Pendulum Politics

The pendulum swings wildly from political upheaval to celebrity downfalls in this packed episode examining how power, race, and identity shape our experiences in an increasingly chaotic world.

Jeremy Corbyn's dramatic political resurrection with his new "Your Party" has sparked hope for those disillusioned with mainstream UK politics, gaining 200,000 members overnight and highlighting the desperate need for genuine representation. Meanwhile, the shocking ethnicity pay gap statistics revealed by Dawn Butler MP (23.8% less for minorities in London) expose the hollow promises of workplace equality without accountability.

The stark contrast between Rachel Reeves' tearful parliamentary moment and Diane Abbott's relentless scrutiny perfectly illustrates the unspoken rules of emotional expression for Black women in public life. We're permitted no vulnerability, no softness – a reality that extends from Parliament to corporate boardrooms, where "jokes" at our expense are weapons disguised as humor.

Sean Combs conviction serves as a sobering reminder of how power corrupts and silences victims, while Marcus Fakana's imprisonment in Dubai shows how quickly young Black lives can be destroyed when race, culture, and vindictiveness collide. These stories aren't isolated incidents but threads in the same tapestry of inequality.

The episode concludes by examining how even financial success comes with hidden penalties through the "HENRY" phenomenon – where high earners face diminishing returns through aggressive taxation without corresponding benefits. It all points to a system designed to maintain imbalance rather than create true opportunity.

Ralph Lauren - Oak Bluffs

https://youtu.be/UOT8CUBpERE?si=v-k98k9oNBSHqWGr

Referenced Diane Abbott Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMuBazWdE1I

Candace Owen

https://www.youtube.com/live/FDOnxpViQxY?si=7OhdCqQKbLigratg

https://www.youtube.com/live/PKKLk57tcLs?si=FzAcSzmotlK-ZPKG

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Music (Intro and Outro) Written and created by Nomadic Star

• Stationary Company - Sistah Scribble
• Instagram @sistahscribble
• Website: www.sistahscribble.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Introduction and Overview
• 8:09 UK Politics: Labour and Jeremy Corbyn
• 16:55 Ethnicity Pay Gap Discussion
• 27:28 Rachel Reeves and Black Women's Tears
• 38:21 Diane Abbott's Suspension and Racism Debate
• 50:14 Marcus Fakana's Return from Dubai
• 59:33 P Diddy's Trial and Conviction
• 1:10:00 Setting Boundaries in the Workplace
• 1:24:52 Candice Owens and The Macrons
• 1:33:33 Ralph Lauren's Oak Bluffs Collection
• 1:36:55 Naomi Osaka's Vulnerability
• 1:43:29 High Earners Not Rich Yet (HENRY)
• 1:55:50 Conclusion and Social Media Details

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey everyone, how you all doing. So. Much has happened since the last episode of the Toy Talks podcast and I'm going to attempt to go through most of it or at least touch on the really important things. P Diddy, who stood trial on various charges, has been found guilty of two of the charges that were levied against him. We get into that.

Speaker 1: 0:20

The Chancellor of the Exchequer the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, was in tears a couple of weeks ago during parliamentary question times and we discussed the weight of those tears. Dawn Butler, the MP for Brent East, discusses the ethnicity pay gap and I've long been discussing the ethnicity pay gap. We talk about Diane Abbott, who's the MP and the first black female MP has been suspended from the Labour Party Alleged racial comments or racist comments. I've listened to that interview and we're going to be discussing it here on the podcast. I'll also be discussing Candice Owens, who I'm a massive fan of, and we're going to be discussing also this new I say new, it's not really new, it's a concept called a Henry the high earning high earners, not rich. Yet we're also going to be discussing Ralph Lauren's new Oak Bluff collection, which has so much black history in that collection yeah, and so much more. You're listening to the Toya Tools podcast, toya.

Speaker 2: 1:18

Talks Council Estates, a corporate space First gen Nigerian setting the pace from Goldman Sachs to PwC Building space. First gen Nigerian setting the pace from Goldman Sachs to PWC building legacies for all to see. This lecture couldn't stop this flow law degree just watch me grow. Masters of the game. We show every sister how to own their throne. T-o-i-a. Let me show you how to navigate and elevate. That's what we do black queen energy growing.

Speaker 1: 1:47

It's crazy, isn't it? Because anytime I come and I'm like, okay, I'm ready to record, something will happen. And I've just gotten to a point where I'm like, okay, you know what, I have to have a cut off day where I have updated my myself and kind of what's happening and xyz, and just say, boom, um, also as well. One thing with me is, whenever I'm going to record, I need to be in the space to record, and I've said this before and it's for me, it's the the responsibility of this podcast and being able to kind of talk to you guys, share stuff, inform you guys and create learning moments through the podcast. But also, as well, I need to reaffirm certain things as well. So I deliver this podcast as a woman, but as a black woman. So my experiences is always going to be from that lens, first and foremost. And I always say I pick black women first because as black women, we don't often have safe spaces to have certain conversations about our womanhood, about how, um, our race affects um, the society in which we live in that has not been built to benefit us as well. So not just about benefiting in us, but as well as everyone else, and then it's for women, no matter your background, no matter your ethnicity, and then it's for men and anyone else. That's kind of how I see it, and I say it in that way because I have so many listeners that listen to this podcast um, different, different races, different backgrounds, and for me, I'm just so grateful that I have a podcast that touches people in different ways, and I always say that I never want to get like someone say, oh, I can't listen to this podcast because it's for black women. Well, it's for black women first and I say first because I am a black woman, that's why I say it and then anyone else who wants to listen is welcome, because I believe that when you kind of put something out like a podcast, it's for everyone, um, as well as. But I speak for myself as a black woman, because those are my experiences and I I know the weight of the responsibility as a black woman, um to share certain experiences, which are not great, but they're they're teachable and learning moments for myself, and I bring that here to the podcast. And then I talk about things that are happening in the world that I think we all can benefit from, um, you know, in terms of like politics and finances and things like that, and I've done that for a really long time. So I would say to all my new listeners just take the time to listen to some previous podcast episodes and I'm not for everybody, but for those who I am for and those have been riding me for for a really long time or from the beginning of the, the podcast, the genesis.

Speaker 1: 4:32

I appreciate each and every one of you for listening and for downloading and for sharing. I appreciate being part of your whatsapp chat conversations, um, I appreciate being in your tiktok video conversations and I have so much content that I do want to bring to the podcast and, more importantly, I just want it to be informative. I'm not here talking about sex and vaginas. I don't do that, but it's not that I won't talk about those things. It's just that for me, in terms of the important messaging and things I want to talk about, it's not about sex, not about vaginas. There are podcasts out there that are very hyper and highly sexualized. You go there for that. If you want something that's more finance-based, there are finance-based podcasts here. We're quite a generalist um podcast platform and I just feel so grateful to still be relevant. That, to me is so important. Talk about relevance.

Speaker 1: 5:22

Um, jeremy corbyn used to be the leader of the labour party here in the uk. So for those of you who do not know who, j Jeremy Corbyn used to be the leader of the Labour Party here in the UK. So for those of you who do not know who Jeremy Corbyn is, go and do your googles. He has always been highly like everything. Labour was growing up for me in terms of the working person, like I remember Labour, the Tony Blair era, that's the what I believe the real Labour was. What Labour is now is, personally for me I've always said it that I feel that Keir Starmer cosplays a Labour party leader, but he has conservative views. Personally for me, he could pivot into the Conservative party and there wouldn't be that much of a change to the politics that we see today in my view.

Speaker 1: 6:02

I'm really disappointed in Labour and how Labour has evolved and what it stands for now. I'm actually quite ashamed of ever aligning myself with the Labour Party to be quite honest with you and certain views. They hold certain things that they push, certain agendas that they push and the things that they should condemn, but they don't. Um, I'm very embarrassed that David Lammy still remains the MP for Tottenham. Um, david Lammy, I just don't understand him. I can't believe he's the foreign secretary and, given what is happening in the world, what's happening in Gaza, um, I'm just so shocked at how he is aligning himself um and the things that he is saying. But people are catching on and a lot of these interviews that I have seen of late have been really embarrassing because he hasn't, he hasn't been able to stand behind the things he said and, and you know, he's been held accountable um to the things that he said or the lack of things that he has said. But for me personally, I don't believe in the Labour Party, I don't believe in the Conservative Party, and I'm one of those people, and many of us are where we're looking for another party to support in terms of aligning ourselves with political views.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Reform UK, for me, is a very, in my personal opinion, very racist party. Its party politics does not align with equality in the way I see it, and it has very scary manifestos that lean into very destructive, very damaging rhetoric. And I have said this before, I believe in a previous episode that if care was not taken, reform uk will be the next um government, um, presiding over the uk, and it's a dangerous state of affairs to ever think that that could ever be possible. That being said, I've always said, like, if there to ever think that that could ever be possible. That being said, I've always said like, if there was a party that I could align myself, it would be like the Workers' Party. We don't. I think there is a Workers' Party, but we don't actually have that party here because there's not enough votes that somebody could be elected as a leader of a constituency here from the Workers' Party. So for me, the Workers' Party don't exist.

Speaker 1: 8:26

For those of you who don't know, the dominating parties here in the UK are the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, followed by the Liberal Democrats. Nowadays I don't actually know where the Liberal Democrats stand. I just know I don't stand with them, but I don't know what their party politics are. But they, I remember years ago they shared they have to share like power with the conservatives. I think I can't remember this is a very long time ago. Anyway, liberal Democrats are very irrelevant to party politics.

Speaker 1: 9:00

I say all of this to say that Jeremy Corbyn, once leader of the Labour Party, stood for the real Labour Party views. He, for me, epitomised the ethos of representing equality and looking after its workers. It was very Labour, like everything you know. Labour to be historically is what Jeremy Corbyn was, and then he got ousted is the best way to describe it. However, jeremy Corbyn has created his own party and I'm so excited. I say this with a big smile, not necessarily because I align myself with his party politics now, with his new party, but I just think there just needs to be another party that is going to give the Conservatives and the Labour Party a run for their money, as well as Reform UK. Someone needs to stand in direct opposition to Reform UK in its politics, in its manifesto, in its ethos, in its objective, and I will be doing a bit more research into Jeremy Corbyn's new party politics.

