"The West Side STORY" (ft. Marissa Armas) | Episode #63 This. Podcast

uh [Music] welcome to this dot podcast the dopest podcast experience in denver i'm your friendly host jay joined by my friends we got co here man what are we talking about we got uncle damo you can find this dot podcast at link tree forward slash this dot podcast and we'll meet you where you're at and we got video on youtube shout out to the incredible lawrence and larimer for providing a beautiful space you can find them at 3225 east coafex avenue or you can go online at lawrenceandlarimer.com and get your latest lifestyle fellas that's where it happens at yeah lifestyle let's get right into it all right we got a special guest and this denver wright is an alum of denver west high school and a graduate of metro state she's a news reporter for cbs4 let's welcome marissa our moss thanks for being here real talk thank you so much for having me sharpest attack as attack oh sharp as attack we are excited about this pod we've been doing some behind the scenes and our moss has been marissa but has been uh spitting some hot fire back here i try i try you know yeah so we're gonna get into that but let's uh let's just talk about your upbringing because you are a denver right and this is what this is all about is showcasing denver and you grew up on the west side right i did i did so i grew up in westwood uh close to like federal and alameda uh i guess you could say say by saint cajuns by san cayetano but i grew up there you know went to nap elementary school dps kid like all the way nabbed kepner then went to west over by denver general well denver health now um and then yeah i went to metro but um i grew up here my mom i was actually raised by like a single mom um and i have two brothers one sister and yeah it's been good this has kind of been like a homecoming i guess you could say for me because i hadn't lived here for seven years um but it's been good it's been a good experience i mean denver is always going to be home no matter what you know i think most my family is here outside of you in my immediate family my cousins are here my grandparents were here and they were really the ones who like put down the roots here my grandpa was actually from guatemala my dad is from el salvador um but my mom she kind of met him here and he was kind of i guess you could say i i met him for the first time when i was like actually 16. got it got him high school but um he was kind of like you could say um he fled like the war over in el salvador and i don't want to say like he was a communist but he you know he was kind of very political i mean my dad was a very political person uh very smart but my mom and him met here and and my grandpa um he really played i guess you could say like the fatherly role in my life and then my grandparents they were just very you know important to my life um but they've all they've also passed but they were really the ones to lay down the roots here for us in denver and um yeah my mom actually went to east down the block so my grandmother shout out today [Laughter] and then my younger sibling did go to east as well but yeah my grandparents they uh had property you know over by nine news actually like across the street so i kind of my grandparents lived there we lived in southwest denver but it was kind of nice because we would spend a lot of time with our grandparents um and going back and forth but we were actually and i think still to this day like the only i guess you could say poc on that block gotcha it's a pretty nice area i mean as we know real real estate is crazy here so yeah that that's kind of where my grandparents were so it's been a good experience i think coming back i mean i hadn't like i mentioned lived here for seven years but coming back it's been it's different you know so where were you at in that seven years oh where wasn't i at right that's a question no i gosh i was everywhere i mean i when i left here i want to say new mexico new mexico was the last spot but when i left here i left in 2014. that's when i decided that i wanted to go get my master's degree and so i went to columbia university i actually applied yes and i think for me that was huge like i remember at the time i was working for this digital company uh owned by phil and shoots so like the yeah yeah yeah absolutely it was called examiner.com but it was downtown and one of the stuff i remember yeah and i worked for that company and um that was you know during that time i mean that's kind of when i realized you know i want to go back and do more like video tv and i said well what better place than to go to like the school of journalism right and so i applied to a couple of schools ended up getting into colombia and i mean you're all prestigious but i'm in so much debt about student loan forgiveness but no but it was i mean i also i mean people ask me now you know do you regret it because it was so expensive um and i i mean i do and i don't and i don't for many reasons too because i know for me and the upbringing and the and where i come from i mean one i was like even just college i was the first one in my family to graduate from college so first gen um but also i just i knew it was something i couldn't pass up and i mean how do you pass up an opportunity right and i feel like i always would have lived with that regret you know of not moving to new york um but yeah so i moved to new york long story short i moved to new york in 2014 i was there for about a year and a half and then i took my first tv job which was actually in el paso texas that place is fun yeah el paso is wild i've been several times too you've been to water uh no i didn't cross the border okay i'm scared no no i've crossed many borders in my life i didn't cross that border you're scared of that [Music] i had already oh um but it's still kind of scary you just never know you know but i think the borderland too the borderland is so beautiful and there's so much beauty i mean it goes back to the way we look at certain communities right in certain areas i think when you look at border towns and i've done a lot of border coverage too when you look at border towns i think people do are very scared i mean and like why would you move there there's so much cartels absolutely because that's all you hear right is the stereotypes there was so much beauty there too so i'm gonna tell you there's a couple things that like mess me up with the border towns is el paso and like when you're driving from let's say phoenix to san diego like you can literally see the fence right and there's people that are on the other side of this border or whatever that will never see the other side of it and it looks like glamorous like if you look there's like in el paso they have like hills and you know it just look it looks nice and like the other side is like flat and i don't know it just the disparity just bothered me and you can see the poverty right and i mean yes can so surreal to every day have to drive through you know i would take i don't even remember what the highway was called but i would take this highway to work and every single day you'd see the border fence the border wall right and juarez and the homes that were like made out of shacks you know they're made out of just like steel and it was just so surreal because then we're here living um i mean obviously we have communities here who are struggling too but even just in el paso you could just see the disparities just so easily from that border wall so that was pretty a pretty wild living experience to actually live and just see that and see people crossing the border i mean at night sometimes like running one time i remember you know my ex-boyfriend at the time well boyfriend but ex-boyfriend now he had told me he's like no someone he was like driving down the highway and this guy was running had just jumped the border wall and running across and then he got hit and then and then he died wow oh man so were you ever were you ever able to uh interview actual uh border agents oh yeah yeah oh my gosh yeah and i can get into gosh my yeah that's probably yeah it's pretty heavy not only did i do it in um el paso but then so i did it in new mexico so i actually uh ran a pretty much this series from the ground up created this series well with one of my managers from the ground up where we under the trump administration covered uh border and immigration extensively for an entire year um so not only was i like talking to border agents every other day but i went to the border uh once a month back in 2019 so right before the pandemic and every day i'd cover different angles of border and immigration from legal immigration to illegal immigration to speaking to ranchers who lived in that area um to speaking to these families that were coming you know with nothing from central america were there any kind were there any conflict was there were there any conflict like was there any internal conflict in within those within those border patrol agents because like you know oh yeah you know it's not a monolith like it's not like all border patrol agents are white well so the thing is is most border but actually not most but i'll say a good i want to say maybe 40 50 percent of border patrol agents at least in new mexico at the time like we're latino right and that's what we're saying well that was a story that i had done like um latino border patrol agents covering the border and i did do that story and one of the things or one of the things agents kept telling me i mean you have to look at border towns too border towns are obviously going to be because of mexico's proximity predominantly brown communities right san diego san diego you know edinburgh texas you know the rio grande valley el paso they're all communities that are actually predominantly hispanic um but when you ask these border patrol agents so so i guess real bad back on that i mean opportunity so when we look at those communities they're predominantly latinos but you have to think too what opportunities exist in terms of jobs and careers for them in that place and so one of the things uh border patrol exactly border patrol agents would tell me they're like well yeah you know when i when i started doing this my family was maybe a little upset but this is a job i have a family to take care of yeah you know take away my own opinions to provide for my family to provide for my kids to put food on the table and they're actually really good jobs yeah they're really for that area think about it they're some of the best paying jobs in that area right so how are you going to turn down i mean i i can't say like i support or not support that you know but that's just the reality of it the reality that for them