 1: he is up against in New York. But I want
Speaker 1: to say this, fucking cable news man, like mainstream media,
Speaker 1: just stays fucking up, And at this point you got
Speaker 1: to say to yourself, is it a fuck up? Because
Speaker 1: it just is deliberate. So first, let's start off with
Speaker 1: sixty fucking minutes deciding to give precious airtime to a
Speaker 1: white nationalist, anti Semitic, transphobic piece of trash like Marjorie
Speaker 1: Taylor fucking Green, who used her time on sixty Minutes
Speaker 1: to refer to Democrats who stand for gender affirming care
Speaker 1: for transgender kids as being pedophiles, right, And all the
Speaker 1: journalists supposed journalists Stall could say in response to that
Speaker 1: was can you just not name call bitch? This is
Speaker 1: not elementary school, right, Marjorie Taylor Green is not an
Speaker 1: elementary school, nor is she a preschooler. She knows exactly
Speaker 1: what it is that she's doing and what your network
Speaker 1: decided to do, what CBS decided to do, what sixty
Speaker 1: minutes decided to do, was what the New York Times
Speaker 1: did back in the nineteen thirties with fucking Hitler when
Speaker 1: they decided to give him an entire expose around his
Speaker 1: long walks in his better Home and Gardens section, right
Speaker 1: as he was shipping people off to Auschwitz and other
Speaker 1: concentration camps. You have Marjorie Taylor Green getting airtime is
Speaker 1: if she is normal. Do you know how many other
Speaker 1: members of Congress that are actually doing fucking work, that
Speaker 1: are actually trying to save this country from a fascist takeover.
Speaker 1: You know who could have been on sixty minutes, Jamal Bowman,
Speaker 1: the representative who was shaming his Republican counterparts for not
Speaker 1: taking any actions. As we watch every fucking few months,
Speaker 1: another classroom of students be slaughtered by aar fifteens that
Speaker 1: the Republican Party wears as essential flag pins on their lapels. Right,
Speaker 1: Jamal Bowman stood in the rotunda at the Capitol shaming
Speaker 1: his Republican counterparts for their inaction. We'll do everything, bulletproof backpacks,
Speaker 1: bulletproof whiteboards, fucking teaching little kids how to army crawl
Speaker 1: at the age of three, but they won't do anything
Speaker 1: about the guns because, as the Tennessee fucking representatives said,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna fix this. Criminals are just gonna crime.
Speaker 1: That is the person that deserves a time slot on
Speaker 1: sixty minutes, not a fucking white nationalist piece of trash
Speaker 1: like Marjorie Taylor Green, who had to, by the way,
Speaker 1: be warned by the New York City mayor Eric Adams,
Speaker 1: because she tweeted and said she gonna find herself flying
Speaker 1: to New York for Trump's arraiment. I don't know whether
Speaker 1: it's on a broomstick or not, right finding herself lying
Speaker 1: to New York, and Eric Adams said to her, don't
Speaker 1: be bringing your violent, insightful ass here and thinking that
Speaker 1: you're gonna rabble rouse and everything is gonna be okay,
Speaker 1: because it ain't. We all hands on deck here. And
Speaker 1: I cannot stress enough, folks, I cannot stress this enough
Speaker 1: that the fact that New York has all officers hands
Speaker 1: on deck, the fact that New York has been building
Speaker 1: up barricade since Donald Trump's initial lyon ass tweet on
Speaker 1: his broke Ass Truth social where he said that he
Speaker 1: was going to be arrested just you know, from figment
Speaker 1: of his imagination, just so that he could once again
Speaker 1: grift off of his followers. They've been all hands on
Speaker 1: deck because they don't want to be caught flatfooted in
Speaker 1: the way that the FBI, the National Guard, the DC
Speaker 1: Metro Police, Capitol Police, and the rest of them decided
Speaker 1: that they weren't going to do shit even as they
Speaker 1: were watching these groups like the Oath Keepers, the Proud
Speaker 1: Voice of three Percenters organized in plain sight because you know,
Speaker 1: all but they're white, so they're not going to harm anybody. Okay,
Speaker 1: checks history books anyway, it should be covered in the
Speaker 1: way that it's like Donald Trump is being investigated by
Speaker 1: the Department of Justice, not only for stealing government documents, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, the Washington Post also came out with
Speaker 1: new reporting that said that there is way, way, way
Speaker 1: more evidence that points to the fact that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: was obstructing justice, was combing through said documents and deciding
Speaker 1: what he was going to bring back, what he was
Speaker 1: going to send back excuse me to the National arc
Speaker 1: kives in what he was gonna keep right. So we
Speaker 1: also have found out recently with an interview that he
Speaker 1: did with Sean Hannity where Sean Hannity tried to give
Speaker 1: Donald Trump an out and say, well, you weren't going
Speaker 1: through those documents yourself, right, like you have staff and
Speaker 1: blahlah blah, and He's like, no, no, it was well
Speaker 1: within my right. And not only that, but then says
Speaker 1: that Nixon took documents and was able to sell them
Speaker 1: back to the United States government for millions of dollars.
