Sacred Wealth Podcast Transcription
Episode 14 | How To Use Your Privilege To Support Black Lives
PODCAST INTRO:
You are tuning in to the Sacred Wealth Podcast, I am your host Meaghan and I am so excited to have you here. Throughout my ten years in finance, I have come across so much anxiety and fear surrounding money. It is now my purpose to help women become rich unapologetically.
The goal of this podcast is to empower you to love your debt, to be so ecstatically grateful for what you have, and to feel safe to ask for more. Together we will figure out what your luxury is and get you on the path to financial freedom. Let’s fucking go.
EPISODE INTRO:
Hi there. Welcome back to the Sacred Wealth Podcast. This episode is going to be quite raw and vulnerable for me and possibly for you. I will give a content warning. I do talk about defunding the police, police violence, politics, religion, all of the content warnings are in effect. So if you, uh, find yourself triggered by any of those and you can't reconcile listening to this, then, by all means, skip this episode.
I do not want to create any more trauma in this world than there already is. So I do get pretty angry, very sad. I get choked up several times, but I did want to speak from the heart from this episode. And there's no lesson. There's no like tying it back to money or anything like that, which I could have done, but I chose to just express my extreme sadness and heartbreak around the current situation in the world.
I do want to make it clear that I am a glass-half-full kind of gal. I have a very positive outlook on life and the world, but there are some things that I don't and won't stand for, behavior and systems that have become clear need to be changed and it's okay. Change is okay. Change is wonderful. Change is amazing. We should never desire to go back in time or back to old systems, back to old ways. We should always be moving forward. Always be improving on systems and laws and governments. Nothing should ever stay the same or move backward.
So I hope you enjoy this episode. I do mention at the end to send me a voice memo through Anchor. If you have something to say, if they have something to share, maybe I will share it on the next podcast. I'm going to share a short little voice memo from someone who left me one through Anchor. And I just love this feature so much. And I think it's so fun. So thank you so much to Danielle for sending in our first voice memo. And here she is:
“Hi Meaghan, it’s Danielle Thorp here. I just wanted to touch base and let you know how much I loved the episode about the ‘Energy of Money’. It really made me change my way of how I think about money, my negative emotions towards it when I start to feel like scarcity and stressed about not enough coming in. And the, you know, bills going out sometimes I’m like “Oh my goodness” and creating almost like this ceremony with it and being so appreciative, loving towards it like it’s my best friend and I really, really loved that and I’m going to take all of this onboard. So thank you so much for sharing this with the world. And I can’t wait to do this on my own alter. So thank you so much.”
MEAGHAN WALL:
Hi, everyone. I wanted to, um, speak from the heart in this podcast episode. There's been a lot on my mind and coming back from a trip with family this past weekend, um, particularly conservative family that have a lot of differing opinions than my own. I feel like I need this as kind of a cathartic experience. Um, so this is just going to be a stream of consciousness. Um, and I hope that I hope that my audience will be able to gain something from my ruminations. My, um, my thoughts about what's going on in the world currently.
I think that we're all tired. I know I'm tired and I'm disappointed and depressed about how we treat other people. And it, you know, I can't believe I'm already getting emotional. So if you didn't know, a few days ago, a Black man was stopped for a traffic stop, routine traffic stop, and a police officer mistook her gun for her taser and shot the man in the stomach. I have a lot of very progressive beliefs around how our cops in the US, specifically, should be trained, what instruments they should have at their disposal, and, um, how much we should rely on them in general. I believe in defunding the police.
I know a lot of right-wing media spins that to be this terrible, terrible thing, where like if you actually need a cop, you're not going to be able to get in touch with one. All defunding the police means is rerouting funds to more social programs, putting more money in mental health programs, putting more money into, um, resources for the houseless, and removing our reliance on brutal force. Something that I find so confusing and perplexing is the fact that police officers will shoot at a suspect or at a person who is running away from them. Why do we have to go to lethal force to detain a suspected criminal? Why do those people deserve to die or deserve- deserve to be mortally wounded in order to be caught or detained? I just don't understand. If they run away, there are so many cameras in this country.