it was a job it was a way to put food on the table and and i think it was conflicting for a lot of them yeah so marissa it's like jails like so for example arizona new mexico east texas it's jails border towns highest paying jobs exactly i mean even here a couple of weeks ago one of my colleagues he said hey do you want to go like pretty much to like a carne asada with with a friend and i said yeah did you say carne asada yeah let's talk about i mean i mean it's like tacos how can you go wrong yeah yeah but he invited me and this guy actually works at the ice facility here in aurora and i've actually done a couple stories with them but he had actually only been in the u.s uh for about 12 years and like primarily like first language is spanish right and i was just like how do you do it he's like boys i have to i have like this is my job you know and i kind of try to disassociate my feelings from the job but he also said being one of the latinos here i mean here obviously we might see more black folks and those are not black folks white folks in this position i think there are some latinos but he said for him at least at the aurora ice facility i mean he's one of very few agents that they actually confided in um because you know some of them felt just more comfortable that they should talk to the latino agent right versus like a white agent and so i know it's hard it's a it's a tough situation so let's let let's move forward to like this that that's a great topic um but you are excellent at the work that you do hence you being on the show absolutely and would love to tap into your why like why do you do journalism why is it important to you wow yeah i know that's something that um i i'm always so proud to share that story i mean as i mentioned to you guys i grew up in southwest denver you know west denver westwood predominantly hispanic neighborhood and i think for me um i got into journalism and it's kind of a long-winded story initially like in high school you know we didn't actually have many resources similar to you know montbello other schools i mean east i think does a little better um but you know but you know we didn't have like any td tv programs we had a yearbook club in a newspaper club and at that time i liked that i liked taking pictures i mean this is pre like selfie era right so we had the little the other digital cameras and so i love taking pictures and i think i got really interested in yearbook club and in high school i was like a huge fashionista and i just you still are from yeah here comes the dirty horns students student councils student council yes nice i was a cheerleader fun fact my uh mom was a principal at east oh no way my dad taught at uh west actually for years uh mr kane but he was way before he left before you were there so i guess it started there and so again back being a huge fashionista so i knew i wanted to go into like fashion fashion journalism i was like well and this is the crazy part i tell people when i go speak to students at schools like i didn't even know what the term journalism meant i didn't know because i mean and i can only speak for myself but being a dps kid i mean i mean i don't necessarily think we're prepared for the world no no absolutely absolutely that's honest i didn't yeah i didn't know what the term journalism meant i mean my mom watched the news a lot um and we read newspaper but i didn't know that together all of that encompassed what journalism is right and so i didn't really know that and i remember just kind of going and i had a friend saying oh i want to go into journalism and i was like well what is that and she was like oh like tv and like newspapers magazines i was like hey that sounds interesting and i could like i like fashion let's do that right and so when i went to metro it really just started like i wanted to be working fashion magazines and most of my i guess specialty was in magazines and so i was learning how to do all this design and it wasn't until my last year of undergrad that um i took a tv class just on a whim and they were kind of like you're really good at this and i was like yeah this isn't too bad and this is when video i think barely started you know picking up traction i mean facebook had been out i think when i was grad when i like was entering undergrad and so i was like oh man there's like a spot for this yeah and so it wasn't until i really got my first i worked like for some little niche papers like north denver news and i was interning at dps but then as i started like learning more and i also i also studied abroad that was a huge eye-opener for me in spain madrid yeah and and i can go back to that experience and why that was so impactful because i think it was a huge eye-opener for me in terms of um just my is it access yeah well that and i mean i was going with a ton of rich kids from around the country and i was like not that right i didn't have money i couldn't i mean that's a whole other story but it wasn't until i started realizing that man they're real disparities and and i think as i started getting older and you know my younger you know i want to say like my early 20s i started realizing what there are a ton of disparities because when you grow up in the hood and stuff like you don't even really know you're poor right so you're talking about just between the hood and like middle class right i've never been around people like that right and so it wasn't until you know i studied abroad in and metro's a pretty diverse campus right so i don't really feel um out of place right and so it wasn't until i studied abroad with all these very wealthy predominantly white kids and maybe a few sprinkled in you know poc and then like my first postgraduate job did i realized oh my gosh like there are real issues facing our community right and this is in my early 20s and and i was just like man this is crazy and so once i got that job at examiner that's when i realized like i loved fashion but there was so much more in the world that we needed to be talking about so you found your true calling it seems like you're so leaving and going to madrid what did you bring back not not not tangible things but experiences what type of experience did you bring back and how did you integrate those experiences into their own neighborhood yeah well gosh i think too um you know so my roommate was actually from virginia uh she was pretty well in virginia um roanoke so rono um but she came from a pretty middle-class upper-class family uh every week she would kind of you know call her parents and her parents would put in like a thousand bucks in her account a thousand bucks everything and i only had i think like five thousand dollars for the entire like semester year right yeah so i had to make it stretch so i remember like getting into we'd get into conversations or little disputes like one time you know i remember we went to this nightclub it was called capital and it was like this huge huge nightclub and i and i left my jacket and i remember her saying something like um just leave it like just buy another one tomorrow and i remember and i was like a little i would have drank a little but i was like no i can't just leave my jacket like i don't have money to just come back and buy a new jacket tomorrow like i need to find this damn jacket okay i'm going to find it if you need to leave leave i'm fine but it was little things like that that i that i realized that um you know i guess i realized that my upbringing was very different than a lot of my peers and my at the same age and not only that but they had a lot more access to me so i think if anything it gave me um like the confidence also just own who i was um but also to challenge myself to be better and challenge the system right and how can we fix this like this isn't fair and i've worked just as hard so why can't i also achieve or get the same things right and so for me i guess like intellectually it was more of like man this is what's wrong um how are we gonna fix that right and yeah we're different but like i don't and it's and i tell people all the time i mean but it's not about me it needs to be about my kids it needs to be about my sibling my like the next generations right so what can we do to better that system and so that other kids not only have access to be able to study abroad right but to be able to feel comfortable in these spaces and to own who they are because i remember even just being there and like kind of like people would be like what do your parents do and i would like be like i don't know my mom has like a clerical job and they'd be like well my dad's a doctor and i was like oh that's crazy because like it all goes back to when you said journalism right are you doing it in high school not even knowing you were doing it right right and i had the similar experience with engineering because i was like in a computer magnet and it was like yeah i don't know what i'm doing with this i just know i'm playing on computers but to your point like some kids that have that access their parents are setting them up like to do programming and hey come check me out on the job and this is you know what i do as an engineer and all that good stuff but i want to focus on what you do today as far as cbs4 because you are out there hard working uh see you constantly and you could tell that you put a lot of effort and you care about what you do so you're like news reporter in the field and you've covered some like very important stories and the most recent kind of like tragedy that we had was the marshall fire and when i was watching that live like you were all over it yeah can you talk about maybe those experiences when you're going through those kind of things and yeah maybe the marshall fire specifically but when you're like reporting the news and what what makes you do that and just how you feel as you're like you're in it and how do you separate yourself absolutely and let me go back to your question though because i never answered it so sorry because i'm so long-winded i will talk to you guys yeah absolutely go ahead so i guess the reason why i got into journalism and the reason why i do it is because of the way our communities are covered right and i think when we look at montbello and we look at my area um these are these news outlets usually go out when it's to cover the shooting right but there's so much beauty in these communities too and i think that was that is what prompted me once i was that examiner being like no there's so much more that we need to be talking about instead of just the trauma that our communities are experiencing justin talked about that a lot yeah so i guess to go to answer your question um yeah it's just realizing that there's so much more and and