Speaker 1: 10:02

Now. His party is called your Party. That's what they're called your Party, and he has launched this with Zahra Sultana, and Zahra Sultana used to be in the Labour Party and basically she didn't align with the Labour Party's political views. So I definitely think that Jeremy Corbyn couldn't have created this party on his own, and his alliance, um with zara um sultana is brilliant, um. So jeremy corbyn's new socialist party has gained over 200 000 members in 24 hours of its launching, which surpasses the conservatives by 69 000, and closing in on reform uk. He's also launched this, as I previously mentioned, with zahara's sultana. The party aims to hit 25 in future polls um with the current support at 15. And the surge follows a poll a recent poll showing that corbyn is more popular than the Labour leader, keir Starmer, which isn't a surprise at all.

Speaker 1: 11:08

Keir Starmer's popularity has hit an all-time low and, honestly, at a re-election he will not be re-elected. This is his last road in terms of leading um the Labour party. I don't actually see him standing again. His party politics politics is very contradictory, like I've said before, and it's very uncomfortable and, to be honest, it's really irritating that. I pay my taxes like we all do. You know I pay into the system, I work hard, like we all do, but yet when it comes to voting as it currently stands, I would vote for no one because I don't have a party that I can align myself to. Labour would have been it, but not under Keir Starmer and definitely not with its politics and the things that it's pushing and its agendas. I just do not align with anything, ethically, morally, with the Labour Party, but even more with the Conservatives. I don't align with Kemi Beninok and the things that she says and the things that they do as a party. The Conservatives ran this country to the bin and it was nearing the bin anyway. Let's be honest, it's not like Labour was ever going to save us. You know they don't have that kind of mentality, but I definitely think Jeremy Corbyn is onto something.

Speaker 1: 12:22

Here Again. Can we get Jeremy Corbyn onto the podcast, please? Who do I need to talk to? I'm going to manifest this because I can't have all these listeners in the thousands and thousands and thousands of listeners and thousands of downloads. I can't have all these listeners and no one has a connection to Diane Abbott, dawn Butler or Jeremy Corbyn. I need to get one of the three, if not all three of them, onto the podcast. Do you know how amazing that would be? That would be really good and you guys get to test my interviewing skills, but I wouldn't necessarily be interviewing them in the conventional style. It's more conversational and obviously asking certain questions. But yeah, I would love to speak to Jeremy Corbyn and I love the fact that he is very um, he's diverse in his thinking, diverse in his politics and just diverse in his interactions, and that's a man who genuinely cares. Obviously, he's a politician at the end of the day, but I've never kind of questioned his intentions in terms of party politics. So well done. Your party is what he's called it, what he's dubbed it, so let's see what they come out with. I'm going to do a bit of research into their party politics, but if it's anything aligned with Jeremy Corbyn's views that he has held and continues to hold and vocalize, then it's definitely a party that I'll be interested in knowing a lot more about.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Dawn Butler, mp for Brent East, talks about the ethnicity pay gap. Basically, she's pushing for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting alongside action plans. There was some statistics that were done and nationally, workers earn six percent less than white colleagues. In london, the pay gap rises to 23.8 percent and hits 37 in the public sector. Now, the fact that this isn't the case currently is troubling, but we talk about the gender pay gap all the time and whilst there is a gender pay gap that doesn't seem necessarily to be closing, despite what they're reporting and it's the the gender pay gap.

Speaker 1: 14:39

For those of you who may be unaware, it's that men effectively earn more than women. Okay, and we see that because that we have certain sectors, like the sector I work in, is very heavily male dominated, so you tend to find that the men earn more, they've been in the roles longer, whatever the case is, but there is no closing of the gap. When we talk about equality and you know your workplaces will do mandatory training, it's really contradictory when there is still a pay gap divide that is as big as an ocean between men and women. But then I think that there needs to be mandatory reporting that goes deeper and looks at the ethnicity pay gap adjacent to the gender pay gap, because what you'll tend, what you'll find, as the report will probably find, is that women are disproportionately disadvantaged when it comes to pay, when it comes to men and women. But black women are heavily, heavily and it's discrimination, it's pay discrimination are lower on the pay gap in comparison to other ethnicities. I am almost certain that that's what a report will find on average across certain sectors, across certain businesses, and I think it should be mandatory that organizations report on the ethnicity pay gap, um, diversity and hiring. They need to report on that. And then the gender pay gap, which I don't think is a legal obligation. I need to check it, check that um.

Speaker 1: 16:13

But I say this to say that you can't, we can't, be looking for equality and discuss equality organizations, talk about equality and diversity and then you'll be having like mandatory training on equality and diversity but your actual practices in terms of remuneration does not reflect that. It's it's it's discriminatory, it's hypocrisy, it is um heavily contradicts the, the, the, I'd say the work view, because it's not the world view that pushes equality and talks about pay gaps. But then you don't want to go deeper and look at the um endemic issues that arise when we discuss um, the disparities, um and the disadvantages in the ethnicity pay gap, because if you want to bring things into alignment, you have to go and find the root of the problem. You you can't diagnose a problem that you're not aware exists, or at least you're ignoring the possibility it exists. We know that an ethnicity pay gap places black women as the lowest paid like. There are so many reports and so many things that have been done in the background and reports that I've read that won't carry the weight that an official um equality, um, sorry, ethnicity pay gap gap would would have. And I have spoken about this previously on previous podcast episodes, because I think the equality pay gap um papers over the the very big craps that ethnicity pay gap and reports and would, and I think that it needs to be looked into.

Speaker 1: 17:53

There is no way, as black women, that we can talk about equality from a pay perspective unless organizations are legally obligated to report and then you can hold them to account and you know dawn butler talks about rectification and trying to find ways to close that gap, but it has to be a legal obligation, like paying taxes, otherwise it just won't happen. There needs to be like penalties if you are not actively trying to attempt to close the gap and proactively, there needs to be things that are as a consequence of poor decision making when it comes to how you remunerate your staff. Um, I, I've worked in organizations where I'm training managers. This is before, this is long before. Like this is in my 20s, because I would never do something like that now, not when you're getting paid more than me. That's mad. I should give you all my knowledge. I should basically close your learning gap, but I there was no close on the ethnicity and and gender pay gap. That's mad, um, but yeah, I just think it's. It's an issue, it's a problem. It needs to be discussed, it needs to be closed, it needs to be investigated, and I'd love to speak to dawn butler further about it, because I think it's just something that people know needs to happen. But then we're living in a country where people will openly say racism doesn't exist. So how do you even attempt to talk about ethnicity pay gap reporting and then look to kind of see how you can close it, make it an obligation for organisations to close that gap, unless you accept that racism exists and how it manifests and micro macroaggressions and talk about things like that? A classic example is my viral video on TikTok. People are like it's not just black people, we suffer from it too. This is not flipping struggle, olympics, it isn't. But what this is is don't talk about oh, there's no such thing as racism when you have gaps in equality that need to be closed. That would push a narrative of it, doesn't you know? I personally think we're living in society. It would always exist. But if you want to close the gap on its existence or at least introduce proactive equality, then you need to do the reporting. And you want to close the gap on its existence or at least introduce proactive equality, then you need to do the reporting and you need to name and shame.

Speaker 1: 20:10

I've previously spoken on the podcast about Diane Abbott and she is a powerhouse. She's amazing in terms of her ability to stay relevant in politics is what I admire about her. She, I believe, is currently the oldest serving Member of Parliament member and it was acknowledged in the recent opening of Parliament or was it last year, I can't remember, but they acknowledged it and it's long been spoken about her treatment within the Labour Party and it's long been spoken about about Keir Starmer's treatment of her. Um, you know, not acknowledging certain things, I, in my opinion, and based off my research and kind of what I've read, I think that she's been mistreated by the Labour Party and by Keir Starmer. She doesn't have her back, never has done, and I remember in a previous episode I spoke about this and I don't know if I vocalized this. I probably did, but I definitely did in my head.

Speaker 1: 21:10

I don't understand why Diane Abbott continues to protect Keir Starmer. I understand it from a PC. You know like, at the end of the day you're at work, you're not going to tell your manager that he's a knobhead. I mean, you can find eloquent ways of saying it, but you kind of wouldn't necessarily say it in in that way. But I think something I struggle with is how she puts up with that like for me. I have so many questions that I would ask Diane Abbott and one of them would be how, how have you been able to align yourself with Keir Starmer, understanding your mistreatment in the way that you do because you're experiencing it? How are you able to continue on? And I'm not saying that she could just go to another party, because that's not how it works, but I guess what I am saying is I don't understand how she is asked direct questions about Keir Starmer and she doesn't answer them directly and they go around in circles and in in my mind and, based on what I've seen, her mistreatment. It boils my blood and turns my stomach into knots. So I can't imagine her being the recipient of that mistreatment how it must feel.

Speaker 1: 22:42

I remember when she was interviewed there was like a protest in support of her um, against her mistreatment of by the Labour Party, and she said you know, I don't feel very safe. I don't feel you know, there were so many things that have happened to Diane Abbott and when I sit and think about it, like even that Labour donor who made some very disgusting, hateful and disparaging comments about Diane Abbott and till this day, keir Starmer has never actually fully condemned it. And personally, for me, I can't work under a manager that doesn't have my back to outwardly condemn what is wrong. I won't work for that type of person. I can't because I'm constantly then accepting that I'm in danger and I'm constantly unsafe. And I don't work for that type of person. I can't because I'm constantly then accepting that I'm in danger and I'm constantly unsafe and I don't have the protections of your just moral code to do the right thing. And whilst I accept that not everyone's going to do the right thing, that labour donor and the things that he said, um, were so disgusting, but his money was more important than the protection of a black woman and that was the theme of her mistreatment for me. So how she can return.

Speaker 1: 23:51

And kia star was like oh, you know, the the longest serving mp is all fake and phony and this is what I could never be in politics, ever. There was a point where my dad, my dad, used to call me margaret thatcher. When I was a lot younger. I used to believe it's because Margaret Thatcher, I believe, was a Libran. I never possibly thought it was anything, that I would never take milk from babies Sorry, allegedly, but you know that whole thing about not actually taking milk from babies, but you know what I mean? Those of us who know know the politics back then.

