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Welcome to the A to Z English podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with my cohost, Xochitl, and as you know Xochitl and I are American citizens.
Xochitl is also a Mexican citizen, so you have dual citizenship, and right now there is a lot of tension between the United States and Mexico, and the United States and Canada, and it's a direct cause of our President's decision to start a trade war with these countries.
And along with the trade war, we have the elimination of DEI.
And Xochitl, why don't you share with the audience what DEI stands for?
DEI stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
And you know, for our listeners diversity literally just means, how would you describe diversity, Jack?
It's kind of hard for me to snaps.
Diversity just means multicultural, basically, you know, different cultures, different skin colors, different races, different sexual orientations, yeah, so.
Different genders, different thought.
And the thing is, well, we'll get into the end of minute.
But diversity, equity.
Being equitable is different than equality.
Equality is like giving everyone the same opportunity and being equitable is like, let's say you have two legs, right?
You're fine. You're in great condition.
So, you can carry your groceries in, but there's someone who has a wheelchair and they can't carry their groceries in so the government builds a ramp for them to their house that's being equitable it's like they're just giving it's so everyone can have can do the same thing but they're just giving you a little a little bit of help that you need if that makes exactly it's like if you need I just for just to make make it easy I'm just gonna choose ten ten dollars you know like if you need $10 a day to survive just to survive not to live you know a luxurious lifestyle and someone only gets $5 a day
and the government will you know support supply the the additional five to bring that person up to you know a level where they can survive you know I mean that's what we're talking about not not living luxury but just survival so yeah sorry I I think a really good example I just thought of while you were talking is like, let's say glasses.
Let's say the government says, we'll give glasses to every person who needs them.
And then let's say like, you don't need glasses, but you're like, I want my glasses anyways.
But I mean like, it's just giving, it's just giving to like, if you need that, it's there for you, you know?
Yeah. Your example is much better than mine because it's I'm talking about like, or because you're talking about we're not all born equal.
There are people with disabilities and things like that that give people a kind of hard time to catch up and compete in this capitalist world we live in or society.
So, yeah, I think some people need a little bit of a lift once in a while, just to balance things out, you know, make it make it fair, equitable.
So I think that's maybe what I'm on the right page there.
I guess. Okay. That actually, that's correct.
Yeah. And then, I mean, I completely agree with you.
And then with inclusion, I think it's just including multiple perspectives, multiple different types of people into our government, into our schools, into our organizations.
And that's actually a benefit because the more different perspectives you have, it's like if you're working on a project and you have five people with the exact same perspective, you may never solve a problem.
But if you have five different people with completely different perspectives, that really helps because, oh, well, I think we can do this way.
Well, what if we do this way?
then what if we combine these two people's trains of thoughts and come up with a way more efficient way to do it you know yeah if you ever you start a club or something you know a music club you can't say like only white male participants you know what I mean like you can't yeah you have to open it you have to open it up for everybody you know yeah got to be available anyone can join your music club you know that's inclusion and so for me I think DEI efforts were actually put in place a lot of people misunderstand they think that DEI efforts were put in place so that less qualified people could apply
and get the same job so let's say in America specifically white men were always given a privilege of like if there's five applicants to one position and let's say four of them are not white males and one of them is a white male, the chances that he's gonna get that job rise exponentially.
So he's far more likely to get that job, right?
And then diversity, equity and inclusion was built so that let's say you're race and your color and your gender and your sexual orientation, and all of those things have absolutely nothing to do with whether or not you will get a job.
So people think, oh, the diversity equity and inclusion DEI is created so that black people or Hispanic people or gay people can get jobs more easily.
It's actually just so that all of those things about your identity are not taken into account.
It's only your accomplishments and how appropriate you would be for this role.
it's a it's a blind it's like just trying to create like a blind a blind test essentially right it's like you know it's like doing the an interview but you can only do it over the phone you can't see a picture of the person you don't know what they look like so so you have to choose the most qualified applicant you can't choose someone based on their appearance you know oh he's handsome or she's beautiful or she's from Southeast Asia I don't want you know it's just like you can't for the for the the stupid reasons people don't hire people you know or the wrong the evil reasons or on amoral reasons
you try to eliminate that it's like it's like a blind test kind of a situation yeah and I and we in America used to believe that that was giving equal opportunity to every single person which was a positive thing.