we have to understand too that these companies and corporations um they're they're built in a way that has you know they to it at the point exploit especially communities of color for their trauma and we have to go back if we want to reconcile and fix and gain that trust from these communities we need to go back and also cover just like the police and these exactly so same thing let's stay there because i like that no no you're good let's stay there so let's talk about the the progress that has been made in the newsroom and how things are getting more diverse and if you could talk about that experience just within the workplace and how you navigate that gosh so i will tell you that that has actually been one of the hardest things for me is being in the industry as a woman of color and i'm not black right so i can't even imagine what it is like for our black folks and what they've had to deal with right but being a woman of color has been one of the most challenging things and while we have made progress i know we were talking earlier we have made progress we are seeing black and brown faces yeah um on the screen representation is so much more than just bringing in a latina reporter or a black reporter right you have to be wanting you have to cover these communities with intention and you have to intentionally invest in wanting to cover these communities not only for their trauma but also for the beauty and the good that they bring to the community too and i think like have we made strides yes and when we look at like you know what happened with george floyd in that movement that was a moment where everyone's like okay we're gonna bring in black folks we're gonna bring in latinos and that's great and all but are you doing it because it's trendy or are you really doing it because you want to make a change exactly right and so for me so while it had well there have been changes for me it's not enough and it's not enough and i think so many journalists of color are leaving the industry because it's not changing fast enough for us and they want us like we want to be diverse to an extent until you're too much right and in my career i mean surprisingly i've already gotten a lot of stuff like i'm too la i'm too latina right if i wear too much red lipstick i i my last station i actually got told i couldn't wear red lipstick anymore wait why because of that well not because if i was latina but i think too we have to look at beauty standards right especially when we look at black women for so long they were telling black women you couldn't wear your hair like that natural now all of a sudden black women are able to and good for them that they deserve that but that's the thing is they're always trying to put not everybody not this station i i will be cautious with that it's not this station has actually been a lot more understanding than past experiences i've had but we also have to understand that there is a cookie cutter image when we look at tv writing especially when we look at women and that's something i'm very proud of i mean i'm not super skinny and i'm not trying to be super skinny and i'm not super blankita when we even look at uh spanish news they also hire predominantly white looking latinos why well because if they fit that eurocentric image of what beauty standards are right so what you're saying there is that colorism oh yeah exist in all races like any minority race is like the closer you are to that eurocentric or whiteness i personally still think that exists i think that companies are getting a little better about it but i think it's still out there and i think it's something we still have to pay attention to so uh i love that but just want to anchor on who are you like what are you like you talked a little bit about what what's not showing up in the industry but who are you because obviously you have the skills obviously you have the wherewithal obviously like we can name off all the things that you have to make you you what do you have that makes you successful i think what i have that makes me successful is or that's been successful in my career and i still don't think everybody is executing that because everyone is trying to fit a mold in this industry is that i'm authentic and i'm never going to not be authentic to who i am um and and i and i think too i love it i love it this is the type of hype i need yeah no and i think it's that and i mean people in this industry have referred to me as like an indigenous latina which i obviously have indigenous roots but i also never want to take away from our expand on that like you gotta you gotta go there yes what does that mean by indeed yeah yeah so so people i think have told me in this industry yeah but you're like an indigenous looking lecturer but what does that mean what does that mean right i even i'm like what does that mean and they they've told me like oh well the cheekbones and you're shorter and you're like a little darker or like you have the darker features so i'm not because again it goes back to the eurocentric beauty stitches right because i don't i'm not super super skinny i don't have like a super thin nose you know my nose is a little wider like you know so things like that that i think people have associated me more with that i obviously a lot of latinos we are mestizo which is a mix right so i mean do i undoubtedly have indigenous roots of course you know my family's guatemala mayan right so likely mine roots my grandma was actually born in folsom new mexico and so they say maybe some apache um but we also do have spanish roots right and then i do have latina friends who are white latinas who look white and are white passing right um and so i think for me i'm very proud to be who i am and to look how i do look but i think when you say even you know you have this you have this you have this i question the same thing then why you know i tell my friends you know if i mean i eventually would like to do more national work on a national level but i also believe that if i don't get there what what is why it's all about it's all about your perspective and i remember we were talking about we're talking another show about manifestation like yo like in the in the big in the big picture man in terms of your age and what you've done you've done a lot and we already know we are all our worst critics right you know what i mean however you know what damon is telling you accept it right and and know that you know but this is coming from someone who is coming from the world right so so this is the world giving you positive feedback now it's up for you to receive that and then manifest that into that natural that national anchor road that's positive energy right that chair that national anchoring chair that's sitting there waiting for you at msnbc fox news cnn wherever um but i think for me is as a latina how do you or um woman of color right in the uh in this new space you can wear a dress that on someone else may look totally different right right but then you can get critiqued from the outside world you know what i mean based off of just how you're built so how do you navigate that how is that accepted in this in this uh in this profession right right and is are producers cognizant of that are they aware to say like look she can have on the same dress i could have on the same dress sorry this just this dress is going to highlight my curves right way different from is going to highlight her curves but when it's seen from the outside word it looks totally different yeah well and i and thank you so much i appreciate that and i think on that first note that you mentioned i mean i i do acknowledge that but i think we also have to be cognizant of why those are still challenges in the industry right because who's calling the shops shots up top i mean we could make changes at the bottom right but the changes really need to happen up top right and when we look at the issue i mean i've gotten that a lot i mean my last station i actually used to anchor as well there and um i would get a lot of flack for the things i would wear because i was a little curvier and so that was always an issue and i think you know here i'm i've been more in the field and with the pandemic i don't even really wear dresses here too much um but yeah i think that's something that um is still an issue because then you're talked to you look too voluptuous it's too revealing right and um while no one would out straight because you know discrimination with corporations no one would outright say but there's those microaggressions oh there's halo microaggressions i mean one time it was like oh well that's like more of a club dress so don't wear it anymore and i was like oh like what club like what club like who's 211. five degrees oh gosh five degrees purple martini remember that one [Music] but no it's still a thing i mean even you know my act my accent um i've been talked to about um yeah really yeah okay and i don't really think i have an accent but uh apparently i do and um and so i've been talked to about my accent and i don't know if it's the way i maybe say you know words in spanish you know properly saying them in spanish but i've been talked to about that i mean i've been talking to a couple things but usually the way i combat it i'll say real quick is that um sometimes i just go on on twitter and and i start start throwing shade or screenshot things i'll type up a paragraph on instagram like that's kind of your outlet well yeah well i mean even the armas thing so back in new mexico and new mexico is an interesting place because i did live there for for almost three years but new mexico is an interesting place because it was mexica at one point and there is a lot of spanish influence but there's also um that was mexico right and so but even when we look at the latino community there are very different ways on how latinos describe themselves some might say latina some might say hispanic some might say chicano latinx latinx right and so one of the things that they hated there is that i would always say armas and i mean we also have to look at tv too right tv tends to be in my opinion at least english well it depends where you are right but i think you know a lot of the hispanic community or historically they were looking at like spanish language news but i think you know when you're trying to bring in your latinidad your latina is into like a white space or a predominant or a historically white space people don't like that right so people would hate the way i would say armas and they would say why do you have to say your name like that or and i'd be because that's the proper way to say it and that's nuts because i imagine if it was a euro a euro language like if you came in