Speaker 1: 24:23

But I just can't. I can't wrap my head round why Diane Abbott allows herself to be put through that. Do you know what I mean? So recently she did an interview and in this interview she talks about racism and she talks about how racism manifests itself, about racism, okay, and she talks about how racism manifests itself in 2023. She had, there was a, there was an interview that she had done and things that she had said that landed her on a suspension. Then she apologized for what she said, only to now have another interview, literally like a couple of weeks ago, like a week or two ago, and for her to basically reaffirm what she had said and like the media were up in arms saying that, um, diane Abbott was being racist. But I just want to read an extract from a post um on Instagram, which I think was also posted on x by Dr Shola, and her handle is Dr Shola Moss one and I'm reading an extract and it's based on the interview that Diana Abbott did and obviously as a response to her now suspension, and she says Dr Soros says antisemitism is not racism. Both coexist and intersect, but not the same experience as any black person, including black Jews, who experience both, can attest to. I stand with Diane Abbott. She she's absolutely spot on and Starmer wanted to a reason to kick her out of labor and I agree.

Speaker 1: 25:57

I think when I listened to Diane Abbott's interview, what I got from that is her appreciation and accepting and vocalizing that there are marginalized groups that experience racism in different ways and, as a black person, you see a black person and you're not, um, trying to figure out if that person is black. If you hold discriminatory views because we present as black and and as a black person, that experience is very different to somebody who is a different race and presents as a different ethnicity group but is a white person, for example. They will experience racism in a different way. I think it's fair to say that, even that BAME melting pot of bame, I've previously said, and I stand by it, that, um, we're not a melting pot for our experiences. We all, uh, when you are from marginalized groups, you all experience racism in a different way. I can't speak to, for example, how an asian person experiences racism. We understand it's racism, but how I experience my racism as a black woman is very different to how an Asian person experiences racism, and that is true.

Speaker 1: 27:11

I think to label Diana Abbott's comments, as someone said it was, like a hierarchy of racism, is misinformed and a complete, deliberate, conceited effort to misunderstand what diane abbott was saying. I don't think anything diane abbott said was racist or to be racist to any marginalized group whatsoever. I think what she's talking about is how racism in the uk and around the world presents and how the experience of racism is different. And she has an informed opinion as a black woman to speak to racism as a black person. So for me, I stand by dr shalom what she said. I believe there was a conceited effort to just get rid of diane abbott and the excuse of her being racist racist in this interview has no basis, because I she was not being racist whatsoever. I listened to it and re-listened to it, and there's other broadcasters who have spoken on this topic and spoken about Diane Abbott's suspension that stand with me in my view that we don't understand what is the problem in terms of what she said. She's from a marginalized group. She's talking about her experiences as a black person and talking about how racism presents differently depending on which marginalized group you belong to. And whilst the the heading of racism and the definition is the same, the experiences of how you experience racism is different.

Speaker 1: 28:40

That being said, can we talk about the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK, rachel Reeves, who, during the parliamentary questions in which Keir Starmer was answering parliamentary questions, rachel Reeves looked visibly distressed, she was crying in tears and you could see that she was not OK. You could see that she was not okay. Um, a lot of people have spoken well, I say a lot of people, but the media have basically said that she's like fighting to keep her job and all of this, all of this, but actually no one knows why she was actually distressed to the point of visible tears. She was, you know, I, I saw it and I was like wow, like this must be really tough, whatever it is that she's going through that have drawn these tears because parliamentary questions are televised. She knows, you know, but you know I get it like you're that emotional that it's expressing itself in tears and distress and that is how you feel when you're sitting in those feelings.

Speaker 1: 29:38

Um, but it took a hit on the stock market as well. The the pound took a hit as a direct reflection, because I think the assumption is that her tenure is being compromised, or she may not. Well, when I say tenure, compromise it, she may not continue to be the translex checker. Um, kia summer came out and said no, like, her job is secure for now. She's fine. I'm not looking to reshuffle or anything, but people were criticizing him for not acknowledging that she was upset. To be fair to him, where she was, um, rachel Reeves was sitting behind him as he's answering the questions. He's not looking over his shoulder to see Rachel Reeves. I don't think he's aware, but I think somebody should have said it so that he was made aware.

Speaker 1: 30:18

But then I also thought about, like, when I saw her and I I was concerned as a viewer. I was like that's tough. Whatever it is that she's going through and her job is not easy, mind you. Her decision making also send me to tears too, when I see the increased tax and the reforms that she's making that are really like punishing us taxpayers. Yeah, I cry those tears too. However, no one likes this.

Speaker 1: 30:42

Well, I don't like to see another person be crying like that, especially on that platform, but I did think about what a privilege it must be for her to be able to cry and to receive the softness and the safety in her tears. As a black woman, I don't know many black women who've been afforded the safety and security to display emotions in that way and to receive empathy in the way that I believe white women receive. Um. The weaponization of white women's tears. I've spoken about before um and how it is used to kind of elicit and draw out the compassion that black women are not afforded, and that is true.

Speaker 1: 31:25

However, I did think about, you know, parliamentary PMQs is the workplace for her and I have had many a times, especially in my 20s, of breaking down in tears, hiding in the toilets in order not to be displaying those tears in front of my colleagues because, number one, I didn't feel safe. To. Number two, I was never afforded any type of softness. But number three, um, I didn't want my tears to be construed as weakness, because that's how black tears are weaponized against us. We're not afforded softness. It's met with aggression. It's met with confronting um. It's met in a confrontational way.

Speaker 1: 32:05

Um, I don't know any black woman that I've ever worked with or any black woman that I speak to or friends with that will ever testify that they've ever felt secure to show and display the level of emotion that rachel reeves had the privilege to display. And I'm I want it to be clear I empathize with her and I never want to see a woman cry, irrespective of her position or who she is, but the reality that she could feel safe enough to cry on that platform. Diana Abbott has been humiliated, she has been demoralized, I'm sure, and she has been discredited on that same platform, and yet she was never met with the softness that I feel that she would have been if she was a white woman. So if Diane Abbott, in response to the disrespect and the humiliation she's received during parliamentary question time or any other session, if she had broke down in tears, she would not get that softness. And in not breaking down in tears doesn't mean that she doesn't hold that upset, but she's never shown that softness either. So that's kind of the things that went through my mind and I was like, wow, you know how, how must it feel to know that your tears will hold space force, the softness that you very much deserve if you're that distressed but that is never the first option that is afforded to black women is the truth. Those are the things and the thoughts that run through my mind. Your jobs, I'm sure, as a listener, your job has been compromised. Your jobs, I'm sure, as a listener, your job has been compromised. How many times have you wanted to cry but know that you can't cry because you're never going to be given or afforded the empathy and softness, the kindness that your tears should elicit? How many times have you, like I've been humiliated before?

Speaker 1: 33:58

I remember years ago when I worked for Capita and my manager, I was on my probation, my probation was going fine I think I've shared this before in earlier episodes. My probation went fine and then I was summoned to a one-to-one meeting in Birmingham, bearing in mind I was working in London, so I get the train to Birmingham, I get there for my one-to-one meeting and bear in mind it's two weeks before, two or three weeks before the end of my probation and I'm sitting there and my I look on the table, my CV's on the table red marked, red marked. You know, like, like um, the register in school, it was like marked up in red, and then my manager at the time, who I thought everything was fine, is there telling me that she's questioning whether I even have a law qualification because of the work I've been doing is not up to standard and I was like, well, when did it stop being up to standard? You've never told me this. Like I'm almost finished my three months probation. Like where is this coming from? All the feedback I've received has been great. Like I don't understand and I felt choked up because that red marking on my CV represented so much for me, like it represented disrespect.

Speaker 1: 35:10

The red represented my blood, sweat and tears to be able to be in a position where I educated myself and had all this work experience on my CV. My CV is for me. I see a CV as an introduction into my work history. It doesn't define my work, history introduces it. It kind of encapsulates the things that I have achieved over my working life and at that time I was still very young, so I hadn't achieved a lot, but I'd achieved enough to deserve the role I had and I would always be a work in progress. Because it was a new industry, a new organization and I needed support to red mark my CV in that way, in that confrontational, in that I felt violated.

Speaker 1: 35:54

It felt like a very, it felt like a violent attack on me as a person to question whether I even had a law degree or whether I went to law school. Do you know how mad that is, given what I sacrificed to do my law degree and to do law school? The blood, sweat and tears, the nights that I sacrificed, the illnesses I suffered as a result of the intensity of my course and then you're sitting there questioning whether I've even achieved it in the first place. That was fucking crazy. That was mad. And when I think about it now, I was like how dare she? She's lucky, you know, because if I am who I am now, then, whoo, I would have lit her ass up. It would have been fire on the mountaintop, because you know how mad it is. Do you think anyone could do that type of thing?

Speaker 1: 36:41

Now, to me, who Are you joking? You have an issue with my performance and then you wait until nearing the end of my probation and, rather than address it with me, you decide that what you're going to do is violate my CV. The same CV that you used to hire me is now you're going to violate me and question whether I told the truth about my academic accomplishments and then, to further hone in the point, you get a red pen, not a blue pen, not a black pen, not a purple, orange or green, no, you decide a red, because that is the intensity of the message that you're sending to me can only be made with a red pen. That's fucking wild, wild. So then I say I use this example, but obviously I'm just putting myself in the emotion that I felt at the time. But I'm using this as an example to say say, I remember like my tears were literally on my tear ducts.

Speaker 1: 37:49

You know when you're so upset that your mouth moves into a frown and every time you try to straighten your mouth, the tears are about to drop. That's how I felt. And there was no movement, there was no empathy, there was no slowness in her approach. It seemed like the more I displayed any form of upset, the more intense she became. It was like, oh, we was on gear three, I'm taking a straight to gear five. That's how it felt. I was like, wow, that must feel safe for you to know that you will get the softness as a result of these emotions that you are literally displaying, wearing and giving A black woman could never, has never and would never receive that level of softness that I know Rachel Rees received, right, even in the media.

Speaker 1: 38:48

Do you know how, how powerful your tears has to be to affect the, the, the stock market, affect the value of the pound? That's wild. History was made that day, boy, because I was like, wow, diana abbott could never and would never feel the softness that that woman, rachel reese, felt. And I say that woman, but I'm just talking like, but I can never imagine how hard it is for Rachel Reeves to do that job. But when we talk about equality, like what? About the equality in treatment? Like, fine, you may not like Diane Abbott, but respect doesn't have to be um, respect doesn't have to be grand. It's just how you deal with people. Keir Starmer and I'm sure that he consoled Rachel Reeves by asking her if she was okay all of that, all of that, the empathy that he's never displayed to, I don't believe, in my humble opinion, he would have ever displayed to Zion Abbott.

