Need To Know-Understanding Black Lived Experiences: Insights from Pew Research - Dr. Nsenga Burton

BEP Narrator: 00:00:02

A black executive perspective now presents need to know

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with the award winning hyphenated Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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Dr.

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Burton, what do we need to know?

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Dr. Nsenga Burton: Good morning.

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Welcome to need to know by Dr.

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Nsenga on BEP.

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Today, we'll be discussing a study

that was released by the Pew Research

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Center this week that talked about

black Americans and their beliefs

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around conspiracy theories as

it relates to racial progress.

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Right.

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So they were called it initially

racial conspiracy theories, and then

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they went back and corrected it and

got really negative feedback from

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readers users, uh, based on the way

that the information was presented.

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So they've gone back and

reworked the information.

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But today I want to talk about this

idea of black people and these ideas

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that we are conspiracy theorists

as it relates to our real and live

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conditions that really do impact.

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All aspects of our life.

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Um, and when I say really do

impact all aspects of our life.

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Um, I do mean not only personally,

but also professionally.

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So when we think about the black

executive perspective or the black

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executive podcast and the work that is

being done in this particular space.

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Yeah, I think it is interesting that

we do have to consider constantly.

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People's ideas and beliefs about us,

one of which is one of which is that,

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you know, we're basically too sensitive.

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We are conspiratorial in our beliefs

and we believe that, um, we are

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being worked against and that it is a

conspiracy and not actually based or

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rooted in fact, when, in fact, it's

actually rooted in fact, and data.

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So I really like, let me just go ahead

and say about the Pew Research Center.

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They do excellent work.

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Most of the time, I think that the

data in this particular report, and

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I read it, because I heard so much

backlash about it is interesting.

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I think it does give you some insight.

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It is introspective for

particularly the participants.

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Um, but I do think that the way that

they presented initially underscore.

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Undermine what the data or what the

study was really trying to do, which

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is to say that despite the fact that

black people are labeled as conspiracy

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theorists as it relates to our real

and live experiences with systemic

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racism and things of that nature.

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Um, we are, um, in fact, um, having

to deal with these ideas that we

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are conspiracy theorists, at least

that's what I'm taking from the study.

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I know there are other things

that are coming out of the study.

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Um, so I wanted to just kind of

go over a little bit about it.

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Um, um, so.

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Let me read a little bit of, let me

read the editorial note to readers.

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1st, a version of the study was

originally published on June.

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10th.

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we previously use the term racial

conspiracy theories, quote, racial

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conspiracy theories as an editorial

shorthand to describe a complex and

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mixed set of findings by using these

words are reporting distorted rather than

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clarify the point of the study changes

to this version, including updated

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headline, new explainer, paragraphs,

some additional context and direct

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quotes from focus group participants.

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It's.

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One of the infographs that they

included, um, talks about the

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majority of black adults say U.

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S.

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institutions were designed to hold black

people back and then they do percentages.

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So, for example, they have a list prison

system, 74 percent courts and judicial

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process, 70 percent policing, 68%.

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Political system, 67 percent economic

system, 65 percent news media, 52

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percent healthcare system, 51%.

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So I say all that to say that we

do have this information, um, and

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this data, but the way that it was

initially presented without the context.

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Is the problem and this is what

black people, black and brown people,

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anybody who's really part of a

historically disenfranchised group who

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is, uh, not empowered, um, to add the

context and to give the background.

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The reason we have these ideas is because

we are intimately intimately connected

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to the prison industrial complex.

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We know what mass incarceration is because

we've seen lots of people go to jail.

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Um, we've had, you know,

false, um, accusations.

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We've seen, um, you know,

like the Central Park Five.

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We've seen people who just basically

are railroaded teenagers, railroaded,

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things of that nature, and then

to be found guilty, I mean, found

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innocence years later, and to

find that people were withholding

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evidence and all of those things.

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So we've had that happen, um, and we've

seen that happen on a large scale.

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Uh, we've also seen police brutality,

you know, uh, Amadou Diallo Diallo,

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anybody, you know, there's, there's

so many people that we can talk about

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even currently that we can talk about.