like if you were speaking with a british accent right that would be totally accepted like nobody would say hey you know bring back or bring the tone back on your accent or something like that because nobody can hear you but the fact that it's latina is like you get combat right yes and you get pushed back in that's crazy that is crazy to hear that video that was like i think it was on tick tock or something and it was a girl saying like honey like if they can say charcuterie board like they can learn how to say your name right and i actually have a friend another friend who's that's a hard word to say i know right i have another friend who's haitian i mean she her first name she changed it i mean she changed it to so that people it to make it easier on people and i know a lot of people who have i i know another guy who well and this one i mean this is a little different but when he moved to a more like latino audi a latino market he used his um his mom's last name versus his dad's because it was more latino so people are also doing that where they know they could be a little more marketable using certain names they will yeah so so your favorite so making just a you know a quick left turn yeah wait wait can i ask him real quick so you were talking about mexico and uh i forgot how you phrased it but uh me and the family have been going to mexico a lot and uh be careful i caught covet there uh two months ago i was like good for two years i saw hey i saw that i'm going there in a month exactly are you yeah yeah we're going to cabo oh hey oh oh wait no i'm going to be wide open i got covered booster number four that boy pin cushion yeah well that ba2 ain't gonna get me too is that the that's the next string you got it got it i need to keep up there so many now yeah there is my bad i was gonna ask the influence so you were talking about mexico centric influence in mexico it was it was baffling to me because you know here in the states and correct me if i'm wrong or if i'm saying anything that sounds nuts but latino hispanic are really deeply proud you know always celebrating their culture all that good stuff and bear with me for a second i'm sorry but what was interesting when i went to mexico i went to like a festival or like a more like a show and it was crazy to see kind of like how they an artistic form kind of portrayed the history of mexico and talking about you know the war with spain coming over and conquering and you know all that with the mayan aztecs and how they kind of blend it together but what was so crazy is like how they have adapted the eurocentric culture so much in the motherland for you you know or that's interesting i won't say the motherland that that was stupid but just in a predominantly uh hispanic latina culture is like they were kind of almost celebrating that of like we are now taking this eurocentric view of like religion like all these things and it's like very highly celebrated where i would think it would be the opposite of like no we want to get back to like our heritage of like aztec mayan and things like that so well i think too i mean we have to also acknowledge that i mean for many of our communities right like that that was all forced upon us right for so many years and i think the same thing goes for mexico central america guatemala i mean that was all forced on us right like even catholicism was absolutely right i mean i grew up catholic and even you know semana santa just passed a holy week you know but in guatemala it's a huge celebration but when we look at even catholicism i mean catholicism was a religion that i mean just like christianity i mean it was kind of forced on everyone right and so a lot of those indigenous practices uh they were frowned down upon just like the black community right and so yeah i think that is where a lot of that comes from but i think too where a lot of us are at that age at that point in the country well at least in the united states i think other countries are a little different because race and class dynamics are still different but when we look at what's happening here i mean we're at that point where black folks latinos we're starting to own that right we're starting to own who we are and and it's not that we didn't but i think for a long time so many of us were forced to assimilate and force to be that way and to be more appealing to i guess you could say like wide america but now like that time is done like people are done and they're gonna be who they're gonna be and i think when we look i mean because that's i mean even when we look back at bad bunny how we were talking about earlier you know a lot of my friends say well yeah but he's from a different country and i get it a lot of those countries aren't where we're at um you know when we're looking at race and class issues they're not there yet right here in the united states we do have that freedom to be able to discuss those issues um but i think part of it is that now we're owning we're owning that again i mean a lot of our people and that was what was so fascinating is like yeah you know black and brown have the same similar stories you know what i mean of like that oppression it comes in different forms of course but just to see that i was like damn i could relate to that and to see the history of it play out in this play it was just like damn that feels like a lot like what black people are going through so it's like it was cool we're all connected you know what i mean like for example you find pyramids uh you got mayan pyramids and then you got pyramids in egypt yeah these are these are places that are two total totally different sides of the world you know um and and kind of kind of get into that eurocentric view like yeah i've been to mexico once right and you know what sucks is that is that you know i got a boy and my boy like he goes off the grid right he when he goes to mexico he goes to mexico right when i go um you're like on the resort i'm like on the resort i'm like i'm like taking the tour to tourism tours right so naturally that those type of entertainments are going to be more eurocentric more palatable for for us as tourists to uh to uh take you know i mean like like like for example what's this what's the uh uh what is this where everybody is where everybody's kicking it now right yeah my boy was going there 15 years ago he was like man i'm going this i'm going this spot called islam that [ __ ] cracks it's off no but no but check this out it's this little quiet island off the coast i'm going there to get my mind right it's just quiet little sea town not anymore and then quiet about that place no no but i'm saying this is literally 15 almost this is literally 15 years ago yeah and now it's turned into this huge tourist tourist spot yeah that's exactly what it is so a left turn right i'm just curious being that being a what [ __ ] you're like a celebrity i wish so so my question is what is the groupie life like that's uh that's uh that's the news what's the thirst trap like yeah yeah like yo so just real quick just real quick most of the time i push courtney like dude don't that was a great question yeah like what's the like what is the like what is it like man you gotta you know you have the thirst trap and the hate trap yes but i think the thirst trap has worked so much worse over like the last three years for me you know because i mean on instagram i have an okay following you know it's like 10 000. okay okay okay i have 20 000 followers people dream of that kind of following but but but i think too it's gotten a little worse over the years unfortunately and i think if anything it has kind of opened my eyes to and no offense to to the men here no no no no no no no it's kind of opened my eyes that we need to educate our men more right we better right not more okay let's dig in so where's pickup line oh god oh no no some of the things outside of the pictures wait hold on let her finish it like how do you educate us but the the thing is i mean we have to look at like society right i mean i don't i mean obviously i think parenting is huge but i think we have to look at society right and the way that we have you know taught men versus how we teach women you teach women don't wear a short skirt instead of teaching a man um respect right and don't look at how short her skirt is right like and and i think we have to look at the way that we've um taught our men versus how we've taught our women right and so i think for me i mean the thirst trap is real and i get so many vulgar messages and i've made a couple of videos on it i think but i want to make more i've like screenshotted so many because i think it's a conversation and i think we need to do better and you know a couple days ago one of my friends was like hey like how much like what percentage of your followers are men and it was like almost 80 of my followers were men right um and i get just really nasty things and don't get me wrong i think it i think it's i you know i feel so honored to have so much support um but i think we have to do it in a respectful manner right and we can't just be talking about you know my breast size or you know how i look or and then that's kind of what i get a lot of times so who's the guy from west high school who is like yo can we go out on the date oh yeah do you remember me from whatever what had happened was don't call it out don't call it out but they they kind of one of them recently went the extra mile and emailed me at my work email and i was like okay hey that blue oh persistence but all of a sudden marissa's back in town everyone's like oh you're so fine you're so hot yeah um you are an attractive woman thank you and you deserve a lot of attention um respectfully yeah respectful attention um but how do you curve the nonsense ooh i just don't be replying i'm like i just don't reply or if it's really if it's really vulgar and inappropriate i mean usually what i do is i will sometimes screenshot it and be like you know i did this recently i think like yeah i blast them and i'm like you know you have a mother i'm sure you have a mother-sister daughter on something like would you talk to them like that because that's what i think we need to be asking like would you ever talk to your the women in your life who are your loved ones like that like it's just for me it's overboard right and i think it's it's one thing to say like oh you're a beautiful woman and you're great at your work but it's like like not to sound like i have a big head but like i get that i'm pretty but like acknowledge my work absolutely your work is great too much more and that's the thing at least ease into it give me a compliment about my achievements something and i think as women you know we've been