Speaker 1: Hook line and sinker, folks, Donald Trump is going to
Speaker 1: tweet his ass and talk his ass into an orange jumpsuit.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, go ahead, keep going. Let that ego
Speaker 1: continue right and checks that god willing your ass can't cash.
Speaker 1: But as it stands right now, folks, we are waiting
Speaker 1: to find out if there are in fact thirty counts
Speaker 1: or more against Donald Trump that could cover everything from
Speaker 1: the money payments to Stormy Daniels, tax fraud as well
Speaker 1: as business fraud, an accounting fraud at all of those
Speaker 1: different types of charges. So we will keep our eyes
Speaker 1: open for that as well as it seems that the
Speaker 1: Jack Smith side of things are also heating up. Just
Speaker 1: hoping that the Department of Justice was also paying attention
Speaker 1: not only to Donald Trump's interview on Hannity about the documents,
Speaker 1: but also his farce of a rally in Waco, Texas
Speaker 1: where he was using footage from January six, you know,
Speaker 1: the thing that he incited people to violence and who
Speaker 1: went to jail for. We're in, for folks, a very
Speaker 1: wild week, and I just want you to know that
Speaker 1: we here at Woke A Up. We'll have our finger
Speaker 1: on the pulse move in all week long. And so
Speaker 1: also make sure to follow me if you do not,
Speaker 1: on all of the socials at D two cents on
Speaker 1: Instagram and on Twitter, d E E. T w O
Speaker 1: ce NTS and Danielle Moody underscore on TikTok. While that's
Speaker 1: still a thing. Coming up next my conversation with Sophia Mohammed,
Speaker 1: who is the interim CEO of Black Girls Code. We
Speaker 1: will switch gears a bit and talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: other news and uplifting things that are happening in our
Speaker 1: schools as opposed to just you know, talking about the
Speaker 1: shootings that happen in our schools. There are good things
Speaker 1: that happen there too, and Sophia Mohammed will share that next. Folks,
Speaker 1: I am very happy to welcome to woke F for
Speaker 1: the first time, the interim executive director of Black Girls Code,
Speaker 1: Sophia Mohammed. Sophia, before we jump in, I want to
Speaker 1: give you the opportunity to tell folks who may not
Speaker 1: know a black Black Girl's Code what the mission is
Speaker 1: of your organization. Sure first, Danielle, thank you for having
Speaker 1: me and thinking of Black Girl's Code. Black Girl's Code
Speaker 1: is an organization that puts black girls first in tech education,
Speaker 1: and it puts black girls first in also cultivating other
Speaker 1: parts of their girlhood so that they can be confident
Speaker 1: in in how they show up if they choose to
Speaker 1: show up into the tech space later in their life.