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Um, and so this idea that black people

are basically stuck in their heads.

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About these real experiences

is really fascinating to me.

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The fact that someone would even do a

study about that, like, you know, what's

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real and, you know, what's imagine and

that we will be labeled or thought of

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as conspiracy conspiracy theorists as

it relates to our lived experiences.

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So, 1 of the things I wanted to talk

about today is the fact that these

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experiences can be up for discussion,

but they are not up for debate.

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So you can have all of the

studies that you want to have.

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You can interview, I think it

was 4, 700, uh, black folks,

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um, for this particular study.

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Uh, but to me, the end

result is what does it mean?

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What does it mean?

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And what it means is that black people

have to live with their reality every day.

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Right.

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So, whether it's getting from

home to work alive, right?

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Praying that you don't get

pulled over by the police for a

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small infraction, Sandra Bland.

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Um, whether it's being on the

job and not being microaggressed,

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microaggressed upon or against.

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Whether it's being treated differently

or being excluded because you don't

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match the culture of your company.

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Whether it's ignoring the 87 percent of

white men who get most of the funding

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for tech companies while you prosecute

black women, sue, sue, prosecute is not

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the word I wanted, but sue black women

like those of the fearless fund who

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are giving out twenty thousand dollars.

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Occasionally to black women to help them

stay in the game, to get in the game.

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Right.

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Um, that is not paranoia.

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It's not conspiracy.

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The numbers of, uh, people who are

incarcerated relative to our, uh, the

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number of us who are, uh, who relative

to the number that we, uh, represent

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in society, it's called proportion,

um, it's disproportionate, um, The lack

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of representation is so many of these

different spaces, uh, relative to the

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fact that we are the most educated

group, especially black women, um, in

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particular are the most educated group.

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That is factual.

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It's, it's real data.

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So yeah, we may be a

little bit distracted.

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Um, we may, uh, be focused

on making sure that we are

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getting our fair, a fair shake.

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Um, when we rarely do, uh, you know, You

know, we're four times as likely to go to

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jail for the same crime as a white person.

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I mean, that's just, that's a fact.

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Like, it's, it's statistically

proven over and over again.

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That number is not changing.

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Um, and if you talk about black women in

terms of incarceration rates, they're,

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they're, they're, they're higher.

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Significantly higher and usually,

um, attached to some type of

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violence from a man, right?

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So it could be self defense

or something of that matter.

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Um, so even a lack of resources or help.

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I mean, just recently, this is not

the same as a false equivalency.

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So I'm not trying to equate, uh,

domestic violence with my laptop

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getting stolen at the airport.

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But what I'm saying is, um, I really

feel That, uh, and this is feel, right?

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So this is the conspiracy piece.

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Cause it's like, we're supposed

to not go with our gut.

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We're not supposed to know what's

happening at the time, but how this

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officer who actually was a Brown man,

his last name was D S D I A S came over

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and talked to me the way I would not

talk to my dog and I was the victim.

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My laptop was stolen out

of Atlanta Hartsfield.

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Um, but having said that, even

the way in which I was treated.

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Um, the way in which people did not

care about my, my personal property

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being stolen, the way I was talked to

as if I was uneducated or as if I was

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the problem, I never raised my voice.

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These are things that we

just deal with all the time.

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This is harder being black and brown.

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That's what it is.

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It's, you know, paying 150 for a

private car when you go somewhere, you

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know, go out of town on business and

then having the driver microaggress

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against you the whole time, the whole

way and then you have to decide, am

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I going to raise a stink about this?

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What am I going to do about this?

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I guess I'm just gonna have to

take it because I know if I call

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the police, I'll be the villain

or I can just go on about my day.

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And I just chose to go on about my day.

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Cause I was there for my family and my

business, um, and not for this fool.

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But my point is I'm just.

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Appalled that, um, people are

actually conducting surveys and

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especially Pew, because they

really do really good surveys.

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Like, they give you information.

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You really want and you

need and it's very good.

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And it's legitimate.

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They have social sciences and people

who really understand doing this work.

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But to have that type of.

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Study just really rubs me the

wrong way, but that is emotional.