in society i mean when you look at the role of the woman it's changed right and so i think historically women were like these trophy wives for men and that was like a huge accomplishment was to get and marry a woman and that's great but like women are out there doing the work yeah they're doing the work and a lot of us i mean don't necessarily need men to survive or to thrive and i mean um from a financial financial financial time-out financial standpoint a huge feminist by the way no be a feminist so am i no i have three daughters for context so what does that mean no just in order i'm not going to say an order um there's an equation to having this like a financial fulfilling life you have a great career yeah i think that puts that's like an edge case um but the majority what do you mean as a edge case he asked me that too what's an edge case yeah edge case is like when you look at a um bell curve no i know what edge case is but in her case why are you saying she's like an outlier she's an outlier okay you're an outlier like there's not a lot of successful women out there no there's a lot of successful women out there however however the most successful marriages come from teamwork they do they do but for me so now you backpedaling no no i'm not i'm saying i think what she was saying is that she doesn't have to depend she doesn't have to but she's just moving it by herself so imagine a world imagine a world as if you had somebody that was just successful as you that's on the same page as you that's doing the not the same things as you you see what i'm saying like that's fulfilling right yeah i might be saying the same thing all right i just think she's saying i'd be wrong go for it no no i'll let you explain you no no go ahead this is yourself yeah don't get me wrong like i think um like do i think i need a man to have a filling life i don't know um would it be nice yeah it would but i think too i'm also at that point um where i've told my mom i you know my mom's a latina mom too like when where are my kids where are my grandkids it's different when your daughter has kids you should have kids she's at that point but i think too for me i mean i can have a kid without having to be married you know i can't and that's something i thought about seriously is um especially as i've entered my 30s you know just do i want to freeze my eggs do i want to have a kid independently um because i think too i mean i don't know about er i can't speak for everybody for for myself it's been really hard to find a successful man of color who can meet me where i'm at you know what's funny is because jennifer johnson and if they are there no jennifer johnson came in here was like this is easy yeah yeah i mean i i think too i mean don't get me i think you're a public figure though yeah well that is like another layer right yeah they take a lot into account yeah my a lot of my friends they do online dating or they have met people via like online dating and for me at the one time i tried it it was just like oh you're that news lady you're the newsletter yeah i'm done i can't deal with this he's like and i sent you a dm earlier but no way and a lot comes with that because uh you know as a news and you can tell me if i'm wrong but as a news uh reporter or anchor it's like you don't know where you'll be at right like exactly have those ambitions it's like hey i might be moving to dc i might go into shooting this train ain't stopping brother yeah well and that's the thing that's hard too is because of this career you do move so much and you are willing to uproot your life um so it's just been really hard to settle down with someone um but i think too i mean of course i think it'd be so i would love that to happen but i think too for me it's not my end-all be-all um it's not and i mean i recently had this conversation with one of my good friends i mean i think we give women you know we have these huge parties for women who are getting married and um you know we have bachelorette parties bridal showers and and i'm so happy for all my friends who've been able to accomplish that but why are we celebrating the other successes of women as well right when they are getting master's degrees when they do get promoted to a new job and i just think when we look historically at women and the role of women i mean that's always been something that has been pushed like you are successful if you can get married um but i personally just think that has changed right or it's it's important for me and i don't think that that's the message that we should be sending young women is that like oh if you get married that is success right and we all have different definitions of success don't get me wrong no and i'm trying to be cognizant of that and you know damo's a good role model in that because he has had three girls and it's the little small things of like you know when a boy is being aggressive oh he's being a strong leader when it's a girl oh you're being bossy or sassy or something like that so you know i've been guilty of that you know prior to me having girls in this uh my daughter i don't have girls just my daughter and change that narrative of like no you be aggressive you you be that leader you be assertive yeah go go let your yeah deserve it and all that stuff yeah my whole life is like oh marissa's obama so this but it's like be a tell you gotta go boss gotta move leslie your personality irks assertiveness in a great way i hope it absolutely does i hope so it does it's a question for you yes what do you have like what questions you have for us you're a journalist and i know you have questions for us wait let's come back to that oh yeah because i think code has oh my bad let's go back to that one but so let's let's just give a cheat code a little small little cheat code for marissa right what is your ideal date like paint the picture gosh that's a toughy is it breakfast no no no [Music] because you're busy and the reason i asked questions you're a busy woman yeah you're a public figure you've probably seen you know a wide range of guys sitting in a certain economic class you know what i mean so like what is the like what will it what will don't throw the wow we'll wow you yeah but though like paint a picture of a nice date well for me i think too it's never i mean i've never been someone like i have a dream date it's really can you meet me intellectually and that's the biggest thing i mean i have to i think be with someone who's either smarter than me or can teach me something and that and that's been a huge challenge because i think i mean i'm a talker if you can't tell um but i just for me i don't care where we go you could take me to mcdonald's but if you can wow my mind then i'm probably gonna be like oh my god you know how many would you would you be happy would you be happy i think a lot of people think too i must be like super materialistic and and i'm just not like i'm a very simple girl i mean don't get me wrong like if take me somewhere nice of course but um you know at the same time like i think it's for me it's all about conversation it's all about that rapport you are totally cool with chinese food in jeopardy yeah yeah or chinese food at a park you know what i mean like take me on a picnic alex trebek i mean i don't really like the champion hey so what's interesting is let me give you the difference all right alex yeah that was good so one of the things that a common denominator for me is so for context i always say that yeah i'm pr i feel like i'm pretty smart um but the women that i've been with including my wife are smarter than me so you saying hey i need somebody that's smarter than me makes me feel like damn i gotta get smarter well i'm not even just smarter but i think someone who could teach me something right i mean because of the industry i'm in and just my curiosity in general i mean a lot of people will say like what do you watch and i'm like documentaries like i am that person like i don't really watch a lot of tv shows i mean i have like my one committed show which is like grey's anatomy that i've watched for years but are you still watching that yeah i'm still watching their season like what they've got season like 18 20 yeah got it someone who could teach me something right and i think i think too um there's just so many things going on in our world right if you can talk to me about these things that matter um that that's just it's a different that aren't newsworthy better what's happening what's happening i think for me that's the winner so it doesn't even really mean i guess you have to be smarter than me but teach me something gotta have some depth so that's something because uh yeah i feel like you're a sponge of just information anybody in that profession is just like getting it from all angles i need to know everything i have to be curious so what she said she said your love of curiosity i love it so speaking of that wait what can i mean uh go no go go first time yeah you just had the for context man just leave me just ask the question no but i know man uh sorry no no i love it i just this is gonna be a good one though so speaking of that because it seems like you are a journalist and twitter oh twitter with elon buying it out and what what do you think the changes are going to be made and the effects of elon going to be owning twitter well i think um i mean obviously everyone's talking about freedom of speech right and what that means but i think too we also have to look at most of the social media sites that we have they are already owned by billionaires right the washington post i think jeff bezos right um so so a lot of these organizations whether it's gotten as much as much hype as the elon musk stuff um they're already owned by billionaires right all of these corporations are ran by billionaires and so i don't necessarily think it will change much i mean i think elon musk is interesting because of his relation to historically um i guess you could say the trump administration and just like more right-leaning politics is interesting but i do think that all right hope that it doesn't get that far but we also have to recognize that most of these social media sites i mean they're all owned by i mean yeah you're going to make a great play i think it's going to get really really interesting it is uh but i think too i mean it's kind of already happening right and when we look at media and we look at the shifts that media has taken um i mean some could say it's problematic to an extent but that's where i think places like local news do become a lot more critical right and more important to communities but i think within the world that they're buying information and they're buying data access oh they're buying