Speaker 1: So we create our own culture responsive computer programming curriculum
Speaker 1: where students learn technical skills through cool projects that are
Speaker 1: connected to their personal experience, their identity, the things that
Speaker 1: they care about right and also with instructors that they
Speaker 1: connect with. And in addition to the technical skills, we
Speaker 1: do activities to cultivate their confidence and their empowerment and
Speaker 1: their self love, focusing on the whole child, for example,
Speaker 1: you know, wellness activities providing opportunities for our students to
Speaker 1: engage with other women who come from maybe similar backgrounds
Speaker 1: as them, you know, just creating safe space for them
Speaker 1: to develop the relationships and sisterhood with other members of
Speaker 1: our programs as well. I love that, And you know,
Speaker 1: I have always had just a warm place in my
Speaker 1: heart for organizations that are particularly targeted at black girls
Speaker 1: and getting them into fields that are traditionally closed have
Speaker 1: been closed to black people. And we know that STEM
Speaker 1: is really an important part of our education and an
Speaker 1: important part of getting a well paying job and into
Speaker 1: a field that is growing, but that has largely been
Speaker 1: dominated by white males. And so before we jump in
Speaker 1: into where we find ourselves in the bubble of tech
Speaker 1: right now, I kind of want to ask you what
Speaker 1: it feels like to be the executive director of an
Speaker 1: organization with black girls in the title at a time
Speaker 1: in our country where diversity and inclusion and equity, particularly
Speaker 1: as it pertains to black people, to black indigenous people
Speaker 1: of color, is being targeted in our schools in curriculum
Speaker 1: and erasure that is happening and what it means and
Speaker 1: how you've been dealing with this climate. Well, it's been
Speaker 1: a heavy topic on my mind and on the mind
Speaker 1: of a lot of educators, a lot of folks in
Speaker 1: this space, and in fact, so I was. So I'll
Speaker 1: go back a little bit. I was a teacher. That's
Speaker 1: how I started my career. Although I was a former teacher,
Speaker 1: I always say I'm a forever educator, even though I
Speaker 1: even though I left the classroom, my heart has not
Speaker 1: left the classroom, and my passions and my work continues
Speaker 1: to be an educational equity and being a forever educator.
Speaker 1: The lack of diversity, the cultural erasure or just lack
Speaker 1: of existence of our history and curriculum, particularly stem curriculum.
Speaker 1: It's something that has been on my mind since my
Speaker 1: first you're teaching, right, That's why when I was in
Speaker 1: the classroom, whether it was teaching sixth grade math or
Speaker 1: pre calculus on a high school level, or whatever the
Speaker 1: case was, like, I remember thinking to myself adjusting my
Speaker 1: lesson plans to make it more relevant and more inclusive
Speaker 1: to my students. I remember adjusting problem sets so that
Speaker 1: the context was not about farming and golf, but rather
Speaker 1: everyday experiencing my students in a Brooklyn know about like
Speaker 1: writing the subway or a familiar event like West Indian
Speaker 1: Day parade, right, like things that like it's familiar to them,
Speaker 1: so that and passionate about and interested about, so that
Speaker 1: when they are doing the technical like hard math, like
Speaker 1: you know, like hard math things, it just like clicks, right.
Speaker 1: And there's also a level of connection, um that they
Speaker 1: feel with the content and like application that they feel
Speaker 1: with the content. So those are those are the type
Speaker 1: of like practices that I was doing as a teacher,
Speaker 1: and a lot of teachers, a lot of transformational teachers
Speaker 1: and educators doing the classroom to be culturally responsive, to
Speaker 1: be inclusive, to be intentional. U in there as educators,
Speaker 1: right and here we are right and yes, there used
Speaker 1: to be more of that happening right um. But that
Speaker 1: that unfortunately is not by itself, does not move the
Speaker 1: needle when it comes to creating diversity and inclusivity um
Speaker 1: in the tech industry or any industry that's predominantly occupied
Speaker 1: by white male populations. Right is, we have to take
Speaker 1: a multi a multi pronged approach to fixing this issue.
Speaker 1: And we also need to fix this issue not because
Speaker 1: like not because it's just for the sake of fixing.
