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10: Cancellation Policy
63 Plays5 years ago
As I learn more about atrocities like this from companies worldwide *Carrie Bradshaw voice* I can't help but wonder, if we don't cancel, then what do we do? Mindful Musings is now Geneva Says - more at brittanygeneva dot com.
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Transcript
Introduction and Apology
00:00:02
Speaker
Oh my God, Becky, look, her podcast is back. Oh, oh, I know y'all do not come for me. Do not come from my neck. I know I have not posted a podcast on this here, Apple, iTunes, or wherever you listen since May. I know.
00:00:31
Speaker
I know it's November and I have not posted a podcast, okay?
Juggling Responsibilities
00:00:36
Speaker
Please don't come for me right now in my time of need. This has been quite a long and busy year. I don't think I have to tell y'all. It's been a lot. Okay, so yes, perhaps maybe, in fact, the podcast may have slipped
00:00:58
Speaker
may have slipped down my priority list a little bit, okay? I'm so sorry. I cannot tell you, I mean, I went to Atlanta, my girl said, where's the podcast? I went to Tallahassee, my nephew said, where's the podcast? The other day, I don't remember where the hell I was, but my homeboy said, where's the podcast? I'm like, all right, okay, all right. I've heard you, I'm listening. I got it. Y'all are mad at me.
00:01:29
Speaker
But I promise, I mean like, I'm, I know I say this every time, but I really mean it. I'm about to get it together. I promise, I promise. I'm for real, y'all pray for me. Ask God to give me strength, Jesus, after these.
00:01:45
Speaker
people, I was about to say a certain type of person, but you know what type of people I'm talking about after these people take all my energy every day at work. And then I, and then I, you know, I messed around and said, sure, I'll be the vice president of the urban league young professionals in DC. That won't take up all my time and energy. So I go from one job to another job. Hell, that thing is a second full time job, except I don't get paid. Okay.
00:02:12
Speaker
And then I get home at 11.30 PM and I'm like, all right, well, I guess I don't have time to record a damn podcast.
New Beginnings at Home
00:02:18
Speaker
So, but I'm here and I'm so happy to be back and I have so much to talk about. And I have so many things that have been building up in my spirit. And I just like, I just, I was about to explode. So I said, I guess I have to do a podcast. Cause I, I just, I have to. So one, I pray that you all are not hearing any type of
00:02:40
Speaker
echoes or like bad audio quality from this podcast because I'm recording from a new location. I haven't moved into my home. That was one reason why a girl was a little bit busy over the summer and into the early fall because I was buying homes and moving into homes and trying to furnish homes.
00:02:58
Speaker
So, you know, that's a bit time consuming. So I have the setup in what is now my glam room, a.k.a. the room where I just put my makeup on and look in the mirror and feel pretty. And there's no carpet. There's no like in my in my last place, I had carpet and a fully furnished room.
00:03:15
Speaker
So it was like absorbing the sound, but now I'm just, it's a big old, almost empty room with like a vanity. So I hope that it doesn't sound terrible.
Amazon's Ethics Dilemma
00:03:25
Speaker
Um, but I am here and I'm very like tonight, especially I was like, I really do have to do a podcast because I just read this scathing article.
00:03:36
Speaker
online on the Atlantic about crazy things happening at Amazon. These workers are being stretched to the bone. They're dying. They're having permanent injuries because they have such an insane workload. There's these little machines that follow them around and tell them, you need to be doing something and they have to reach hundreds of packages an hour or something outrageous.
00:04:04
Speaker
also that we can have our one and two day shipping. And I'm just like, bitch, I just moved into this house. Do you know how much motherfucking Amazon I've been ordering? Like every time I'm awake, I'm ordering I just ordered Amazon right now during while I was talking. Like, I order so much Amazon all the time. And I'm like, shit, like
00:04:24
Speaker
I have heard stories about Amazon before, but they sort of seemed like, oh, that was like an extreme case or just one warehouse or there was something about the stories that made it seem more rare.
Customer vs Employee Prioritization
00:04:37
Speaker
But reading this, it was like, no, they did like this deep ass investigation and it was all in the California and Ohio and fucking Florida, you know, everywhere. There was nationwide having all these exposés and stories and stuff. And I was like, shit.