Speaker 1: 39:50

Just on the topic of politics across the globe, elon musk has also launched his own political party called the american party. Um, him and trump have had this audacious falling out. Y'all better call me mystic toyah, because I remember when I in earlier podcasts where I spoke about the relationship between Elon and Trump and I just said I just don't know how they can get on long term. Their personalities do not mesh um, they both display narcissistic traits, but the fight to be a leader is very clear, the the need to be on top all the time. Trump. Trump is the leader, the president of the US, and I don't think second position is a position that Elon Musk can play very well, because he decided to blur the lines between business and politics.

Speaker 1: 40:43

I don't think Elon really understood that likability is part of politics as well. It doesn't matter which end of the political spectrum you sit on. Likeability is really important, and Elon is not a likeable character, so their falling out didn't come as any surprise. But how audacious they were in their falling out, especially Elon and the things that he publicly accused Trump of and the very disparaging things that he said about Trump, rightly or wrongly. It's still courageous that he felt that he could say those things without any obvious repercussions and I say obvious because the repercussions has has been felt, but they weren't necessarily as obvious when he had aligned himself with Trump. So we've seen a dip in the money in which Tesla has made their share price dipped. I don't know what their current share price is, but I know that Elon felt the pinch of that relationship in terms of the dip in sales of Tesla cars, so much so that Trump, you know, stood behind him when they were five and six and bought a Tesla, but that didn't help anything and um Trump will tell you he kicked him out of the party. Um, elon Musk will have a different story, but either way, he, elon is no longer leading Doge, he's no longer affiliated with any political relationship with Trump and, in turn, has responded to their fallout by creating this new political party called the American Party.

Speaker 1: 42:33

The law very clear about um, if you're not a citizen, if you're not um, when I say not a citizen, but the fact that he wasn't, elon wasn't born in the us a prerequisite to be the president is that you have to be um a citizen born well, I say citizen, but that word anyway born in the US. And he wasn't. And Trump has made clear that he doesn't like Elon, and there have been calls to deport Elon Musk. I don't know how accurate that is, but given how ICE has been deporting people in a whim and at will, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody had to file papers to try and get Elon Musk deported. The likelihood of that is quite slim, but I think what it shows is the power of Trump, and ICE have been indiscriminate in their approach to deportation mass deportation, which was part and parcel of Trump's manifesto in which he was elected president for the second time of the US. So I think we will continue to see the fallout of that relationship. But I think Elon understands who is the boss, and it's definitely and most certainly isn't Elon Musk Just staying in the US.

Speaker 1: 43:48

Tiktok are reportedly releasing a new US version of the TikTok app ahead of an expected sale of TikTok. Um, you will recall, there was this whole uproar about TikTok and um, long story short. Um, the US are really concerned about access to data as well as other things, and it is a political swipe at China about who wholly owns TikTok, their access to data, as well as how it encroaches on the freedoms and the ability to speak very freely on an app that's not wholly or partly controlled by the US. Effectively, that that is the issue. So, um. You will recall, there was a point where they hadn't reached an agreement with the US about how um TikTok will sell part of its app and it was a really difficult time because I think the undercurrent of it is about control. But the US courts were like listen, in order to continue operating, you need to sell to a US company. So there is an expected sale that is due to happen.

Speaker 1: 45:13

However, tiktok have decided that they they are going to launch a US version and it's set to launch on the 5th of September. So I think what the intention is is to sell part of TikTok. That part of TikTok that will be sold will not allow access of US, of the us um of the tiktok app, but then tiktok themselves are going to launch a more compliant app that it will serve the us, which is crazy because for me and the way my algorithms are set up, I I really enjoy us content. I love the fact that I can citizens I say citizens, I hate that word, but people in the US can access my content and a lot of the videos that I have on my TikTok, very selfishly, have gone viral because of my partly because of my US viewership. I can't lie and even on my podcast podcast platform, the US really do access my platform. So I really appreciate the US and I really appreciate the creativity and the uniqueness of the US content. So to think that they won't be on TikTok and TikTok is set to launch a US specific app. I don't know how long TikTok will survive for I don't know if I will remain on it, especially because the whole idea of TikTok is a social media that's accessed by the masses, irrespective of the country you're in. So that would be a massive blow to TikTok. I think TikTok realize it, hence why they want to create a US version of TikTok for the US market. But I think they're missing key components here. It's the idea that this is a social networking platform that reaches everybody, and the US is part of that everybody, and without the US audience, I don't think TikTok will survive for very long.

Speaker 1: 47:01

So, moving the conversation slightly, I do want to talk about and I have previously spoken about Marcus Fakana, a 19 year old from London, tottenham, north London, where I'm from, and he has finally returned to the UK after spending several months in a Dubai prison. He was jailed last year in Dubai over a consensual sexual relationship with another British teenager while they're on holiday. So I think what we need to be clear about is both parties consented. I believe the girl was a few months younger than Marcus and they had a consensual relationship. As part of that relationship, they had consensual sex. The woman, who is now 18, reportedly did not disclose she was under age at the time. Now that underage, I believe, is 16 years old, which is a consensual age here in the uk.

Speaker 1: 47:58

In the uae, the consensual age to have sex is 18. Um, sorry, I hear my phone going off, um, but um, anyway, um, if you are, like I said, if you're under 18 years old, it is illegal in the UAE to have sex. And Marcus was arrested after a tip-off from the girl's mother um, and that whole story is just unbelievable and I kind of don't want to, like you know, continue talking about that story, because I think the whole thing was just unbelievable. The girl's mother um had attempted the first time to get Marcus arrested and failed. He could prove that the relationship was consensual through text messages and she waited until her and her daughter and, I believe, whoever else she was on holiday with in in dubai had left dubai, contacted the authorities and said ah, you know you're saying that marcus had a consensual relationship, but they had sex and in the uae the consensual age of sex is 18. My daughter is 16 and you need to arrest him. And he was arrested, um, and yeah, he was charged with having um sex with somebody who's underage. But I do need to make clear that 16 is the age of consent. Here in the uk, um and I did in a previous episode said it's so important to also appreciate and understand the laws of a country that you're going to. But when it comes to the consensual age and that, how reasonable is it that one would think that just because the consensual age is 16, it wouldn't be 16 in the UAE? Like, I don't um think that Marcus um did anything wrong in accordance to the UK law, but based based on the law in Dubai, it is against the law to have sex, albeit consensual, with anyone under the age of 18. So he was convicted.

Speaker 1: 50:01

The whole story is a really sad story about how the girl's mum came to know that Marcus had had sex with her daughter. Anyway, he has been freed, he has returned after receiving a royal pardon, um, and I really hope that marcus is in therapy and getting the therapy that he is going to need. And it's just a sad state of events and a sad story to read that this girl's mother went out of her way to punish marcus for having a consensual relationship, and a consensual sexual relationship with her daughter. And we can't ignore the undercurrent of race here. The girl that had sex with Marcus is an Asian girl, marcus is a black boy and race plays a part. I think it'd be really ignorant to think that race didn't play a part in the motivations of the mother, albeit culture as well, and it's just. The whole story is just shocking.

Speaker 1: 51:01

But out of all of this, I'm so glad that Marcus has returned home and he did receive a royal pardon, and much of that would have been down to the foreign office. Um, I don't know how much of a role the foreign secretary, david lammy, played in in marcus's release. I just know that I I wish marcus didn't have to go to prison to be released, because the trauma started at the point in which he was arrested and the trauma will stay with him, I'm sure, for the rest of his life. But I do hope he finds happiness and he's able to rebuild his life and and I hope he realizes that this was very much about the girl's mum. It wasn't necessarily about his decision making albeit he has learned very tough lessons but he had a consensual sexual relationship with this girl.

Speaker 1: 51:50

They were both on of the age of consent here in the UK, not the age of consent in the UAE. And you know, it's a teachable moment even for me to teach my daughter about the laws of the countries that she's going to go go to the, the ones that would apply to her, and I think it's really important about company one keeps and you know, in as much as you want to be free spirited in your relationships, there's certain questions you have to ask and you have to be aware of very cultural differences and cultural norms of the person that you're with and the country you're going to. And I think you just need to be informed, like when you're having a sexual relationship. It's a massive responsibility of having sex, um. I personally think 16. Is that an age? Um, a reasonable age of consent here in the UK? I don't think so because I think the repercussions of it and to fully appreciate what sex is. I think a 16 year old is too intoxicated with hormones and emotions to fully make informed decisions, but that's just my view, having thought about the law around sex and things like that. Um, it's just kind of crazy because I think the age of alcohol you can sell alcohol, I believe is 21, but the age of consent, um, age of consent in this country is 16. Up until recently, you couldn't vote until you were 18, which has now been reduced to 16. I think the law needs to be looked at in terms of all these things that I've mentioned and being reasonable in the expectation of what a 16-year-old, 18 or 21-year-old can process the decision making and how the law kind of reflects where society is today, um, around those ages. So that's just my opinion.

Speaker 1: 53:42

Um, we're heading now back to the US and I want to talk about Sean Combs. So I don't know if you had been following the trial. Um, it's probably one of the biggest trials since OJ and even maybe R Kelly, but I think the trial was kind of bigger than R Kelly. But just because of kind of what he had been accused of um, a lot of the witness testimony I think the charges were shocking, but also Sean Combs' lifestyle came under scrutiny and whilst you could do what you want behind closed doors, within the boundaries of the law. I think Sean Combs has never really had a good reputation in the music industry. I do have my doubts about his alleged non-involvement in the murder of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.

Speaker 1: 54:38

I have my own theories um the death of Kim Porter of pneumonia. I don't buy it. I don't believe it. A healthy, agile woman suddenly is struck down by pneumonia, allegedly after allegedly publicly um stating that she was writing a book on her life which would include sean combs, allegedly um. She has a manuscript which and a laptop which has disappeared. Allegedly she dies of what they're dubbing natural causes. It's just the maths isn't math thing. I like logic, I like to understand. There have been calls to exhume um Kim Porter's body to have another post-mortem and actually really look into whether there was something on toward that happened or whether she really did die of natural causes. Albie Shaw, who was a long term partner and friend of Kim Porter, has also kind of raised doubt as to kind of how Kim Porter could have died of pneumonia and he himself kind of cheated death which he believes he is poisoned. He was poisoned and he has alluded to um. Anyway, it's all alleged at the end of the day, um, but in terms of Sean Combs.