You probably have their license plate. You probably have at least their name. You have their face. Like there are so many other ways to go about tracking down a human being other than shooting them dead in the street. I just, it- it baffles me. It blows my mind that we're, that- and I don't, I won't, I think that we're not okay with it. We can tell by the mass voices, the mass uprising, the black lives matter movement that has been happening for, I mean, since the- since the Civil War, you know? It is becoming unacceptable and more people are realizing that "Wow, we gotta change something." And reform is not enough. We have to do more for the people in this country. The cops are supposed to protect and serve. And that means protecting the person you're trying to detain as well. They are the people that you are serving as well.
The terrible disparity between economic classes in this country, this weaves into the minimum wage, um, argument that's going on right now. This leads to Biden passing this American Jobs Act, that every single part of that Act is going to be creating new jobs. Even if it's not traditional infrastructure or what we've always thought of infrastructure, why the fuck does it matter what the definition of infrastructure even means? This is an American Jobs Act. It is going to create jobs for people who haven't had jobs in two years since the pandemic. I just, the amount of distractions and curveballs and red herrings and wild goose chases that the media is sending us on. "Hey, look over here, look at this stupid thing that we should focus on instead of the bigger picture."
It's ridiculous that we're even having a discussion about what the definition of infrastructure even means. And, "I'm not going to vote on this because it's not traditionally infrastructure" and- and "Biden should be putting things that are only, uh, defined as infrastructure in this plan or this act or this proposal", even if it just- I'm bewildered. We've been through a mass cultural, I'm not even talking about the US, worldwide trauma with COVID and we're all tired. We're traumatized. It was a world worldwide shared trauma in our bodies, and we are feeling the effects. This is what it feels like to have trauma in your bloodline.
For white people, this is the tiniest fraction of knowing what a black lineage feels like. I mean, it is hundreds of years of persecution and murder and racism, being treated like less than humans. I mean, it's- it's heartbreaking. I think it has a lot to do with our inability to evolve with the times, our inability to evolve with how people evolve. And how, and now I'm speaking about my family members who are Christian, specifically in the Bible belt, Southern Christians, very evangelical people who would believe a book written thousands of years ago, over 2000 closer to 3000 years ago.
They would believe that book about gender identity, about homosexuality, about all of those things more than they believe people's lived experiences. That's all that matters folks, people's experiences. More than religion, more than politics, "more than the way it's always been," quote, unquote. We don't need to go back to this amazing, uh, picture that we have of the 1950s and how the nuclear family was a man and a woman. And, you know, they had two or three kids and the man brought home the bacon and gender roles, yadda, yadda, yadda. Fuck that, man. Like I just like, is so important to listen to the people who live on this Earth.
I don't- I don't think there's any other acceptable way to formulate your worldview, other than listening to people, listening to people's experiences. If you never experienced having feelings for another gender, if you've never experienced a feeling like you don't fit in your own body, if you've never experienced being shot at a traffic stop or even asked to get out of your fucking car at a traffic stop, which I never have. And I'm a white woman, so I can't, I've never experienced those things. But I'm not going to look at somebody who says every single time I get stopped at a traffic stop, I have to call my mom and tell her I love her in case something happens. Or every time I get stopped in a traffic stop, I have to get out of my car, put my hands on the hood, and be padded down, have my car searched. Or I've been to jail three times for smoking marijuana.
Like, I'm not going to tell that person you're lying or your experience is- is invalid or less than mine because I've never experienced that. What? What? What? That I- I'm just, uh, I thought I could be more eloquent with this, but it just makes no sense. And I really hope there's a lot of people out there who would listen to this podcast and hear me cursing and hear me getting emotional and hear me getting angry and immediately discount the human emotion because I couldn't keep my cool or keep my calm. I was listening to the trial of Derek Chauvin, the man who killed George Floyd last year.