Speaker 1: It's because actually inclusivity and diversity and having a variety
Speaker 1: of different perspectives at the table when you are solving
Speaker 1: a problem, or when you are when you're inventing something new,
Speaker 1: or when you are improving something like actually makes the
Speaker 1: product better. It actually like is beneficial for all people,
Speaker 1: all stakeholders, all customers, you know, not just a group
Speaker 1: of just one group of people. So I think those
Speaker 1: are the type of things that are on my mind
Speaker 1: then that I lean on when I do this work
Speaker 1: here at Black Girl's Code. It's like all of the
Speaker 1: things that you say. It was one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why I initially had gone into teaching as well, because
Speaker 1: I believe that, you know, education is the great equalizer
Speaker 1: that it is is the place where you receive you know,
Speaker 1: kind of the keys to equity is with a robust,
Speaker 1: challenging education, but one that is applicable right to you
Speaker 1: in your life. And I find that where we are
Speaker 1: right now in a country is you have a party
Speaker 1: that is working to create a permanent underclass, that is
Speaker 1: working to create a permanent working class. Because if we
Speaker 1: were to create access and you know, apply curriculum in
Speaker 1: a way that is of interest, that is of excitement,
Speaker 1: but is also relevant, right, and that is not centered
Speaker 1: around whiteness. Well, then guess what you create A whole
Speaker 1: lot of access and a whole lot of opportunity that
Speaker 1: I believe is not wanted. I want to switch gears
Speaker 1: and talk about how this applies to what we're seeing
Speaker 1: that is happening in the classrooms with diversity and inclusion,
Speaker 1: and what we're seeing mirrored in the tech industry right now.
Speaker 1: So I don't know how many companies now that are
Speaker 1: a part of big tech have announced major layoffs, tens
Speaker 1: of thousands of people from engineers and software people you know,
Speaker 1: throughout their companies that are being laid off. And of
Speaker 1: course it's being said, well, this is largely due to inflation,
Speaker 1: and you know, the fear is around recession. But what
Speaker 1: is happening, it seems, is that it is the diversity
Speaker 1: and inclusion and the elements that we're helping to diversify
Speaker 1: this very white, very sis, very heteronormative culture, this very
Speaker 1: fat culture. To diversify it is what is being hardest hit.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to give you an opportunity to speak
Speaker 1: to what you are hearing and seeing as it pertains
Speaker 1: to these matters of layoffs and what you are thinking
Speaker 1: with regard to the future of tech and the possibility
Speaker 1: of diversification there. See, one of the things that I
Speaker 1: am learning about the different layoffs I'm hearing about or
Speaker 1: I'm reading about, is every company has its different reasons. Right.
Speaker 1: For some companies is because they've invested so much money
Speaker 1: on a particular project and did not really think about
Speaker 1: the long term you know, impact of that investment. And
Speaker 1: now we're you know, hitting a financial you know challenge.
Speaker 1: Then it's it's it's hitting the bank. Right. There are
Speaker 1: some companies where, uh, you know, maybe their investments completely
Speaker 1: went down. So there are different reasons to why layoffs
Speaker 1: are happening across our nation and our Black Girl's code.
Speaker 1: What we are making sure to do are our goal
Speaker 1: and our aim is to to prepare black girls so
Speaker 1: that they have choices in entering and or staying in
Speaker 1: certain in companies if they choose to get into tech,
Speaker 1: right and also to um be able to uh well
Speaker 1: that to go back a little bit, I think that
Speaker 1: a lot of companies also had a season, especially during
Speaker 1: UM twenty twenty era, right, we're like, oh, we need
Speaker 1: to diversify, we need to diversify, right, And they were
Speaker 1: hiring left and right, but actually did not have a
Speaker 1: plan to actually how to keep folks in their companies. Right.
Speaker 1: So it's one thing to hire and bring historically marginalized
Speaker 1: folks in your company, but you need to have a
Speaker 1: plan to make them feel and make them like valued,
Speaker 1: to make sure that they are growing, make sure that
Speaker 1: there is an opportunity for them to take on leadership
Speaker 1: and senior leadership roles in the company. So if God
Speaker 1: infrastructure and that system for retaining talent, specifically talent of
Speaker 1: people of color or historically marginalized folks, then whether layoff
Speaker 1: or not, your diversity is going to go down over
Speaker 1: time because there's not a plan to sustain that diversity. Right.