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What is factual is that the things

that black people talk about,

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and this is systemic racism.

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Um, you know, if you want, if you're

a woman, sexism, uh, if you're

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gay, you know, LGBTQ, all of those

issues that we have, um, classism,

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elitism, all the things that we

have to face, um, in the world.

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It's not made up.

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This is a collective experience.

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It is, um, Something that we

experience, we observe it.

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That's called empirical data.

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Uh, we experience ourselves

as experiential data.

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Um, you can, uh, do

studies, um, such as PEW.

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Uh, we can do quantitative analysis.

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You can do focus groups.

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That's qualitative analysis.

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Any type of study that has ever been done.

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Supports the fact that black people

are discriminated against in the United

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States, regardless of whether they

are qualified, regardless of whether

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they are middle class or upwardly

mobile, regardless of whether they

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are corporate America, self employed,

that it's just part of our existence.

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So I would like for people to, what I

want, what I need you to know is there's

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a reason, um, why sometimes when you

encounter black folks, um, you are

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met with suspicion, um, because we.

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Are often stigmatized,

villainized, and dehumanized.

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Like that is the status quo.

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That's the everyday for us.

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That's not a exception,

especially black Americans.

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You know, that is our every day.

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So, and it doesn't matter.

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I have four degrees.

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I'm an Ivy leaguer, all the things.

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It doesn't matter.

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You can, you can live in

the right neighborhood.

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You can send your kids

to the right school.

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It doesn't matter.

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You're still going every day.

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You know, um, my mother always

says that every day someone will

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remind you that you're black.

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So you might as well be black.

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And that is true.

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Every day, somebody says something or does

something that reminds you that you are

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different, um, and that you are less than.

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So, you gotta have a strong constitution.

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You know, we get that.

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We gotta be, you know,

you've heard it twice.

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We gotta work twice as hard to get

half the part, you know, half as far.

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All the things, you know.

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Um, but sometimes we don't.

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Sometimes we get angry

and sometimes we give up.

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And sometimes we let, you

know, people get to us.

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Cause we're not perfect.

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We are human beings.

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I know people don't think

we're human beings, right?

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That's one of the ways

that you enslave people.

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You say they don't have any souls, right?

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So that's how you get to the enslavement.

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You're like, how does someone do that?

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When you dehumanize people,

that's what happens, but we do.

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And this is not everyone.

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Of course, we have very

varied experiences.

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Um, and we, uh, you know, we love people

who are of different races or other races.

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We love people, uh, marry, partner,

build businesses, all the things.

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So it's not always the case, but

most of the time this is happening.

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Um, even to those people.

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Um, you know, if you want to hear about

some crazy discrimination, talk to a

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mixed race couple in 2024, in 2024.

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And, uh, they'll tell you, they'll

tell you what they're experiencing.

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Um, so anyway, my point

is, and I want to end here.

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Um, is that when it comes to black

Americans, I would just encourage you,

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whether it's the workplace, whether it's

your place of worship, whether it's in

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your household to start with empathy,

um, and to lead with empathy, um, and to

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understand that one way of

being supportive is to not

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dismiss people's experiences.

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Um, another way of being supportive is to

not, um, come in with your own experience.

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It's just to listen, you

know, is to listen and to see.

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And then another thing, which I

think people did do, wasn't just

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black folks who spoke up, um, and

out to the Pew, um, Institute.

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When you see something

wrong, it doesn't feel right.

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It doesn't look right.

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Um, how it's presented is

just disrespectful at best

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and dehumanizing at worst.

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Say something.

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You know, don't wait till

after the meeting is over.

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This always happens to me.

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Don't wait till after the

meeting is over to say something.

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Don't wait till after I've left.

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I'm at some, uh, some other

institution or, or whatever.

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I'm at some other meeting or whatever.

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And then say something.

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Say something in that moment.

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Um, be an ally for real.

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And we'll talk about that too.

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How to be an ally, how to be a great ally.

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We'll talk about that.

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So anyway, this is need to know with Dr.

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Nsenga.

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I will see you next week.

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BEP Narrator: A black

executive perspective.