And the defense is spinning his death or- or the actions of Derek Chauvin as self-defense because the "mob", the quote, unquote "mob", or the crowd of people that were surrounding this cop were getting progressively angrier and progressively more worked up. So they're excusing his behavior because he was in self-defense mode. He couldn't focus on George Floyd because he was focusing on the crowd around him for nine and a half minutes. And he, the defense was talking, the defense lawyer was speaking to the off-duty firefighter that was on the stand. And he said, "Wouldn't you say that you were getting angrier? Wouldn't you say that the crowd around you was getting angrier and more, more worked up?" And she looked at him and she said, "I don't know if you've ever watched someone die, but it's pretty upsetting."
And that just solidified it even more. And just listening to the multitude of people who witnessed George Floyd die in front of them. I mean, it's- it's impossible not to be moved. It's impossible not to identify and relate to that amount of human suffering. And I think there's a lot of things wrong with this world, but the fact that we can relate to each other emotionally because of our cumulative lived experiences is one of the most beautiful things about this world. And if nothing else, if you can't relate to anyone else about any of their other lived experiences, you can relate to them about our worldwide shared COVID crisis experience.
It's the first experience in a long time that we've been able, that has touched every single person on this Earth. They either know someone who knows someone who has died, or who has long-lasting COVID, um, symptoms, and who has lost their job, or maybe, you know, you've been thriving in 2020, but it's been tiring and you don't know why. It's because of that shared trauma. And now we're starting to get out into the world and people are grateful and people are excited for the sun and for cafes again and little things. I just really encourage you to, if you ever start to discount someone's experience, because you've never experienced that, think about COVID and think about how it happened to us all.
I love you all, and you're all safe in this- this container, in my space. If you are trans, if you are- if you are a Person Of Color, if you are Indigenous, if you are Black, if you are Latin X, everyone is welcome here. And I just, be kind. Be kind to people. When you go out in the world, move through it with love, and grace, and ease. When you get your Starbucks, thank them, smile at them. They don't get that enough. People are rude. Anyway, thank you for listening. I love you all so much and feel free to respond to this episode with a voice note through Anchor.
You can do that through the link in my bio on Instagram, @sacrednumbersco. You can leave me a little voice note through Anchor and just tell me if you agree or disagree. I'm not really looking for hate or anger in this space unless it's for the things that I've expressed anger toward. I am just tired. So any words of encouragement that you'd like me to share on the next podcast, any loving reminders. Um, if you just want to send me a little note, that'd be so nice. Okay. Catch you on the next one, Sacred Galaxy.
EPISODE OUTRO:
Hi, everyone. I hope that you gained something from that podcast episode. It has been a couple of days now since I recorded and I feel like I can speak a little bit more clearly and eloquently around some of the things that I was getting, um, upset and angry about. So one of the first things that I did want to do, like a little corrections corner, is that I believe fully that the people who were killed by cops are murdered. The cops should be held up to the fullest extent of the law and should be charged with first-degree murder. So I just wanted to clarify that. I know I said the word killed a few times, I meant to say murdered. It's what it is, it's murder.
Um, and then another thing that I wanted to mention is that I did say that we are in this experience of COVID and the pandemic together, however, when it's all over and when COVID is gone, these communities, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities are still going to be suffering. And I know that these are not my own lived experiences, so I don't want to speak on these experiences that aren't mine. So I have tagged down below several educators so that you can get some better information, some information directly from the communities that these issues influence. So I hope you'll take advantage of that. And as a white woman speaking on this topic, I think it is my duty and my privilege to call out to other white people that we need to do better. Y'all we gotta do better.