data so when you buy twitter when you own twitter you own facebook instagram these are a small group of people who are owning the major pillars of the world right now right information access so dave jeff bezos data access you have elon musk information you have mark zuckerberg information i agree and i agree those are four those are those are what three or four people are named absolutely did [Music] so we got china so but these people are billionaires so the whole point of what i'm saying is you have billionaires that got it that basically have bought up the world based on the companies that they own yeah so how does local news affect that yeah that's great but i i want to just real quick because i think what an important or i want to get your perspective on is that yes zuckerberg uh bezos et cetera on the world or own those companies but what elon is unique because he's a heavy participator in the company that he's now going to own and he's very opinionated where i think so zuckerberg not not to the control man yeah do you think yeah do you think that'll be different i think i think it could be different i think it could be problematic right um and i think i mean i've already heard so many people saying i'm gonna leave twitter i'm gonna leave twitter but i think it'll depend what type of safeguards they put in place i mean the thing is is they're already selling our data right with facebook absolutely that already gets sold right and so there have been lawsuits where you know they were what last year two years ago testifying about data breaches right so it already happens i mean i guess i feel like we're kind of already there i mean obviously elon musk is a little more outspoken um i wouldn't be surprised if he gets into it more twitter brawls than than others um but i would hope that they would put the company itself and and the board i guess you could say would put safeguards in place to kind of um prevent that from happening any further you know what i mean he's going to be nominated it's not like it doesn't already happen but but it's going to be private now i don't know but marissa bringing in the board is the heavy hitter like the board's going to dictate how i would hope well no you well no he's going to be majority owner so he majority but you have a board that dictates the way that the company knows he's not going to be a part of the board i know he's he's he's taking there is the board yeah you're absolute both of you are absolutely right but he's still majority owner so i mean where things will come to a vote like he'll have majority got it so he could say based off the shares he has though got it all right i didn't know that i apologize based off the shares though absolutely uh what do you have to ask us oh gosh this is stuff i know when the tables turn right it's like i've been asking this year i don't know this [ __ ] about y'all you guys are denver natives too you know what are your thoughts on how denver has evolved that's something that i talk to my friends about all the time coming back and um yeah i don't know how do you guys feel about denver evolution from a real estate perspective we all love it like oh you don't no no i'm just looking at you no that's life flex for you because no there's a development but he doesn't even live in denver no no i live in metro people who don't like the who don't like the real estate market yeah well and i was gonna ask you mean you said real estate but also with real estate means the displacement of communities of color right we look at five points to you i mean real estate's great if you own property but what about the comm the people who don't or who aren't building that generational wealth yeah so fortunately uh my family was able to invest in real estate does it still exist no but there's lessons learned from that there's people that that lived on the east side um 23rd so yeah i lived on the east side yeah lived on the east side and we're no longer there these are lessons that should be taught and you learn and you understand we can't do this again sometimes life comes with a hard knock and you got to learn from it but you said it's great though you said no no no no no great great meaning um if you have ownership if you have ownership in communities but it's a great learning experience to say like hey this didn't work out for us what can we do differently for our families to learn more so it doesn't happen again but i think the an interesting point there and let's talk about gentrification right one of my best one of my former best friends we used to get into a lot of our disagreements because she was an engineer and she would say gentrification is needed and i was like no no no no it's not but i think to your point where you say you know we need to do better learn from that the thing is we need to educate our communities they don't even know about generational wealth right and i had this conver conversations with my friends about how with many of our communities communities you know what many of our communities um you know unfortunately we do have to start from like square a with teaching our communities about generational wealth about real estate about why you shouldn't sell your property right so i guess you know you say we got to learn from it but how do we even how do we even get to the point where we can teach them i mean my neighborhood right now is being gentrified as we speak but the question but the question you asked is how do we feel personally about denver personally yeah that's that was the question individually and the way i heard you damien and say as you as an individual it's been great especially on the real estate side that's what you say here from a capitalistic perspective for you okay and the push and the only pushback was was that okay yeah for you individually but that's what the question was a part that comes off tone def no it doesn't she asked me how it was that's what i mean push that's why no and i get it and that's why i said that that's why she pushed you to learn no no you started to back pedal so i didn't say okay well let me did i yes you felt a little better okay well i didn't mean to back up a little bit and and and sanders and i'm just pushing because the push was okay but there's people in this community in these in these communities that cannot afford housing here sure so when i say it sounds like a tone there for you to say and that's why i said life flex for you to say well yeah man from hey man the real estate the real estate uh perspective yeah i'm doing well yeah and i think so you're just and that's just you're not oh no but hold on just to shoot damos and bill i think he was you know and that is i don't think he meant it in that no no i don't think he was told but it did sound like that a little that wasn't my [ __ ] but the impact i can understand of what i could have said would be tone deaf that's that wasn't but like that's why i said we learn from our mistakes that's what i said right after got it so what about you so so he's pushing back on me yeah right no so you are so so my parents own two houses in parque flex right and and however they both still see the effects of gentrification and how and how in their older ages they're seeing their friends being displaced out of the neighborhood right right so the one thing my pops always said is he said you know what black people always need to remain in park hill regardless of and he instilled that in you right and he he he instilled that in me but then if i had him if i had him sitting there i don't think he would say like yeah man on the real estate side like things are great no but you you were brought up different than me my grandmother had it in her will to sell her house in southmoore one of the the only black person in southmoore that's southeast denver right yeah yeah she lived off a steel steel in mississippi what and she she had in her will to sell it off to her kids like that's a different way of thinking she wasn't thinking oh black people are going to move no she just said i want something for my kids but south moore is a little bit different than like park hill no it's not it's property okay so i disagree with you there because i i think what she asked was a gentrification i'm answering him not her no no but let's talk about gentrification in these areas there's no gentrification off of mississippi even mont bello now like yeah that's different i think in t for me personally i think uh like co like i moved out of denver for a while but then i came back and i was like i always wanted to live in uh i lived moved out of denver came back park hill i was like i always wanted to live in park hill because of the community and i had a high paying job and it was out in littleton i was like i don't care i'm not moving by my job i want to be around my people right right because that's how i grew up that's where i want to be so i was always like i didn't care about property value i'm always staying in park hill if i live in denver where did you learn that what's that where did you learn that from my parents in the community wait wait but learn what though i got like just stay in park hill to stay where you're from to stay where you're from yeah that wasn't a part of my family values um unfortunately that's not what we did yeah you have to learn it yeah absolutely and like now that's what i instill in my kids albeit southeast aurora but it's it's going to be a different experience and then to go back to gentrification though what i don't so the displacement of it right and the business opportunities that come in right so for me and co fairfax is a prime example for that so if you go to fairfax back in the day it was like black community owned you know a lot of shops that were to our liking but if you were looking at aesthetics and just upkeep and things like that there wasn't money put into it to make it better exactly as soon as you know white people come in then they're afforded that opportunity to tear down things bring their businesses in but they don't let the people that live there have the same opportunity right so it's like whatever the restaurant that might have been there no we're moving that out yeah it's like no let's rebuild that and re-innovate it so that it can stay but now it has a new appeal yeah and how do we sustain those families i mean back to your point you know i said you have to learn it right and and i think that's interesting because for a long time i wanted to get out of the hood i was just like no i got to leave here i hate it no absolutely yeah i can't stay here and now i can't see myself anywhere else like butt there because my mom lives there um and i'm still like living with her right now because she got like really