Speaker 1: 56:05

I, we, we, we had witness testimony from Cassie, who was the prosecution's star witness. Now I do want to make clear that Cassie had um separately sued Sean Combs, um before this case was brought. It was a federal case, by the way, um and she had wanted a settlement with Sean Combs and I think they had reached a stalemate allegedly and then she went public and he settled her. I can't remember how many millions he settled her and I don't want to just say off the top of my head I have written it down somewhere but I can't find it but it was a healthy amount of money, but it would no way, you know, kind of patch over or camouflage the trauma that Cassie went through. Her testimony on the stand was so vulnerable and, in my opinion, very accurate. I do think that when people are kind of having think pieces about Cassie's relationship with Kim Porter or kind of what that relationship was, I think you're detracting from the main topic here.

Speaker 1: 57:13

Sean Combs is a chronic, dangerous narcissist, in my opinion, and I believe he's very powerful, has very powerful friends. I believe that his bedroom antics are kind of they're sordid, they are dangerous, and he was obviously indicted federally. He was arrested in New York and when they arrested he knew that there was a warrant for his arrest. So him coming to New York, I believe it was to hand himself in. Why he didn't do that, maybe he didn't have the opportunity to, I don't know. But they found baby oil in his room and they found evidence that would allude to another freak off that he was trying to do before he would hand in allegedly, which is all very bizarre. But if you understand how narcissists work, it's very on brand but it's still hot. But in terms of sean combs's charges, so he was charged with racketeering conspiracy and it carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. He was also charged with sex trafficking by forced fraud or coercion. That carried a maximum sentence of a life in prison.

Speaker 1: 58:26

The third charge was transportation for the purposes of prostitution maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The fourth charge was transportation for the purposes of prostitution maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The fourth charge was no, sorry. The fifth charge, I beg your pardon, was the transportation for the purposes of prostitution. Now Sean Combs was found guilty of the third charge, which is transportation for the purposes of prostitution. So that carries a sentence, a maximum sentence of 10 years. He was also found guilty on the fifth charge, of transportation for the purposes of prostitution, so that carries a sentence, a maximum sentence of 10 years. He was also found guilty on the fifth charge, of transportation for the purposes of prostitution. Again carries a maximum charge, a maximum sentence of 10 years. So two out of the five.

Speaker 1: 59:03

Now, just, I'm saying this in very easy terms because there are complexities to the charges terms, because there are complexities to the charges, bearing in mind that um, through the trial, the prosecution had to kind of change part of the charges. It's all kind of how I get why they did it. Because it became complicated and the easier it is for the jury to understand is the more likely that they would get kind of convictions. But in any case, um he the, the charges he was um found guilty of are the lesser of the other three charges. So the lesser in a sense that both of those charges that he was found guilty of carry a maximum of 10 years each, which is 20 years, whereas the others one of them, carries life in prison and the other two carry 10. Um, no, sorry, the other two charges carry a life sentence and one of the other charges would have carried 10 years. So in a way, the maximum sentence he could get on both charges is 20 years in total. So it's the lesser of the charges.

Speaker 1: 1:00:12

But I guess what I'm confused at is, if you are found guilty for transportation for the purposes of prostitution, I don't understand why you wouldn't be found guilty of the sex trafficking and the racketeering would have, and conspiracy would have came from those around him who facilitated the transportation of prostitution. But I know that it's very intricate, very complicated um the us legislation. I'm not going to pretend to be a student of it because I really am not but um sean combs then, um, his lawyers on his behalf petitioned for him to be released on tag a strict license, bail conditioned, pending his sentence. And the judge was like so you're actually asking me to release him now on bail, on license, strict license conditions. And they were like, yeah, now I knew, when the lawyers asked, that the likelihood would be quite slim, because when he was first arrested and applied for bail, he was denied because they believed that he would participate in witness tampering and also, as well, the degree of what he was charged with versus the safety of witnesses and potential witnesses was high. So the judge said no. So the likelihood now that, even though he was convicted of two of the five charges, that he would then be released on bail pending the sentence was it was. It was a stretch at best.

Speaker 1: 1:01:44

Um, I think the judge made the right decision because, even though the the case is over pending sentencing, he still could have interfered, been revenge sought, revenge, all types of things and, I believe, cass. It was alleged that cassie's lawyers actually wrote to the judge and said do not release him pending sentencing. Irrespective of what he puts up as surety, he's a dangerous man. At the end of the day, it may be the lesser of the charges, but they're still victims out there and the star witness being Cassie, as well as the other witness, have testified of how dangerous um um Sean Combs is or was, and I'm surmising here right. So anyway, he was rejected in terms of seeking bail pending sentence in. He will be sentenced 3rd of october, so I will definitely be tuned in to see how long he gets.

Speaker 1: 1:02:38

I personally think he obviously time served will count towards the sentence. I do think he could get between six to ten years. That's what I think um, and I also want to say that he never testified in his trial. Nobody testified in his defense and I don't know what that says in terms of speaking to his character. He has never been a positive character, like a lot of the relationships that he has had platonic friendships or whatever and a lot of the relationships that he has had platonic friendships or whatever and a lot of the things that he has done in terms of artists not giving them their dues, mistreatment of people I can't imagine that somebody would stand on a stand, come to a stand and testify of how great he is when the charges are and the witness testimony speaks to something completely different. It gives very much jack jacklin hyde. So he did not testify in his own trial.

Speaker 1: 1:03:41

Um, I think that was a right decision because I definitely think that he could have put his foot in it. I know there's a legal term for it, but I can't remember it right now. Um, but it's just sad because when you think about like I don't know about you, but when I think about like growing up, and when I think about my youth and my childhood in terms of music Path Daddy was a big influence in terms of my music. Like, I was a huge fan of Mace. I loved Loon, so a lot of the people that were on the Bad Boys label was very much part of my musical history in terms of my upbringing and what I was listening to Hollywood.

Speaker 1: 1:04:33

But I think that the music industry were very aware of P Diddy. I don't think he did much to hide it. I think that he has tapes of people, um, allegedly these this is my opinion, I and I think that he has. It's funny, isn't it? Because him and Jay-Z were allegedly really close friends. They used to do the white parties together. Jay-z's allegedly really close friends. They used to do the white parties together. Jay-z completely distanced himself and I don't necessarily think I don't want to sit here and think I don't think Jay-Z would have known the extent, but I do think there's a lot of musicians that would have known that Diddy's a little freaky. Now, being a little freaky versus, you know, trafficking and all these other charges is very different. But I do think that Diddy has compromised and I did say Diddy, sean Combs has compromised a lot of people in terms of the relationships he had with them, because I do think that there are going to be those relationships I didn't know the full extent of of Diddy um, and I do think that Jay-Z has distanced himself from, like Kanye West, distant himself from Diddy, and I think that's the right approach, because I don't think tackling it and discussing his friendships with them would would serve him. But I think what the what the trial of P Diddy did teach us is how dark the music industry really is, because he could not have done this all on his own, like his circle were complicit. But I think that the people who would have known were also complicit too, because they didn't speak out. You know they didn't they. They didn't testify, they didn't corroborate any of the witness testimony. So silence is complicity as far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 1: 1:06:12

So I don't know if a lot of you follow me on TikTok, you should Toya underscore Washington, or is it Toya Washington? All one word, it's one or the other. Sorry, it's a bit late, so y'all have to just cope with me right now. Okay, I have a two-year-old toddler that's going through terrible twos. I'm a career mum and I'm wearing several hats. Honey, I am tired a lot of the time.

Speaker 1: 1:06:33

Okay, on my TikTok, I did speak about the whole smiling and being commanded to smile by a colleague in my team and I spoke about how I dealt with it, but I want to take it a little bit further because something happened recently and I do want to kind of tie it all together for you. So one thing I've always done on this podcast is spoken about advocating for yourself. I have so many episodes where I talk about you being a brand, the power of advocating for yourself, how you do it, how to be strategic as you navigate the world of work Because as women, we have to navigate very smartly. As black women, we have to be very, very strategic and we understand the environments in which we're working in and we understand micro, macro aggressions, we understand racial undertones, we understand the intersectionality between race and gender and how it plays its role in the world of work.

Speaker 1: 1:07:26

So for me, the podcast has been an opportunity for me to share my experiences, learning lessons, how I've dealt with things, the success I've seen in my career because I've been able to advocate for myself, and what success looks like, how I define success for myself, because we all have different definitions of success, but for me, I know that being able to maintain peace has been part of my success, that being able to maintain peace has been part of my success like that is part of when I think of, oh, my career and success. Peace is one of them, because I demand it, especially because I've worked in places that operate in chaos and I've been able to take what I need from them and run. And then I pride myself now and being able to anticipate chaos, being able to ask the right questions at interview, um, being forthright in the questioning, understanding that interviews are mutual. That being said, one of the. I have a few reasons why I always advocate for myself, but one of them is you need to make sure, in my opinion, that you address certain things because, number one, you need to advocate and address those things, but also because you don't know whose ears it's going to land in when someone says, oh, I said this to Toya and oh yeah, she didn't react, and then suddenly that person thinks they have a license to disrespect you on top of the person who disrespected you. You know it's. It's just like a domino effect, and this could not be more true than um when I addressed my colleague, for telling me to smile.

Speaker 1: 1:08:59

Now I have another colleague and in my same team, and we're going to call him malcolm. Um, I don't know if you guys watch malcolm in the middle. I don't know why I'm naming this guy Malcolm, but he just looks like in another world that he could be called Malcolm. Nothing wrong with the name Malcolm. And this particular colleague was there when I was commanded to smile. He was there when I addressed it. He was there and witnessed my reaction, so clearly he knows that's not a road to go down. But one thing I find with white men and this has been a consistent experience of white South African men personally is I expect them to have an elevated understanding about race gender equality. I do have in the back of my mind an expectation, but in my conscious mind I don't expect it. If that makes sense. Mind, I don't expect it. If that makes sense, um.

Speaker 1: 1:09:58

So I um I got a team's message from my colleague, malcolm and he he was asking me something as part of my job and I didn't understand what he was saying. And that day I was downstairs because my housekeeper was upstairs, um, in in my office space. So I decided to come downstairs. I had my headscarf on, I was dressed accordingly, so I decided then to call Malcolm and I said to Malcolm hi, malcolm, I hope you're doing well. Good morning, I'm just calling you.

Speaker 1: 1:10:25

I didn't really understand your team's message and then Malcolm said, are you happy? To which I replied pardon, he said are you happy? I said, okay, so we're doing this. Okay, I said to him Malcolm, I just want to be really clear with you about something. First of all, my happiness has nothing to do with you. My intention was to call you to seek clarification of the question you asked me on Teams. That didn't, was not clear and made no sense to me, and I've called you back to help you with something, and you questioning whether I'm happy or not is disingenuous number one, because I know you're alluding to this whole smile and I thought you would have learned the lesson on observation.