Speaker 1: And I think about this summer of twenty twenty, which
Speaker 1: was you know, as many it said, oh, it's the
Speaker 1: great racial reckoning, and it's the great racial uprising. And
Speaker 1: I had said on this show and many others that
Speaker 1: it was like a resistance internship for many people, for
Speaker 1: many white people in this country that they took up
Speaker 1: for the summer, and then by the time that the
Speaker 1: fall semester rolled around, it was just like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: I can't really do that elective right now, right, so
Speaker 1: it's over. And similarly that was matched by a lot
Speaker 1: of companies, both in tech and outside of tech, that
Speaker 1: we're in a rush to create the diversity, equity and
Speaker 1: inclusion roles, these d EI roles, but not think about
Speaker 1: the infrastructure that was needed and the culture change that
Speaker 1: was needed, not to be done just by one person
Speaker 1: that was needed to retain people. So can you speak
Speaker 1: to because you touched upon it. But retention is really
Speaker 1: important because it isn't enough for organizations like yours to
Speaker 1: train up the next generation of STEM and tech leaders
Speaker 1: if in fact they're entering into spaces where they find
Speaker 1: themselves as the only one right right. While black girls
Speaker 1: code mission is to educate like black girls, to you know,
Speaker 1: equip them with the technical and soft skills to be
Speaker 1: able to have a choice in entering right these spaces.
Speaker 1: There's also a lot of responsibility that the tech spaces
Speaker 1: have in order to one receive black girls and black
Speaker 1: women and a diverse group of people into their companies,
Speaker 1: it is also the responsibility to train them and to
Speaker 1: help them grow. And like I said, make them feel seen,
Speaker 1: valued and empower and feel like a community is they
Speaker 1: have a community in the in the tech industry. So
Speaker 1: like it is not just the responsibility of of black
Speaker 1: women to train themselves up to like be competent and
Speaker 1: be competitive into into the workspace. No, like how many
Speaker 1: times we have so many qualified, overqualified women, um black
Speaker 1: folk who may don't get the job or don't stay
Speaker 1: at an organization, not because of their lack of because
Speaker 1: of their short coming, but because the system, the environment
Speaker 1: itself has a lot of issues that it just was
Speaker 1: not ready for their leadership and their authentic self, you know.
Speaker 1: So the tech industries have a lot of responsibility. I
Speaker 1: think schools also have a lot of responsibility. Yes, their
Speaker 1: organizations like Black Girl's Code, who provide these extracurricular supplemental education.
Speaker 1: But quite honestly, like preparation for quality STEMP preparation and
Speaker 1: computer programming education should really begin and continue throughout somebody's
Speaker 1: educational career. Just like how we have we take math
Speaker 1: classes every single year, right, like you take science every
Speaker 1: single year. How powerful would it be if computer programming
Speaker 1: and like really specific technological skills were embedded and infused
Speaker 1: in the curriculum kindergarten up until you know, whenever you
Speaker 1: graduate dairy school, right secondary education. There's also a responsibility
Speaker 1: for our toy and our entertainment industry to be able
Speaker 1: to put all types of people with technology, right. I
Speaker 1: always share the story of when I am I have
Speaker 1: a seven year old niece who is going on seventeen
Speaker 1: and and you know, for you know, her birthdays or
Speaker 1: for the holidays, when I'm at stores buying gifts and
Speaker 1: I go to the sections, the girls sections, or whatever
Speaker 1: the case may be, Like I you know, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of toys and entertainment that has to do
Speaker 1: with makeup and has to do with care and has
Speaker 1: to be which is all great, okay, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: buy it for her, And if when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: I love those two and I wish there were also
Speaker 1: a lot of choices for like STEM related toys or
Speaker 1: like construction related toys like cars and airplanes and other
Speaker 1: things like that could also tell my knees through the
Speaker 1: toys that she plays, that she can do STEM and
Speaker 1: that she can be a technologist. So like even the
Speaker 1: entertainment industry, the toy industry, whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 1: like feeds into this narrative right that only a certain
Speaker 1: amount of certain types of people belong in that STEM space,
Speaker 1: and others are not included. Yeah. Going into the toy
Speaker 1: section for my friend's children and god daughter and what
Speaker 1: have you is probably my most frustrating shopping time because,
Speaker 1: I mean, for the life of me, I couldn't understand
Speaker 1: why you needed to make legos passed out. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I like I could. I couldn't understand why things that
Speaker 1: were new right gender neutral needed to be feminized or
Speaker 1: made to be masculine. I didn't like I and it
Speaker 1: is it is a training. You know. You have people
Speaker 1: on the right talking about indoctrination, and I see no
Speaker 1: better indoctrination than the toy I absolutely, at any given
Speaker 1: place to tell young girls and young boys, you know,
Speaker 1: this is how you need to act, This is what
Speaker 1: you need to like in order to fit into these boxes.