bad covert that was part of me staying here she was like ventilated unfortunately and so that was really scary and so she's still on oxygen now i'm still recovering so i like moving that's her heart yeah she's doing a lot better um but but that i mean now i'm just i can't see myself living anywhere else you know but before that it was like for so long it was like get out of the hood leave the hood don't live here you know that's always the mentality right yeah but now after learning you know i'm just like i can't see myself anywhere else but here you live in the city absolutely we live in a city we live in a city that is top five most expensive places to live in the country and a city that the pay does not match the cost of living exactly so my whole point is this being in park hill the nature of my work i do community work right and i see the community around me right so i'm seeing people that cannot afford real estate in this city making a lot of money yeah so we were talking about gentrification we were talking about just cost of living right this is where and for me for me denver is not a place that is conducive and we're not doing well yeah in a place where um yeah yeah like granted man if you're if if if a house was was was passed down to you if your parents still live in the uh community yeah like but you have a leg up right yeah right and that's and that's fine and dandy right but when you're looking outward man you know what i mean you see a lot you see people who are busting their ass who cannot afford to live in denver and they're forced to these these outside neighborhoods you know you got people who grew up in westwood who went to college who wouldn't got master's degrees who's making 100 grand a year and cannot live in the neighborhood that they grew up in because they're totally priced out that's literally all my friends like all my high school friends pretty much who grew up with me most of them are latinas you know mexicanas they all have called most of them have college degrees none of them could afford to live there um so all of them live in like thor and aurora like the outside sure right um and that it's it's just so unfortunate you know what i mean because we can't like a lot of our communities can't afford property here um but not only that but then you know when they're going into certain communities like the north side or even my area in a family that's historically been lower income is offered half a mill they see that and they're like whoa what do you do what do you do [Music] but that you know that happens like in those those topics that happens at the fairfax jay right but your property tax is cheaper than affordable housing like affordable housing like you can get on the affordable housing program and still be paid 60 1700. absolutely it's insane but i think i agree with that yeah no no absolutely there's no argument i have for that that's the thing is i mean i i love denver um this is always going to be home this is where my roots are but when we look at how personally i mean i don't necessarily love the evolution that's happened here because unfortunately it's impacted a lot of communities of color and so so would you want to move to little rock arkansas no not little rock uh no i'm just throwing out a place i think i think no i mean i i eventually i mean i eventually do want to leave again yeah where would you like to go i don't i mean i've lived i lived in new york that was my number one area um but i i would probably want to move to like an la and that's another place where real estate's awful but i guess i'm thinking in more of the more in terms of opportunity so capitalistic mindset right yeah kinda i mean i get yeah kinda you know but i think too you know where am i where am i gonna be able to serve my for sure right because you know little rock arkansas i know it has a bigger black i was just no i was just being facetious when i said little rock but l.a i get what you're saying about l.a but her moving to l.a is more of an opportunity where denver is home no but but la in terms of her career and i'm speaking for you is more powerful than denver it's an a market media place and we must be talking about two different things so yeah i guess so but like at the end of the day you will be able to like you'll be able to work in la and thrive but will you be able to afford property in l.a and i mean i don't i don't know i mean i guess it would depend where i end up career-wise but i think for me when i even anywhere i look uh in terms of moves where can i be marketable where could my skills love it where can i have more impact whether that's for the black community the latino community where can i go and actually implement change and where is that voice needed right i think when we look at denver and as much as i love denver and when we even look at gentrification like real estate i mean denver is more diverse than people give us credit for if you're not from here but that isn't represented in a lot of the way the city's run right that's politics whether that's news i mean at the end of the day the people who still call the shots even again when we look at diversity in newsrooms like yeah you can have a couple pocs sprinkled in but who's calling the shots are all the managers white or do we have a couple vlc like so so i think we have to look at i mean yeah like just bigger the the bigger issues i mean i love denver but denver i don't in my opinion i don't necessarily think serves a lot of communities of color so can i just thought just one last thing um in terms of affirmations i think i took my statement the wrong way you will go to la you will thrive um you will be prosperous and i think i like the the way that i took like position on what you said um i i diminished what you said and that wasn't my intent you're gonna be a baller i hope so i hope so for sure yeah yeah but you're spinning right there like does like does the media and the um the way different structured and what people see on the surface coming in fully represent the culture and diversity that's actually here because it's tough it does because because of gentrification all right people of color are so spread out right but the but the one thing that has remained intact is that latina latino uh population is still strong and and it's it's visible right but but it's like you said in media do we really um highlight that is it are we just putting um latinx people on the tv during latin heritage month right well that's the thing is it's it's to my in my opinion it's kind of tokenism right i mean it's it's tokenism to a point where yeah we're going to throw in these poc into these spaces but again it goes back to intention are you really doing it with intention to serve that community and i have so many friends who are latinas who say you know great that you're working here but like your station still doesn't like speak to me it doesn't serve me just like it doesn't serve many communities of color right and and so of course my friends are still out there watching telemundo which i give so much props to the spanish-speaking networks as well um but it's because these stations aren't necessarily speaking to our communities and what's important for them right you say that because it's like even if you sprinkle if you have the diversity there there's not the inclusion part right of like speaking to us right sure like you have faces there but it's still that eurocentric that's a good balance there are barriers right and so every day when you're going to pitch a story and i might pitch something that has to do with the black community right or the latino community um there's still probably a white manager above me who gets the call so you have to i mean i say this all the time like i think in my opinion a lot of these corporations are are diverse and you know they care about diversity and inclusion until they don't right until it's enough like okay we got a latina here she'll play that card but when it's once it's a little too risque or are you right too overboard you know it's like oh let's let's put the brakes on that so i i don't talk about my job a lot on this show um what do you do i'll lead diversity equity and inclusion for uh intuit i've heard about that company yeah so turbo tax quickbooks are you gonna give me a hookup on that turbo tax that was supposed to be free wasn't it for certain people no you make too much money okay he's a capitalist he's going to charge you forever yeah i won't charge you um gosh wait did you ever see the hassan minaj documentary about taxes no hassan minhaj i think it is it's really interesting and it talks about how i'm like a doc freak um but it talks about how a lot of these companies had two urls to get them to get people when when it was free from a lot of americans they had two urls and the top search on google would lead them to the paid version versus the free version just to get that money but it actually was supposed to be free and they there's a whole bunch of funk around that like intuits in the news a whole bunch of bs um no the bottom line is i file for my daughters and they file for free oh like that that's the crux if you know what you're doing if you click on the right link you get it for free yeah so i lead diversity recruiting for and to it and one of the things that i and that that's not a flex this is just like me spitting facts one of the things that's our main focus is representation at the leadership level for all of the things that you're talking about you make strategic hires at the leadership level people see i.e james in positions that they normally wouldn't see individuals in that position and guess what they want to do they want to work for them yeah and so granted this isn't like discriminatory by any means but if you have the skill guess who's going to hire you yeah we will right now kudos demo yeah that's what i think about daymond man he's going to reach back and uh and give and give his time and uh his uh his influence you know what i mean to people of color but marissa you're absolutely right it's like because i did see a chart and i'm also in the tech industry with uh so uh looking at the percentages you're right like it's off it's off because at the the bottom level like it is more diverse and it appears like oh when you look at it at the surface you're very diverse but as you climb up the ladder it's like oh there's a speck there you know brown there there's a black there and it's just far and few between so you're you're absolutely right and that's where change is made right is near the top so exactly so yeah so statement and then i'll bring us home okay you know what's so interesting that you said that jay is i say interesting [ __ ] no