Speaker 1: 1:11:12

I think it's highly disrespectful of you to ask me this question and tap dance around this whole concept of me smiling, and I'm not understanding how my happiness or whether I'm happy, whether I'm smiling, any of these things. I don't know why it's so important to you, other than for you, to have this expectation that I'm supposed to perform for you and I'm supposed to appease you, because you clearly have an uneasiness around me and I can only conclude that uneasiness has to do with maybe you inhabiting a low self-esteem, because a confident person wouldn't care about whether I'm smiling or not, or whether I'm happy or not. We are in a professional environment and we have a professional relationship or not, or whether I'm happy or not, we are in a professional environment and we have a professional relationship. However, when you're making these comments, as you have done before, you have made little snippy comments in meetings in which I have ignored, because you have been, um, it hasn't been as direct as I would need it to be to address it in those rooms. But I want to be clear about something that when you're making these comments which has now um reach a crescendo in you asking me if I am happy, but when you're saying these things, you don't know, um, how other people are perceiving what you're saying. But your intention is laced in humor. But also it's your intention to humiliate, discredit and to make me uncomfortable so that I can make you comfortable. When you're telling these so-called jokes and the recipient of the joke is not finding it funny, it becomes an insult and I take issue with your attempts to insult me, especially when I deal with every single person I interact with with respect. Therefore, I expect it back.

Speaker 1: 1:13:00

I need that reciprocity, especially in a professional environment, and you're saying these things to people, these snippy little comments that you're making to people that don't even know me. So I'm and as I'm talking is quiet I said a few weeks ago you made a comment and somebody was giving feedback about a meeting myself and another colleague had attended in person, and you said your response on a call of six people of director level, you decided to turn around and say, oh, so Toya actually left her office and attended in person. You're implying that I never leave my office, which implies that I'm not a team player, I don't collaborate and I don't deliver and I don't do my work. Now, one of the people that were on that call this was his second week in the company. He has never interacted with me on a professional level and you're setting a tone in his mind about how I do my work and deliver it and it's unacceptable. When you made that snippy comment I cannot remember my response, but I know I responded, but not in a way that fully put you in your place, but enough for you to know that that comment was unacceptable. You seem to not have taken that and today we've reached an eclipse.

Speaker 1: 1:14:14

We're now on a call between you and I. You're asking me if I'm happy and I'm here to tell you that I do not accept these inferences about how I deliver my work, because when it comes to my job, I do it well and I deliver every single time. So I don't take, I don't, I don't internalize this. This is very much a you problem, but now it becomes an us problem, because now you're seeking to validate my happiness and he said um, you know, toya, I just want to say that, um, I understand where you're coming from and I do apologize.

Speaker 1: 1:14:50

I hadn't intended to offend you, but I thought that we had that type of relationship where I could make those type of jokes. I says well, first of all, I want to be clear about our relationship. You and I would never have any interactional type of relationship outside of professional, but outside of the world of work. You and I would never, ever, ever have a relationship. You're not the type of person that I would seek to converse exchange. I just wouldn't. So the fact that we have a professional relationship means it stays professional. Like, just because I am approachable, I smile, I laugh. If something is funny does not mean that that is a license to disrespect me. That's number one. I said number two.

Speaker 1: 1:15:41

Every time you say these things that you think are funny, you're writing checks that you cannot cash and if you have an issue with my happiness or how I even deliver my work, take it up with the directors, go to my line manager or escalate it to HR. But what you're not going to do is seek to discredit me in front of other team members and then seek to then make me uncomfortable by asking me if I am happy. You've also made references to my work environment, about how dark the light is or how light the light is on one occasion, and I have made it clear even in my non-verbal communication that is unacceptable. And now we have reached this penultimate point where I'm telling you under under no be, under no illusion, if this continues, we will be addressing this formally. So consider this the warning. And he was like I completely understand and he went completely red. I'm sure there were some other things I said as well, but again I'm tired, so I'm just literally closing my eyes, trying to remember here, and I'm going to be really clear with you. For some of you maybe listening for the first time, you may think I'm being quite harsh, but this is a harshness that we need to embody.

Speaker 1: 1:17:06

There is a delivery in the way we say these things and don't get it twisted. In the moment you may not know what to say, but you can trust and believe. A character like malcolm will re-offend. 110 because when he um, kind of um, made the comment in, in, in, in a wider audience where he said, oh, toyah left her office, I don't understand why he thought that was funny. But let me tell you, since I put him firmly in his place, when it comes to me, in any he doesn't say a word, and it's funny how he kind of disappears into the background when you take his clown status away from him, because every workplace has a clown, but every workplace will have a clown that tries to target somebody, um, as part of his, as part of their clownery, and I don't accept it. And people say, oh, you can't take a joke, fuck that shit, fuck it.

Speaker 1: 1:18:02

A joke is not received by humiliation. If you're telling a joke and the recipient is not laughing and you're the only one person laughing, or others are laughing but the recipient ain't laughing, it's an insult, that's it. You don't get to measure what I I believe is a joke or not. You don't. The fact that you're telling one I'm supposed to receive and it hasn't landed. It's not a fucking joke.

Speaker 1: 1:18:27

Simple, and in the workplace I am strict about that. If you think that we have developed a relationship, it needs to be predicated on respect first. Then, when you're telling your jokes, your jokes will be respectful. Can you see when your basis is respect, your jokes are respectful. Simple, simple. And I want to take this a step further just to let you know something when people are saying these things to degrade you, to humiliate you, to make you feel less than in that type of audience, you need to be thinking about your brand.

Speaker 1: 1:18:59

You are a brand. I've told you guys this in previous episodes. It's been a running theme in a lot of the older episodes about being a brand, and I'm even sure there's an episode title that has brand in it that I speak to it, but in any case, I'm a brand. Yeah, I am a brand, you are a brand. It doesn't matter what job you do. You're a brand. And what is that brand? It's based on your reputation in terms of how you hold yourself out.

Speaker 1: 1:19:26

Um, I think one thing that is really like important is how powerful, especially as a black woman, we are in our skin, our character, our womanhood, and how important it is for us to um, I think, how important it is for us to kind of navigate in in some difficult spaces, but without losing ourselves in the process. And part of losing yourself is when you start ignoring behaviors in the hope they'll go away, and that becomes now the tagline of how people address you. No, this is not a reality show. These motherfuckers need to understand, and I say motherfuckers because the old Toya, the early 20s Toya that came out of university, would have internalized that so much and would have said nothing and would become the source of ridicule to not just Malcolm but to all his adjacent clown clown friends that went to clown school. And then that would be my reputation and the new people joining will address me as such. The respect will be in the bin, and it can never happen, never, never happen.

Speaker 1: 1:20:40

One thing I'm going to tell you is this you see me, I work, I'll go with anyone. I am chilledcom, they tell. They tell me all the time I'm I'm relaxed. When it's time to do my job, I do my job, but when I'm chilled, I don't get involved in the chaos. I don't get involved in the gossip. I'm not involved in it. People come and tell me stuff all the time but I'm like I'm like a fortress. You wouldn't even know. I know stuff. You would just come and tell me. You think you're telling me for the first time. I fucking know it already. But what I I don't do is participate in the tomfoolery, the bullshit. I'm just not in it. My name is never there, never. So how dare you try to make me part of your clown show in your fucking circus? I, I'm not gonna, I can't.

Speaker 1: 1:21:29

I ripped him a new one. I did because I thought to myself clearly you're not getting this, so. So the only way to address you is with the firm directness that you deserve. What he's lucky is that I didn't do it in front of an audience like I did my other colleague. This guy is so damn lucky and I knew in my mind that this clown would perform again and I would get an opportunity to rip him a new one, and I did. Clown would perform again and I would get an opportunity to rip him a new one, and I did.

Speaker 1: 1:21:57

He will never, ever recover from what I said. Anytime he sees my name, he will pause first. He will pause because what we're not going to do is because I have to work with you and I'm tolerating you. You now think that that becomes a license to tell stupid jokes that are very expensive. You're writing these checks that you cannot cash. Don't be mad for free, um, yeah, so that's how I addressed that, and I hope that this informs you about setting boundaries and expectations in terms of how you interact and the reasons why you have to, in my opinion, advocate for yourself.

Speaker 1: 1:22:37

Now, when I said spoke to this guy, I never raised my voice, never swore, never got angry, but I was firm and I feel like what makes people uncomfortable is the firmness of the truth and and when you speak in honesty, providing people become uncomfortable because they can't hide behind anything. When you show them their nakedness in HD, and what happens is you in their minds, become a problem, because you've confronted something that makes them uncomfortable and it's the truth, because some people operate in falsehood. They operate in burying their heads, they operate in pretending I am not that person. I'm not and I'm telling you right now if the next person decides to walk that road, I will do the same thing until it gets round to everybody.

Speaker 1: 1:23:32

Don't fuck with Toya. Just leave her the fuck alone. She's here to do her job. She's here to do her job. She's here to get on. She's here to do what she has to do. But outside of that, all of this nonsense is not gonna run with me. Like what the fuck is this? I survived childbirth. I've survived trauma. I'm no contact with my family. Don't fuck with me, because it is peace that I have grabbed and stored. It's not. Now you're coming with your nonsense, chaos. They're coming to disturb my peace and you think you're gonna get away with it. I will address it and you will not do it again. Moving on, moving on. It's tough, isn't it? It's just fucking exhausting. I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 1: 1:24:15

After I had that conversation, I was fucking exhausted. I had to blend some juices. I had to juice mate. God needs fucking energy and iron. I was like what the fuck is this? But my average non-black friend? I don't know. They deal with stuff similar, similar, but not with the intersectionality of race as well. They don't. The racial element of it is fucking exhausting, because I know they don't do this to non-white women. They may. They may display certain behaviours in other ways, but they really respect the fragility that a white woman would show, for example, or a non-black. They show empathy in a different way to non-black women that they don't show to black women, and that nuance is fucking exhausting as well. I can't lie. Show empathy in a different way to non-black women that they don't show to black women, and that nuance is fucking exhausting as well. I can't lie. Hey, god, can we talk about candice owens? Okay, short form, because there's a short story.