Speaker 1: With a short amount of time that we have left,
Speaker 1: what is your hope for black girls code, but also
Speaker 1: for black girls that are looking outside of the box
Speaker 1: that they have been placed in in terms of getting
Speaker 1: excited and invested in STEM and in careers that have
Speaker 1: not traditionally been open. Yeah, a few things I have
Speaker 1: in my hope and dreams for black girls code and
Speaker 1: just girls and general. First is when you try something new,
Speaker 1: When you try something new for the first time, it's
Speaker 1: always going to feel hard and uncomfortable and you know,
Speaker 1: a little difficult, and you can do it right, like coding,
Speaker 1: computer programming, stem topics. Anything can be hard and you
Speaker 1: can do hard things. Mu. So don't be afraid of
Speaker 1: a little bit discomfort. Don't be afraid of a little
Speaker 1: tug and pull when it comes to you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, working on a project and you have a
Speaker 1: moment of failure, like, get back up and try again
Speaker 1: until you feel more comfortable with that process of failing learning,
Speaker 1: failing learning, failing learning. But because at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, you're growing through that through that process, and
Speaker 1: that's also life. It's not just coding. That's just like
Speaker 1: literally life, right, um So I want I hope that
Speaker 1: all girls, and specifically black girls like have embrace and
Speaker 1: like understand that mindset and can apply that mindset and
Speaker 1: their daily life and you know it will trickle to
Speaker 1: their education and their career path as well. My second
Speaker 1: hope is for black girls to have choices. I think
Speaker 1: the biggest I think, the biggest form of freedom that
Speaker 1: one can feel. I know, the biggest sense of me
Speaker 1: that I can feel being an immigrant coming to America
Speaker 1: when I was nine. The reason why I came was
Speaker 1: because my family and I came was because we wanted choices,
Speaker 1: right yea. And for Black Girls Code, And what I
Speaker 1: hope for black girls is you can come to Black
Speaker 1: Girls Code events and workshops for years and if you
Speaker 1: don't want to go and tech, it is okay because
Speaker 1: that is your choice. But as you're not going into
Speaker 1: tech because you don't want to, not because you cannot,
Speaker 1: not because you think you cannot, not because you didn't
Speaker 1: have access to it, you know. So like my goal
Speaker 1: and my hope is for girls to be able to
Speaker 1: choose how they want to live for the rest of
Speaker 1: their lives. And you know that choice changes. What they
Speaker 1: choose when they're twenty one is differ from a twenty
Speaker 1: five and thirty five and forty five, right, So yeah,
Speaker 1: I just want them to have choices. I love that.
Speaker 1: Sophia Mohammed, thank you so much for making the time
Speaker 1: to join will Gay app and thank you for the
Speaker 1: work that you're doing with Black Girls Code. I think
Speaker 1: that it is really important and it is necessary, and
Speaker 1: I too believe that all black girls should have choices
Speaker 1: in their lives, and I think that what you're doing
Speaker 1: is invaluable for that hope to come true. So thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Daniel. That is it for me to day.
Speaker 1: Dear friends, Ann woke f as always Power to the
Speaker 1: people and to all the people. Power, get woke and
Speaker 1: stay woke as fuck.