00:04:54
Speaker
How come every, like every time there's like a customer centric business, like a business that puts the customer first, anything to make the customer happy, the employee is treated like shit.
00:05:09
Speaker
Y'all remember when Uber first came out, it was like, oh, we prayed for Uber. Finally, I don't have to wait for a damn cab. I don't got to argue, get in the cab, tell them I'm going to Harlem. I'm going to the Bronx and they kicked me out and say, I don't want to take your black ass up there. You know?
00:05:27
Speaker
Black people had those jokes where every time you watched a comedy special, it was like a black man can't get a cab. That's some real ass shit. I lived in New York from 2013 to 2017.
00:05:39
Speaker
in the year of motherfuckers should be able to take a cab. And I got kicked out of cabs when I got in and said, I'm going to Harlem. They said, well girl, you better get out. Harlem is gentrified. White people live in Harlem now more than black people. And I still couldn't get a ride up to that bitch. So I was like, no. As soon as I heard about Uber, I said, sign me up. Where's it at? Put it on my phone.
00:06:03
Speaker
Y'all remember you got in the Uber, they had gum. They had chargers, you know. Would you like some lotion, some water, some potpourri? You know, would you like this gift basket to take with you to your destination? Would you like the auxiliary cord? Here you go, control the music. I mean, you used to get in that, that shit was luxury. Oh my goodness. I'm riding in stuff like a black car. And you get in the Uber, you feeling like damn, a million dollars.
00:06:31
Speaker
Okay, and I don't even got to worry about like having an awkward tipping conversation I could just do that in the app I don't got to swipe my card and have you niggas putting swipers on the thing or Skimmers on the thing. So you take my credit card number and
00:06:46
Speaker
and duplicate my card and try to be buying things and babies are us two days away. I don't have to deal with that no more. Look at God. And then we come to find out Uber's treating the drivers like shit. Uber don't have the, trying to treat them like contractors when they're employees. They don't want to pay no benefits.
00:07:04
Speaker
I used to get an Uber and talk to the drivers and they would tell me how terrible it is driving for Uber and it's just more and more demands and expectations and blah blah blah and I'm like damn.
00:07:18
Speaker
I was riding for Uber and then we find out not only they're abusing the drivers, but then they had a lot of sexual abuse instances happening. So then I went to Lyft. Well, what did we just find out about Lyft? Sexual abuse times 10. They got all types of things that they weren't investigating, weren't taking drivers off the street, even though there had been claims against drivers. So I'm just like, well, hell.
00:07:42
Speaker
Is there any damn company in 2019 that is treating the customer well and also treating their employees well? I feel like the answer is no.
The Ethical Consumer Dilemma
00:07:54
Speaker
Walmart, the lowest prices, yeah, and the lowest pay. All these companies, it's just like, if you feel like they prioritize you as a customer, you can be almost damn sure that they are not prioritizing their employees and their workers.
00:08:11
Speaker
And I care about that. Like I don't, I don't want to support a company. I don't want to support an Amazon that is making it so that workers don't have time to go to the bathroom, making it so that they're throwing their back out because instead of they would like to call somebody to help them lift that heavy box. But if they take that time to do it, they're going to get written up for not getting enough packages.
00:08:34
Speaker
moved in the hour. A man died according to this article because he was not properly trained on a piece of heavy equipment and Amazon basically bribed, coerced the city government into sweeping it under the rug because that city at the time thought that they were going to be in contention for HQ2.
00:08:58
Speaker
Nigga, you know good and motherfucking well, HQ2 was never going to motherfucking Indianapolis, Indiana. Like, what? You thought that for real, Indianapolis? You thought you had a real chance for HQ2? Nigga, that thing went to New York and to the place where Jeff Bezos lives, you know? That really wasn't no competition. But anyways.
00:09:20
Speaker
So now we have more and more information coming out about these companies. And here come the C word, do I cancel? What do I do? You know, I look, I never asked God for two day delivery, but now that I have it, you know what I'm saying? It's a little, you know, it's a little hard to be like, okay, let me go back to five to seven days, like a week. Who, for what? But now I'm like, well, shoot.