Speaker 1: 1:25:08

I never really used to like candice owens because I thought she was anti-black. A lot of the rhetoric that I felt that she was pushing to me was anti-black. A lot of the rhetoric that I felt that she was pushing to me was anti-black. But then I realized actually, no, um, when I actually took the time to listen to her, my husband was like no, toya, you need to like, listen to her. Don't get um, don't get distracted by soundbites out of context and don't don't um be distracted from how they try to discredit the messenger when the message isn't what the messenger is communicating. So I took the time, did my research, listened to her and she's not anti-black. You know what she is Anti-bullshit. That's what she is.

Speaker 1: 1:25:50

And I stand with somebody who is going to walk in their truth. I stand with somebody who is going to walk in their truth and whether it's good, bad, in between ugly, horrible, she walks in her truth and she is a journalist, an investigative journalist in its true form. I think her delivery is amazing. I think her attention to detail needs to be studied. I think she's fearless, I think she's confident. I think she's confident, I think she's bold, I think she has tenacity and, more important, I think she stands on the side of the truth. I don't always believe in the same things that she does, but I actually respect what she believes in and how she communicates those beliefs.

Speaker 1: 1:26:33

She has covered everything from um Epstein to the Macrons and, you would have seen, recently she's been catapulted back in the media because she did a I think it's a three-part series on the Macrons, um, the president of France and his wife, and she has investigated and she is alleging and it's all allegedly. She's alleging that macron, president, macron's wife is actually, was actually born a man. So she goes into detail like and I mean she does investigative journalism in its truest form. For those of us who understand that the the genesis of investigative journalism would appreciate the intricate detail in which candace owens goes into and I'm talking about from when macron's wife was born now, um candace owens then shared very recently that she had received allegedly and it's all alleged, right, because I don't haven't seen the proof, but I believe her because she's not going to come and say that and be lying um, but she obviously all that she's alleging she backs up with proof, right. But then she alleges that macron had come on a state visit to the us, spoken to trump about candace owens and the um three-parter that she'd done on the podcast and, long story short, trump, trump's representatives got in contact with Candace Owens.

Speaker 1: 1:28:17

That eventually ended up with Candace Owens speaking to Donald Trump, trump basically saying, allegedly, can you go easy on Macron? He's not happy with what you've said and I'd actually, can you stop? Allegedly. And Candace Owens basically said, well, no, stop allegedly. And candice owens basically said, well, no, and I will not share this because I know that you know there are lives at stake in terms of the conversations you're talking about with ukraine and um palestine. So I'm gonna let your conversations continue without macron allegedly using me as a bargaining chip for those conversations, but I will, when I think I'm able to divulge this to my audience that you have called me on behalf allegedly called me on behalf of macron, allegedly, um, but what has happened actually very recently is Candice Owens had received a cease and desist letter from allegedly from Macron's lawyers and now she's been hit with a lawsuit, have retained a lawyer and have are suing Candice Owens for defamation because of what Candice has alleged in her three-part docu-series, if you like, about the macrons and President Macron's wife, who Candice Owens is alleging was born a man, and they she's alleging quite a few things.

Speaker 1: 1:29:58

So I definitely will try and put the link in the show notes so you can follow that if you're interested. The evidence is damning. But what has happened, then is it's raised the profile of these allegations because they are allegations at the end of the day, but as part of investigative journalism, as it is supposed to be, candace owens has provided evidence for everything that she's alleging. So, and also as well, the macrons have sued people in france who have alleged the same thing and have won, but recently overturned it was overturned that that they had won on appeal and Candace Owens has basically recently said listen, you're suing me. Fine, you're entitled to sue me if that's what you want to do free speech, freedom of speech here in the US. However, I hope we go into discovery, because I will be asking for your birth certificate, mrs Macron. I will be asking you to give documentation to prove that what I'm alleging is a lie. Show me pictures of you raising your children. Show me evidence. Show me your birth certificate.

Speaker 1: 1:31:07

Now some people say, well, why does Macron's wife need to do that? Well, they are suing her now and actually, as part of free speech, candace Owens can allege what she likes and support it with evidence. But to allege, but to accuse Candace Owens of allegedly defamation and allegedly cyberbullying is a stretch, especially when Candace is in the US. They're in France, the're in France. The laws in France and the US in terms of freedom of speech and the ability to investigate things and share findings, it's very different in the US. So I tend to hook seeing how that develops. And one thing about Candice Owens is she's asking really simple questions that could kind of discredit her allegations if the macrons would provide that. And in discovery, where they exchange evidence, candace owens is going to ask for these things. So I I think that this lawsuit has actually is actually setting the macrons up for a fail, especially if they're not able to provide evidence that disputes candice owens's claims.

Speaker 1: 1:32:22

So, yeah, I'm going to put the link in the show notes. Go and have a listen. It makes for interesting listening. Um, candice owens also has a short docu-series on epstein and that's still ongoing and it's just so interesting. Glendale Maxwell, the whole client lists, everything like. She goes into detail and I'm a massive, massive fan of Candice Owens. I love listening to her. I I just think she's brilliant. So I definitely think you should open up your mind to the possibility that you could like her too, just staying on course in in the US.

Speaker 1: 1:32:56

I want to start by saying I am a massive fan of Ralph Lauren. I'm in my Ralph Lauren era and I spoke about this on Instagram. I'm bringing it to the podcast. Ralph Lauren as a brand has always supported um. In my view, black history in terms of um, the black history through fashion, um, and I love the, how they work with black models, how they use fashion as a messaging um, as a voice of black history, and I feel like, if you follow the history of Ralph Lauren in terms of what they've done, how they've collaborated, it's just, it's timeless fashion. I love that whole kind of preppy type look oversized. I love all of that and Ralph Lauren really speaks to where I am at right now when it comes to like fashion stuff.

Speaker 1: 1:34:00

But I I'm talking about Ralph Lauren because I previously mentioned in a previous episode that they had hired a new creative director for the Ralph Lauren polo line, james M Jetta. James M Jetta, um. He was also the first Black creative director in the brand's 57-year history, which, again, I just think to myself why has it taken so long? But you know, we move because I believe that if you want to be inclusive, you need to include, and whilst you have worked with Black models, you know you tell a story about black history. You need black people to tell the story. So the fact that it's taken 57 years is mad. However, we acknowledge the greatness of James M Jetta. Jetta's career at Ralph Lauren began as an intern and he worked his way up to become a design associate and then lead design um or lead designer. Sorry, he was part of the design team for the 2022 Morehouse and Spellman um colleges collection by Polo Ralph Lauren, and I'm so pissed because I wasn't in my Ralph Lauren era so I missed that whole Spellman and um Morehouse college collection. However, they've just recently relieved relieved, I can't talk they.

Speaker 1: 1:35:20

Ralph Lauren has recently released a new collection called Oak Bluffs, and Oak Bluffs has been a haven for Black communities, including alumni of historical Black colleges and universities historical Black colleges and universities HBCUs like Morehouse and Spelman for more than a century. In creating a collection inspired by this town, ralph Lauren celebrates not just Oak Bluff as a place, but the spirit of community it represents, one that resonates with anyone who has ever sought a home away from home, and the collection speaks to kind of the black elite in black luxury. And I love the oak bluffs, the retreat, the idea of family community restoration as part of this collection and the themes of this collection. I think what I also love is that, even though it's the Oak Bluffs collection, it's also collaborating again with Morehouse and Spellman, and I love historical Black colleges and what they represent and the history and for me, I'm so pissed off that I missed the collection when it was just Spellman and Morehouse in 2022. However, as part of Oak Bluffs, they've kind of reconnected, as you like, and it's a collection I think that you should definitely go and check out, especially if you're into kind of that.

Speaker 1: 1:36:49

Look, I asked ChatGPT if I would have been more of a Morehouse or a Spellman and just based on the things I had said to ChatGPT, and I'm more of a Morehouse or a Spellman. And just based on the things I had said to chat GPT, and I'm more of a Morehouse girl. And actually, the more I read about historical black colleges like Morehouse and Spellman, I'm definitely more of a Morehouse. However, I appreciate Spellman, what it represents and its history. Saying all of this, I have purchased a Morehouse sweatshirt and a Morehouse um, yeah, a Morehouse sweatshirt and a Spellman sweatshirt um. So that will be my autumn collection and I love Ralph Lauren anyway, and I love the fact that they have a new creative director for the polo line. So definitely go check it out. I definitely wanted to speak about it here because I am a Ralph girl through and through.

Speaker 1: 1:37:35

So I just want to briefly touch on Naomi Osaka and her post-game interview, where she really was hard on herself in a way that was uncomfortable to watch, because I think for me it was uncomfortable to watch because I am my own worst critic and I do the critiquing in my mind. I don't, you know, say it on front street. I'm protective of myself, I'm protective of my mental health and I think what was really sad about Osaka's interview was she was so vulnerable in a way that could only ever elicit empathy from the most stone cold person, and she talks about herself in such a negative way and you can see that she is a heartbeat away from tears and people were talking about, oh, you know, she's just had a baby. Maybe, maybe she has postpartum, you don't know what she's going through. Osaka had said that she has nothing positive to say about herself, but it's something that she's working on. And she was basically in a press conference after losing her third round match at Wimbledon and she went on to say that the only time that she was happy was celebrating her daughter's birthday.

Speaker 1: 1:38:59

And the whole interview was sad but uncomfortable, because I think that that level of vulnerability typically I know she's mixed and she's um, half black, um, and she she identifies as a mixed race woman, but I definitely could relate, just on the left, you know, let's look at her as a woman first, right before we start kind of what the media were doing was and think pieces is, you know, spoke about the fact that as black women, we're not afforded those vulnerabilities which I have spoken about in terms of Rachel Reeves and it applies here as well. But just as a woman who's just not long had a child she was literally peaking in her career and there were so many think pieces about whether she was having a child at the right time, which couldn't have been great for her to to read and review and hear. But in losing the game and kind of that mentality that she would have to have to go into a game with such vulnerability, it's tough because she already doesn't think very highly of herself and then to lose a match in which you're now doing the post-mortem of is difficult, irrespective of anything else. But I think what was uncomfortable is hearing how those of us who maybe have had traumas, who are high functioning hearing that was like for me, like putting a spotlight on how vulnerable we are, probably in our own heads and don't feel safe enough to say. But I think what was really upsetting is hearing how much she really had nothing nice to say about herself. But I was glad that she knows that that's something that she needs to work on and is working on. But I think what is also important, it and and how I want to take this into the world of work is sometimes we're just made to feel like we are nothing in the world of work.