And I agree there's a positive thing.
It's a reason that when a lot of Americans go and look for teaching jobs in South Korea or China or Japan they get really shocked that you have to put a picture on your resume, because here in America that was not you know allowed under any circumstance.
It would be extremely unprofessional it would be a red flag in our culture if you were expected to put a picture on And the reason is because the way that you look should have nothing to do with how qualified you are for a position.
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.
If you're, you know, a good accountant, what does it matter what your, you know, appearance is, ethnicity or religion or sexual orientation?
Yeah, right, right.
If you're Muslim and you, in your religion, you wear a headscarf or something, who are you hurting by wearing a headscarf into the office to do accounting?
Like, I don't understand the, you know, people that they get upset about this.
I just can't understand why they get angry, so.
Right. And so DEI was really put in as a way to protect our core beliefs as Americans, which is that equality for all, everyone should have an equal opportunity for everything.
We have freedom of speech, we have freedom of religion, your skin color, your sexual orientation, all those things should have nothing to do with whether you get hired for position or how you're seen in our society.
And unfortunately, under the new presidency, they're starting to roll back DEI.
Right, because they can be connected to affirmative action.
They basically lie about it.
They say that it's, you know, you can only hire, let's say, for lack of a better word, minorities, right?
Like, you can only, you can only hire more.
It's not true. It's like socially explained.
It's the opposite. It's basically a blind test. It's giving everybody, imagine your son, your old or broken phone can let you down when you need it most. Ah, perfect.
But at Verizon trade in any old phone from our top brands and get the most for it.
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At Verizon trade in your old phone for a brand new iPhone 16 Pro iPad and Apple Watch. The other guys won't give you that.
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Starting a race, 100 meter dash, then everybody starts on the zero, the starting line, you know?
The way it is now, you know, if you're a white male, you start on like 70 meter line, you know?
You have a huge advantage or, you know?
And there's a hierarchy of what this current administration prefers, you know, and it's scary because it's it's a reminds me of not even reminds me it reminds me of movies or documentaries that I've seen about like the 1950s in America or even the 1930s in Germany and stuff like that so it's a scary time in in our country yeah a lot of things that I felt like were core beliefs in the American identity have shifted.
And equality is no longer important.
It's really about upholding the hierarchy that existed a long time ago long before I was even born.
Yes. Yeah, I've been ever really sorry.
Go ahead. No, I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to interrupt you.
I was just like, Yeah, I just get so emotionally charged up when I talk about this.
Like, I have a hard time explaining myself clearly, but you know when I grew up even in the 80s and stuff you know, I didn't realize how racist our country was, but now people feel like it's okay to let that part of you kind of out, you know what I mean, like it's uh, whereas it was in the 90s, you know, it was just totally shameful to be racist, you know?
Maybe people were racist and I think our country is a very racist country.
I didn't realize how racist we were but I do now and but it was kind of hidden, you know, it was like a latent kind of virus and it feels like in the last, like I'd say since the MAGA movement, Make America Great Again, it has unleashed the beast, you know what I mean?
Like people feel completely okay with just saying, Yeah, I'm racist. I don't like these people from this country or this ethnicity or the skin colour.
And that's scary. That's the small that's the scariest thing for me about this.
This movement. I don't know how you feel about it.
But yeah, yeah, I feel like I I feel like I was born into a world where dei was a given and it was like getting better every year.
And even when Trump won in 2016, I felt like there was a lot of pushback.
And I also felt like Trump said a lot of racist things and he spewed a lot of vitriol, which I guess for listeners, not to don't know what that word means, it's just a lot of like bigoted or ridiculous remarks.
And I felt like he really spoke more than his Paul, the more than he enacted negative policies, But this presidency, he's come in like hot, you know?
And he's really been rolling out the policies and making tons of changes and completely altering like what this country should stand for.
Because obviously it is a racist country and it's always been a racist country.
But I feel like we have core beliefs that we always try to stand for.
and like, speak about and like that we were taught in school, like that the diversity is what makes America, that everyone should have an equal opportunity, that we celebrate those that are different than ourselves that we help those with disabilities, that we appreciate those who are differently abled than us.