00:09:48
Speaker
Maybe I do, you know, do I need to just accept my five to seven days and pick that longest delivery window so I can at least know that my package didn't have to be toiled over, you know, they could take a leisurely walk over to my package. It doesn't have to be to me for a week, you know, like.
Cancel Culture and Its Impact
00:10:09
Speaker
What do we do? And that's why cancellation keeps coming up. Because I feel like when you hear about this shit, what do you do to try to not be a part of the fucking corporate structure and like billionaire bullshit that makes you not be able? I can't look up and get away from Facebook. I don't want to fuck with Facebook anymore. Facebook promotes disinformation. Facebook
00:10:36
Speaker
knows what the fuck it's doing. It has been exposed a million times over for what has done to enable Russian bots to control our 2016 elections. And yet, even as I desperately want to delete Facebook from my life, it's not gonna happen. I'm on Instagram. I love Instagram. Now that Facebook bought that bitch, well, I guess I'm a little bit related to Facebook. I would like to delete my Facebook account entirely
00:11:05
Speaker
But I'm on the board of an organization that has a Facebook page and I do need to be able to be connected to that online. I have certain people in my life, family members, that if I'm not connected with them on Facebook, we really are going to have a much harder time staying in touch with people. I have people who still only send like Facebook events to announce things. So I'm like, fuck, like I have to be on Facebook.
00:11:31
Speaker
And it's like, that's how life feels when you hear about these companies and you want to be rid of them, the Facebooks and the Amazons and the Ubers of the world.
00:11:40
Speaker
How can you? I mean, Uber became popular because it went to places that a taxi doesn't go. Right now, my house is a little bit off the beaten path in Southeast DC. So, taxis is not driving up and down my street, but let me tell you, I call it Uber or Lyft. There it is right there, five minutes. Take me right wherever I need to go.
00:12:05
Speaker
So how people, I feel like, you know, a lot of times cancel culture gets made fun of why y'all always canceling. What does canceling even mean? That's a great question. I mean, honestly, what does canceling even mean? But I feel like people cling to that and I, I have clung to that because I'm like, what the fuck else can I do? Like I have no control over the situation. My, I cannot keep Facebook and Amazon from taking over the world.
00:12:34
Speaker
But what I can do is say, I'm not going to fuck with them, which I'm not even, I'm not even saying that. I wish I was saying that, but I'm not even saying it right now because it's unrealistic. But in other, in other situations where I have canceled people, I really meant that shit. I canceled Chris Brown for like 10 years. Like I stopped listening to that nigga's music period. If he, after that Rihanna stuff is his song came on the radio. I'm changing the station.
00:13:05
Speaker
I'm not streaming one Chris Brown song. I'm not buying one Chris Brown album. And I was after, you know, after a few years, I was alone in my little fight against Breezy. And people were like, Brittany, you gotta get over it. You know, you gotta, you know, people change, forgiveness, blah, blah, blah. I was like, no. But after a lot, after year after year of hearing that,
00:13:32
Speaker
shit i did get soft i was like is it time for me to you know let go of my chris brown cancellation and then he came out with that long ass album that was really good it was really good i hate how much i liked it heartbreak on a full moon was like a bomb ass album oh my gosh it was really good and i can't remember where i was it was like
00:13:59
Speaker
Maybe I was at like a hair salon or I was somewhere where music was playing that I wasn't controlling, you know? And I could, you know, the album was playing in the background and I'm like, damn, no, this isn't good. This is terrible. Stop. No, I'm just kidding. This is a bop. Damn. Okay. Hold on. And then I'm at work. I always listen to music at work and I'd be looking for new music to listen to.
00:14:27
Speaker
And there went Chris Brown popping up. And before you know it, here I am listening to heartbreak on a full moon and right back into the Chris Brown web of trash. And there went my decade long cancellation and one fell swoop.
00:14:43
Speaker
And that's what makes us cancel people look real dumb. Like, oh, you undid the cancellation. And I'm like, yeah, I sure did. I don't know what else to say. But it's like, the reason why people cancel, the reason why people wanna cancel Kanye, the reason I wanted to cancel Chris Brown, the reason why I'm trying to figure out, shit, is it possible to cancel Amazon? The reason why people keep going to that is because it's like,
00:15:12
Speaker
How else can we have a little bit of power over something we feel is unjust? Or is not right? What can I do? Are you telling me that my only answer is to be quietly upset or to post about my anger on social media and then go on? I have to do something to show that this thing is not acceptable.