We gotta vote with our dollars. We got to vote with our votes. We gotta reach out, speak up. And as white people who have every advantage given to us, we have better access to polling places, we have better access to reaching our elected officials. Even people listen, our elected officials, as shitty and fucked up as it is, listens to white people more. So it is our job to protest to our elected officials when we see injustices happening in the communities whose voices are being silenced. Especially all over the country, but specifically in places like Georgia, where they have completely silenced, not completely, but are working very hard to silence the voices of Black, Brown, and Indigenous folks in that state.
I mean, the reforms that have been happening that Republicans have been pushing through, it's just- it's unacceptable and it's horrendous. Closing down polling places in rural areas, even more than they already have, making it illegal to give water and food from third-party sources to people standing in line for hours to vote, reducing the amount of time that you can vote in person, like not on Sundays, which is a huge community event that Black churches get involved in. They call it Souls to the Polls, where they go to church and they take a bus after church to go vote, and they are restricting and suffocating and suppressing these voices. So it is my job, it is our jobs as people who are non marginalized to speak up for the things that we're passionate about.
Some other ways that we can use our money to give back and to fight back are to support Black, Brown, and Indigenous small businesses. If you have the luxury to be able to shop around, go, y'all go to Tik Tok. I have found so many epic, small businesses that are Black, Brown, and Indigenous-owned. I literally just ordered some period panties from this Indigenous New Zealand company and I am so ecstatic to try them out. I will link them down below. And investing, if you buy stocks, there are plenty of Black-owned public companies on the Stock Market that you can invest into.
I did want to mention that I know that I don't have to be performative to you guys. And I know that I don't have to prove my actions and share how I give back, but I did want to share how I give back because I think it might be helpful to someone out there. So not only am I invested in several Black-owned stocks, I will list those down below. I also, my husband and I, this year donated our second stimulus check of about $1,200 to the Indigenous Environmental Network. And the IEN was formed by Grassroots, Indigenous peoples, and individuals to address environmental and economic justice issues. So my husband and I are very passionate about the environment, organic foods, access to foods in food deserts and low-income areas. We both come from Alabama where, unless you're living in a high-income area, it is very difficult to find a good grocery store that's in walking distance.
And a lot of these communities, people don't have cars, people don't have access to transportation. And so in their immediate areas, they have fast food and they have convenience stores, which we all know what caliber of food is available at convenience stores. So I hope that's helpful. I will also leave the link for the Indigenous Environmental Network down below so that you can donate to their cause if that lights you up. There's so many different categories of causes that you can donate to in these communities. So if your passion is women's rights, if your passion is giving back to the homeless, if your passion is cancer research, if your passion is birthing people and the birthing space.
Giving back to Black and Indigenous people who birth is an amazing space to donate into. If you are interested in farming and Indigenous and Black people farming networks, there was a lot when my husband and I were doing research around who we were going to donate to. We found so many Black family farms that we could have donated to. And ultimately we landed on the Indigenous Environmental Network. However, it is our goal this year to donate at least $10,000 to the different causes that sparked our interest. So I hope that was helpful. I had to, it's just so important to me that we vote with our dollars, that we become educated around the type of privilege that we have in this country.
If you have any questions, if you are looking for people to support, definitely check down in the show notes and support the educators and the causes that I've listed there. Yeah. And one other thing that I did want to mention, something else that I do to give back to my community is to make sure that my financial education, my courses, which are high ticket are available to those of all income levels. So for this round of Sacred Money Method and for every round in the future, I have introduced a sliding scale so that those who are not as privileged as I am can invest in themselves and learn how to manage their money, learn how to get over their money blocks. And I'd love it if you were to share my program with anyone that you know, that may be struggling during COVID, struggling in general, especially Black, Brown, and Indigenous folks, I would love to serve you and support you. Okay. See you on the next time.
PODCAST OUTRO:
Thank you for listening to the Sacred Wealth Podcast. It would mean so much to me if you would subscribe and leave a five-star review. And if you choose to share this episode on social media and tag me. I would love to pull you an Oracle Card as a thank you. See ya next time, Sacred Galaxy.