Speaker 1: 1:41:10

And when you find the strength to leave, or when you're in the thick of it and you're doing the post-mortem of a meeting gone wrong, or you're having extended probation, or you're reviewing your objectives and you're not meeting them and you're being set up to fail, it's really easy to internalise that as a you problem, as there's something wrong with you and it's it's. It's. It will break your soul and I really hope that Naomi Osaka bounces back from the defeat at Wimbledon but, more importantly, bounces back into happiness in herself. Because I feel like unless you have the conviction in mind, unless you manifest what you believe is your greatness, it's very difficult to then go into onto the world stage and compete, because she's constantly under the spotlight, constantly under scrutiny, constantly has a magnifying glass to herself and whilst we may not share in that, that, that that platform, we have snippets of that in the world of work, when we're having to justify our existence every single day. So my heart goes out to a sucker. I'm praying for her. I want her to excel. I'm praying for her. I want her to excel. I want her to bounce back. I want her to know and believe in her greatness, because she is great, she is a powerhouse, she's a world-class athlete, she is a mother, she's a businesswoman and she is just an amazing, amazing woman. I'm really proud of her and I don't believe that the defeat at Wimbledon defines her. I think she's defined by how she characterizes herself and how she wants to be perceived and displayed and shown, and the biggest job that she has, the most important job she has and duty she has, is as a mother first. So I'm really praying that she's able to find upliftment and find peace in herself and know how great she really is.

Speaker 1: 1:43:22

Before we round up this episode, I want to talk about Henry's high earners not rich yet. Now in the UK and I've spoken about this multiple times. I continue to talk about it on the podcast on my social media, about how we are taxed here in the UK. It's fucking crazy. And the autumn budget that is set to be shared in the autumn by our Chancellor of Extractor here in the UK, rachel Reeves we anticipate more tax rises, which means that high earners will be taxed through the nose and just tax overall, irrespective of whether you're classified a high earner or not, versus the access to medical care, the access to the things that we are paying for our source is very limited.

Speaker 1: 1:44:14

Um, but I talk about henry, because high earners in the uk, I believe, is anything over 50k is considered a high earner. Now your earnings are capped, really, if you want me to be honest, by 99 000 pounds. Let's be real, realistic, because once you earn over 100k, you are considered a high earner for the purposes of tax. Now, the reason why I say over 50k is a high earner is because you still have an elevated amount of tax at 50,000 and then again at 100,000. So, high earner, higher earner maybe that's probably the better term to coin here.

Speaker 1: 1:44:57

Um, it's a financial trapdoor of earning money. Let's be real, because what you're then encouraged to do is make big wads of salary sacrifices and then, once you get to 125 000, that big wad of salary sacrifice doesn't make any sense anymore. You are it, you are trapped in that financial trap door and once you go over 99 000 to 100k a year as a, as a higher earner, um, they claw they for every one pound that you're over 100 000. They claw back the tax allowance of um 12 5570 which, I must add and I have said previously, has not increased. So your tax allowance has stayed that that since 2000 and something and is not set to move until 2028, which will probably move by a couple of pounds. It won't move in the rate in which we we have seen the increase of tax. I think the tax allowance needs to be raised to at least minimum 20,000. I think it should be more personally.

Speaker 1: 1:46:09

But then you lose your tax allowance. Those of you who have student loans are also paying a student loan. You have no tax-free income and for those higher earners, you then lose your 30 hours child tax credit and it's just downhill from there. Really, here in the uk you're punished for being a higher tax, higher earner here in the uk. So basically, success is capped at 99 000. I mean it is, it's capped.

Speaker 1: 1:46:42

So the fallacy, the fantasy we had about enjoying the fruits of your labor the labor is the worst because you never really enjoy it. You lose your tax allowance, you lose child tax credit if that is something that you were getting before and actually they say, well, you can afford it now. So we are going to penalize you in every which way to make life uncomfortable for you, how dare you have any financial success, how dare you aspire for financial freedom, how dare you have to um savings? Because we're going to rate that too, because obviously, if you have savings and you're in, you have a high interest savings account you're also making money there too. We're going to fucking take that. We're going to ask you to submit your taxes every quarter now because we want to see if you are earning money from side hustles like ebay or like anything else that is unaccounted for. We want you to tell us all your savings that you have and how much is in there. And if you don't, we are going to make sure the banks tell us if you have um over I think it's over 14 000 I think that's what they're trying to do over 14 000 pounds. They then the bank is going to tell us and then we're going to do a tax rate of your savings to claw back any interest that you have earned, because we consider that interest income um. And on top of that, you're not going to have access to any of the public services that you are funding, which includes the nhs. And if you have to pay to go private, you're going to pay for your private prescription and you're going to still pay at source or access to the NHS and other public services, even though we know that we're not serving you in the way we should. Given that you're a high earner and you pay high tax. On top of that, we are going to make sure that you can't buy another property, so we are going to raise the interest rate. On top of that, the price of bread and everything that you need to live is going to increase, but we're still going to tax you to the nines and you're going to be happy about it.

Speaker 1: 1:48:42

This country is fucked. This country is a mess. How dare you aspire for private education for your child? We know we're failing children um in public schools by not giving them adequate facilities um. We know we're failing public school schools by oversubscribing classrooms so children don't get that access to education in the way they deserve. We know that we're going to oversus. We're oversubscribing public schools, um in terms of numbers, but also we have waiting lists as long as our arm. We don't have um adequate books or whatever it is we we should have, and teachers are leaving in droves. But we want you to use a public school.

Speaker 1: 1:49:26

How dare you want to privately educate your child because, obviously, if your child's in private education, you must be rich. Completely wrong. You have families who will take on additional jobs, save and make sacrifices, not going on holidays to be able to put their children through private school. But on top of that sacrifice, we are going to add VAT. You're going to pay VAT to privately educate your child because we want to force you back into the public public education, the same public education that is oversubscribed.

Speaker 1: 1:49:55

It fucking doesn't make sense. It's a circle of mess, and this is why I pull it back to the beginning of this episode, where I talk about the labour party and I talk about we need more than one party who are contending to govern this country. Conservatives did not do a great job, but that neither did their predecessors, who was labour, and under the now leadership of kia starmer, I have no hope for the direction of this country. Hard working people are being penalized and punished for working hard, irrespective of where you sit on the, the, the chart of hard work, um, the weather shit, and then the taxes are high. It's a fucking recipe for a mess, isn't it really? And we're just making.

Speaker 1: 1:50:43

We're trying to make good the cards we've been dealt, but this is why I think it's important to also consider who you're voting for, to use your voice as you can, because I think our voices are so powerful. You only have to look at other countries and how they use their voices to advocate for change. Um, will that change come here in the UK? I don't know, but I know that's all we've got. Vote with your feet, vote with your hands. When it's time to go to the polls, remember this feeling that you're feeling about how you feel underrepresented, disadvantaged and penalized. You need to remember that when you're going to the polls and they're promising you heaven and earth.

Speaker 1: 1:51:25

The labour party promised so much. Oh, we're not going to. We're not going to increase taxes. We're not, we're not doing that. As soon as the budget come, increase tax. Oh, you know what we're going to centre the needs of people. The NHS waiting lists are madness. Doctors want to protest and they want to go and strike, because I actually agree with the reasons they want to go and strike. Then the Labour Party are allegedly bringing out legislation to prevent doctors from protesting, from striking. So what you do is then you start encroaching on people's freedoms to express themselves. Like what the hell is going on in this country. It's a mess, it's diabolical.

Speaker 1: 1:52:04

And whilst people are coming over here and saying, oh, the UK is amazing, london's fantastic, they're also not talking about the amount of people who are leaving this country in large numbers and emigrating. Lower taxes, better quality of living, because the current quality of living in the uk is abysmal. Let's be honest we're working to survive and for every day we're working, and every day we're aspiring and trying to work hard to to give more to our families. Then what do they do in response? What does the UK government do? They increase the retirement age because they want to work you until you are dead. You must die at the desk. That's what they want us to do. Die at the desk, because how dare you want to retire and enjoy the fruits of your labor that way? That means that we haven't taxed you enough. Fuck it. We're going to increase the retirement age.

Speaker 1: 1:52:59

So by the time I'm 40 now, by the time I retire, or whatever retirement will be, because I think retirement will actually exist by the time I quote unquote retire, the retirement age will probably be 90. So if the average life expectancy, I believe, is like what is it in this country? 70 something or 80 something. That means you're gonna work till you're dead. Literally you should log on and just die right there. 97 logging on to work and god forbid. You're logging on for work because, the way ai is going, we're all going to be on a nominal figure of benefits because we'll have no fucking jobs because ai will be doing everything anyway. I'm going to be on a nominal figure of benefits because we'll have no fucking jobs because ai will be doing everything anyway. I'm going to leave it there, but that's the reality and it may be difficult to palette, it may be difficult to accept, but that is the direction that we're going in.

Speaker 1: 1:53:48

I still need to do an episode on ai and talk about ai and the emergence of the, the in what I believe is the investment, believe is the intention of AI and where it could possibly place us. I definitely think they're not educating the syllabus and what they're educating our young people is not on par with what's happening in the world. They're preparing for jobs that will no longer exist. That's fucking crazy. But anyway, we move, we move. Roll on the next episode.

Speaker 1: 1:54:19

If you listened this thus far, thank you I I just love my listeners. I appreciate you all. Give me your feedback, give me your comments. I want to hear it. Um, I believe if you listen on spotify you can leave your comments, you can rate the episode and the podcast, as well as on apple podcast as well.

Speaker 1: 1:54:36

If you want to follow me on social media, toyah underscore washington on most platforms or toyah washington all one word. I also have the toyah talks um instagram page, which is toyah underscore talks. I just have a tiktok. Hardly on snapchat these days, definitely on instagram. I've got a personal instagram page which is private, so don't always accept people, so just hope that I'm in an accepting mood. Otherwise, follow me on the my public Toya Talks Instagram page. If not, follow me on TikTok as well, because I am there, I'm very present, I feel very appreciated there and, if you haven already, make sure you subscribe to the podcast on any podcast platform in which you listen to the podcast. All really appreciative of all the love, all the support. Thank you for tuning in Until next time. My name is Toy Washington and you have been listening to the Toy Talks podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:55:50

See you next time. Redesigning time from Tottenham roads to CEO every step, teaching what we know, not just surviving but thriving more. Opening every closed door. Toya talks, toya talks, toya talks. Black queens to the top. And we're still going.