I totally agree with you, yeah, absolutely.
Like every, yeah, the Thomas Jefferson, you know, I mean, our founding fathers, you know, we aspire to be better.
That's what we're supposed to do, you know, every year, every day, we're supposed to, you know, respect humanity and every man, woman and child is created equal, you know, basically, it that's the idea.
And we're like, backsliding, you know what I mean?
Like, we're going the wrong direction.
That's what's so strange about the times right now, is I've never, ever seen it go backwards.
You know? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, I feel the same way.
Sorry, go ahead. Oh, I was gonna say in the, like, in the 90s.
You know, when I, when I watched sitcoms and stuff, they used to make fun of people you know that was like so such a classic joke you know like it's so funny to you know marginalized gay people and and then that became like unacceptable you know and then the writers because they're some writers are are hacky they just started they just changed it to transgender people they make let's make fun of transgender people and and even if you watch like friends and certain shows like that, you know, there are some like, jokes that didn't age Well, you necessarily, you know.
Yeah. But But then that became, then that was not okay.
And so, you know, it's progress, you know, it takes time for people to kind of get past their bigotry and like, you know, move to the next stage.
And never in my wildest dreams, did ever think we were going to be going the other direction like that is it's crazy you know yeah I've only ever seen things also get better as since the day that I was born I feel like and as far as inclusivity like body positivity as well like I still was born in a time when the phrase heroine chic was like coined which means someone who is literally so thin they look like a drug addict and that was something to be aspired to but this is when I was like an infant.
Either it was before I was born or like around the exact time I was born.
So by the time that I was like in high school, I felt like body positivity started like, you know, becoming something all shapes, all sizes, all skin colors, every body type should be appreciated and celebrated.
Like I felt that was something that you started to see more and more.
like even if you even ten years ago was unthinkable to see the different types of models that we see nowadays every skin color every ethnicity every religion every body type every weight every height and even something as simple as that now that Trump is back in power you see a lot of advertisers going back to the standard model frame you see so many things like talk about aspiring to thinness as an ideal.
Again, like, there are so many things that have just gone backwards and it's yeah it's it is really terrifying and I think we're in unprecedented times like I don't think we ever expected to see this and honestly even for me when Trump got reelected I thought it would just be like last term where he said a lot of hateful things but ultimately I felt like his policies didn't really hit big in any concrete way.
they were for four years they were they were ready on day one to to just destroy the government and if we you know we should do like a political corner each week because i feel like we could keep going here for about yes 45 minutes so let's go forever so let's talk let's talk more about we'll talk more about we'll call it the state of the union or something like that you know the state of america or something yeah yeah yeah if you guys are interested let us know if you like If you don't like us being political, also let us know.
I don't know, I'm curious what you guys think about diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Listeners, do you think that it's a good thing that it's being repealed?
Do you think that it should be reinstated?
What do you think? Is there something similar in your country?
How do you view diversity, equity, inclusion?
How do you think the rollback of it is impacting America or impacting things on a global level?
and do you agree with the policies?
Do you not agree with the policies?
I'm very interested to learn what you guys think.
So please send us an email at atazanglishpodcastatgmail .com.
Leave us a comment down below at atazanglishpodcast .com and shoot us a message on the WeChat group and we will talk to you guys next time.
Bye bye. Bye bye. Music Your old or broken phone can let you down when you need it most But at Verizon trade in any old phone from our top brands and get the most for it.
Up to $2 ,000 in value.
For an amazing new iPhone 16 Pro with Apple intelligence and a new line on My Plan.
And iPad and Apple Watch Series 10.
That's like a 3 for 1.
And you can get it on any plan.
At Verizon trade in your old phone for a brand new iPhone 16 Pro, iPad and Apple Watch. The other guys won't give you that.
Visit Verizon .com today.
Additional terms apply.
Service plan required for Apple Watch and iPad.
Up to $2 ,000 value based on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. All you homeowners have unique needs.
Some feel the need to paint their door a vibrant shade of blue.
Others have the need to decorate their bathroom with fish, anchors and other nautical items. And because each homeowner has unique needs, GEICO helps you get the right coverage for your home and what's in it.
That way you get exactly what's right for you, even if your needs are unique.
Get more with GEICO.