you do man like i'm flexible no when you think about what people see when you look at me you don't see the normal corporate america mf right no you don't [Laughter] like when when you see like he got on the phone on me he got on the phone let us all hear this hey i'm on the phone it's okay it's a school night daddy i want to go night night tuesdays are tough let's just my sunday night essentially well oh really this is your sunday night so i yeah tomorrow's like my monday oh man yeah it's a rough week ahead we'll see hopefully pray no wildfires come out yeah so we'll just wait till he gets off the phone let's listen to his conversation what did i say interesting [ __ ] yeah you said oh so when you look at me and james when you look at him you may or may not see the normal corporate america [ __ ] right and excuse my language but um one of the things that i pride myself on is if you can't see me the way that i am whether it's my haircut or whether it's my tattoos or whether it's the way that i talk whether it's the way i approach situations then i'm not in the right place it took me 10 years in my corporate life to understand that and i understand it now and my leadership team respects that right and it's not a flex like oh you're going to listen to me but it's this is who damien is and they attached to that he's absolutely right but i mean he's he's speaking truth and i work for uh so i work for a company called slack and uh he's right because when you're worried about those things you you can't be your best self right you can't come in there and provide solutions because at the top of your mind is clouded with like how can i say this right how can i not put my accent into things like you're worried about the wrong things and we want you to problem solve we want you to be your best version of you and if you can't do that like if you're worried about yeah i got tattoos and you know i'm black i wear my hair this way i'm brown and you know i have these certain perceptions and stereotypes if you are working like that you got to get out of there you know and that's the thing too i think that when you say that and when we say that i think that's why a lot of people are leaving the industry right because the thing is is uh when we create research it's evolved right and there are other ways to do journalism look at tick tock right and when i go speak to students i say you know you're interested in journalism start making some tick tocks you really because that's where we're getting our news sometimes and so i think too if if that space doesn't in my opinion respect you or value who you are and finally go elsewhere 100 absolutely i told somebody that today so it's interesting because a lot of what i do is i do coaching as well um i need to sit down with you yeah let's talk but like no it's important and we talk about stuff like that if you can't bring marissa to the job then we got we got to look at things differently so uh we'll go tick tock viral let's go yeah so uh one of the questions we always ask to like close it out did you have a good time tonight oh my gosh i had a great time i could stay here all freaking night all day all week shout out to y'all absolutely yeah yeah we can stay here all night no you've been great you've been great this was your show absolutely this is all about you and then we always ask like considering the experience that you had tonight who would you recommend that you that we have on the show oh gosh that's a great question so have you guys do you guys know jason mcbride sounds familiar yes yes struggle of love he is great he does so much for the community we've worked on several stories together he would be great um because i think he just he's been at the forefront of what we're looking at what's happening with youth violence in denver and aurora historically right he is just i think a great advocate and i mean this guy's working saturdays and sundays sometimes going out to the community but also tim hernandez uh tim he is actually he's i think he's i think he told me he's a gen zier but he's a teacher new teacher at north high school okay he um i think this was like his first year there he graduated college i think 2020. he's young but this guy is smart and when we look at education and we look at what's lacking in education he is the perfect educator to bridge that gap especially coming from north high school yeah and he actually didn't go to north he was he was raped but he teaches there yeah but when we look at that area right and what's happened to north um and a lot of changes on the north side right but he is so smart and innovative and he is someone who i think when we look at educators those are the educators we need when we look at dps and who's educating our black and brown kids um so he would be definitely one of my top and then jason with struggle of love and so even if like you're obviously going to think of people later you're always like oh damn i should have said this person tag them right when we post it tag it i definitely will i had such a great time with you guys and i just appreciate the shared space i appreciate everyone's knowledge and insight into all of these different issues and honestly i just give you guys a shout out for what you're doing you know putting denver on the map and um just showing all the love for our community and what we have here i think sometimes when people think of denver uh they don't think uh a lot of people tell me like oh there's actually black folks there's black people in denver yeah that's always what i get about yeah you they've been there and they've existed um we really just gotta give them that platform and even the latino community i mean we have to give um our community i think you know a place where they can share their stories and share their narrative so thank you guys so much that's what it's about like we want to have we want to tap into the latino bureau community to come on the show one question i do want to ask you guys and i and i ask a lot of my black friends this and i have conversations just with my friends of color and in general and we didn't get into this too much but how can latinos be better allies for the black community and and that's something i try to do every single day in my job and in my work place i guess but how can latinos be better allies for the black community give me free tacos right just because i love tacos and it's tuesday um i don't know that i have um it is susan yeah i don't know that i have a specific answer um i think there's a lot of things that the black community can learn from the latino community um in terms of togetherness and uh building community um and you know what i think about like what resonates with me from back in the day is like in endeavor the separation of the communities yeah and like now what's happened is they're together coming together and then how do we communicate that togetherness does that make sense yeah it's it's totally sharing that space so one of my really good friends man i met him late like like you know like i grew up with damian and james and jay keller i know you call them but we grew up together and uh damian talks about with these divides you know like back in the day denver was a lot more segregated than it it was segregated you know what i mean and uh started working for the city and um i befriended a guy named bobby lefevre oh yeah yeah bobby's working so great that's my dog man yeah he was here on friday yeah so so he came to our one year anniversary but i respect him so much man because we um started out as peers just on the work on the job and we started hanging out and he really gave me the tour of the north side right and the whole southwest denver and we created this bond by just going to west together it's like sharing space right he's taking me to man vietnamese italian mexican guatemalan ecuador like he's taking me to all of these dope restaurants and we created this bond over food man and we just we just became really close and to damian's point it's about sharing that space especially sharing space and understanding that we are one and the same right but being open and having safe space to um to uh clearly um express our differences right right right yeah and and be cool about it right and and say okay here's how we differ which is cool how do we find common ground and that's what i found with him and you know to me the guy in my 30s you know what i mean and say he's my friend hey man it was awesome that's that's pretty dope that's awesome yeah what about you i i i think y'all summed it up perfectly i think uh we need to show up for each other right and have that safe space where and i was talking about when i was in you know mexico and i probably didn't describe it the best but the similarities we have and to be able to share those together and yeah being there for one another understanding each other's culture we can learn a lot from each other you know and be able to be lockstep when we're talking about the bigger issues that affect us you know the brown black and brown communities like let's coordinate a little more let's work as a team not to say that that's not happening but do it even more for like fred hampton proved that like it gets so absolutely yeah but it's not just black and brown but you know just like because we have a coalition that this [ __ ] gets too too deep um one of the things that you said that i that i have to double down on is like not only the shared space um but like just just talking like i know shared space is like hey we're in this space no absolutely but like talking and togetherness and like it's interesting how like to your point food brings us together exactly like it was free tacos like no no no no but like all that's a joke but it's the truth i don't want free tacos but like breaking bread together breaking bread nicely conversation thank you you summed it up for me there you go i'm all about it absolutely it's all love uh yeah so you're never on by the way oh thank you you could stay here all day and talk to you guys all day so invite me back for part two yeah yeah we will invite you back erisa thanks for stopping by and giving us your time i know it's uh it's important to you and uh we loved it and you never stumbled upon the unexpected if you stick to the familiar so go out there and support each other share with each other [Music]

Channel: This. Podcast

Views: 551

Keywords: podcast, podcasts, culture, society, entertainment, stories, show, this, this.podcast, jay, cain, uncle damo, black, funny, humble, denver, park hill, conversation, compelling, dope, real, talk, authentic, listenable, co, mike, hysaw

Id: TQZuOI3kLRg

Length: 91min 1sec (5461 seconds)

Published: Fri May 20 2022