00:15:41
Speaker
All these exposés are going to come out about Amazon. It's just going to keep going. There's going to be documentaries. There's going to be someone who's finally able to sneak a hidden camera into a fulfillment center so we can see firsthand the abuse that these workers undergo. And it's still going to be like, but a bitch loves two day shipping.
00:16:06
Speaker
And that is not going to affect Amazon's bottom line one bit just because all the information is out there. Now people can just feel guilty when they press buy now, but they're still going to fucking press it. So it's like, what can we actually do to impact any of the world around us? If we literally just say cancel, cancel culture is stupid.
00:16:29
Speaker
cancellations don't work nothing can stop you know the corporate like greed and like billionaire dollar so we're just gonna have to accept everything the way it is like is that really is that life is that really life that we just have to accept everything and the only thing we can do is complain on social media and we can't actually impact anything it just feels so hopeless and helpless and powerless
00:16:55
Speaker
And so I think that's why cancel culture has taken off the way it has because it's like, that's my one little way to be able to say, I am not okay with this. I'm not okay with what R. Kelly has done. And so as much as I fucking love ignition, and if that song came on right now, I would be bouncing my shoulders without even, it would be natural, it would be a reflex.
Do Individual Actions Matter?
00:17:20
Speaker
I'm still going to be like, no, like shut that song off and cancel this entire human being because what he has done is so horrible and unthinkable that I will just have to sacrifice my enjoyment of a certain song. And I'm okay with doing that. But it's like.
00:17:38
Speaker
The R. Kelly situation is so extreme and ugly that maybe that cancellation is a lot easier. But like, you know, my Chris Brown example, other examples I've given some of the things that are like a little bit less horrifying, but still very bad. But, you know, what do I do? Does it really matter? Is it really going to impact anything? Well, I mean, if I decide to take a week to get my Amazon packages, is that really teaching Amazon a lesson or is that just inconveniencing my life, you know?
00:18:09
Speaker
So I have no, I don't even have like an answer. Like I don't, I don't know what the solution is for the fact that I feel like more and more in this day and age, either people are doing more terrible shit or we have just more information and ability to learn about the terrible shit. But either way, it feels like we are at a high level of terrible shit going on and
00:18:38
Speaker
What can I do about any of that other than just accept it because I don't want to just accept it, but I hate to have to like uproot my life and it won't even make a difference in keeping the terrible shit from happening. So I'm, I'm unsure of the solution, but I do understand and sympathize with cancel culture people and I don't
Understanding Cancel Culture Participants
00:19:05
Speaker
make fun of them. I am.
00:19:07
Speaker
myself at the very least if I'm not one of them I you know, I'm friends with them and I understand what they're thinking and I understand sort of the motivation because you do want to feel like you can actually impact something and maybe that can make an impact so I I would encourage you that if you do know someone who's like who cancels people you see that oh we got a cancel and
00:19:35
Speaker
don't be so fast to make fun of them. I feel like everyone now is very popular. It's very chic to make fun of cancel culture. And I'm like, think before you do that, because while you're making fun of them, those people are actually trying to find something that can make an impact. And maybe it's like a little knee jerk and silly.
00:19:55
Speaker
But it's something, and like, the fuck are you doing? Sorry, but what is it? If you have a better solution, by all means, the floor is yours. But if you don't, I would highly encourage you not to make fun of people who are actually trying to find some way to impact what's going on around them.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:20:17
Speaker
I've already well over 20 minutes at this point. I'm like, okay, my first podcast back and I'm like, I could talk for an hour, but I won't put you guys through that. Thank you so much. I really appreciate everyone who listens. I appreciate everyone who has cussed me out for taking so long to get back on the mic. So I promise I will not be so delinquent in this again.
00:20:46
Speaker
And in the meantime, if you feel any type of way about what I've said, if you want to chat about it, I'm on social media, Britney underscore Geneva. And I'd love to chat. I'd love for someone to tell me cancel culture is terrible and then we can have a conversation. But that is Mindful Musings. Thank you so much for listening. And I will try very, very hard to be back in two weeks.