241: Promoting Racial Sensitivity, Demoting Weaponized Misinformation, and Reflecting on My Recent Mistake on TikTok

Last week, I made a few mistakes, some grander than others, but the first one involved Meghan Markle. You see, I made a promise myself to never comment publicly on Meghan Markle again, meaning a podcast or social media. Since she's a person who has, who is known for challenging traditional norms. I recognize that whenever I provide any analysis or commentary about her or really the press response, which is really what I mostly discuss when it relates to Meghan Markle and whether intentional or not, it creates a lot of negativity online and it shouldn't be surprising. I mean, she is, you know, her entrance into the British royal family as a biracial American actress, you know, this challenged, you know, long standing traditions. Many people view her as disrupting status quo, and you are going to, you know, draw a lot of iron resistance to that. And as a member of the royal family, or now that she's in California with, with Harry and their kids, what hasn't changed since she's left the palace is that every move she's made has been heavily scrutinized by the media and the public. And I think this intense scrutiny has created this polarizing effect. You know, some people absolutely support her and empathize with her and recognize the challenges that she faces. Why others are very quick to pass judgment and they're frankly, you know, very, very critical of her. What I think a lot of people miss, and certainly which I did, you know, you know, in the very beginning, you know, in her first, you know, entrance when she started dating Prince Harry, is the impact of the biracial identity. I mean, of course we all knew that she was biracial and we knew that it sparked conversations. But many people, specifically, okay, like white people, are not going to fully understand what the vitriol around Meghan Markle does, not just to our conversation, but to people who are biracial or people who are black or even, you know, any minority, I would assume, you know, even if they're not black, they may feel what that heavy scrutiny, what can happen from that, you know, the consequence, you know, of it. So on the one hand, she's a symbol of progress, but on the other hand, she's known as this disruptor. And that's why I said I wasn't ever going to do a post about Meghan Markle, you know, ever again. And here's the reason why. Now, last week, I'll tell you, here's a mistake. I made a post about Meghan Markle and I couldn't help myself. And even when I opened up the post, it was on TikTok. I'd said that I saw the headline about what had happened to Harry and Megan in New York City. And I said, molly, let it go. Just let it go. You have a busy, busy, busy workday. Do not go down this rabbit hole. But it was screaming at me because it involved press reports and it involved, you know, the paparazzi following Harry and Megan. And it, the statement which I love to analyze statements. Anyone who follows me knows that I'm someone who writes them. So I love to analyze them, you know, for knowledge and also, you know, to pass that knowledge on or at least, you know, my take on it. And, or, you know, it is this statement doing the job or is it making things worse? And part of the post was about the statement and focusing on the two words in there, this near catastrophic. But the word near did not play as much as the word catastrophic. So I had talked about how that word and that statement, I felt is kind of what created again, this polarization. And I talked about how the statement likely coming from, well, not likely it did come from a spokesperson, but I felt that that word catastrophic. Did Harry and Meghan have a hand in. In that word? Because that's the word that I felt kind of created the firestorm because it evoked feelings of Princess Diana, Harry's mother, and how she died. And some people felt that that was, you know, like the one step too far. You know, it seemed ghoulish to people, it seemed too intentional. And, and I had stated, you know, it's very simple to, you know, to draw that conclusion. And were they. Was this just a big trumped up, you know, event? I didn't say that in my tick tock, I'm saying that right now. Or was it really happening, you know, that the paparazzi, they were trailing them and it was a two hour car chase, you know, through. Through Mattel Manhattan. I had, and here's the reason why I said I was never going to do any Meghan Markle content ever again. Which, you know, played out in this post because immediately, once it's posted and the comments start to come in and you see it and usually what happens in every single one of my TikTok posts because of the algorithm, it's people who follow me and people who follow me for a reason. You know, they're communicators, they work in pr. I get a lot of reporters, people who are in the industry or people who are just interested, you know, in public relations or crisis communication. I get that a lot so the first comments were all about the context of the post, which was about the press coverage of it. And. And was anyone, you know, was. Was there any social media? Was there any video? Like, did anyone see this, you know, happening? Now everyone's attacking them for it. But is there proof out there? Like, let's see the proof. And then that would, you know, make a lot of this go away. And it's in Manhattan. There's cameras. Like, why aren't we seeing that? So it was really commentary on, you know, the event. Not really about Harry, Megan, but the event. But I forgot. And it wasn't until I saw the negative comments come in. And when. I mean, negative comments is negative comments that are against Meghan Markle and. And then negative comments against people who are negative against Meghan Markle. So I quickly did another story that said, hey, this is a moving story. You know, it's. It could be changing. You know, this is I. And I even put a dateline in there, a time, a timestamp, you know, when I posted it. And then I also said, you know, please, you know, no hate here. Like, just, this is not a form for hate. I. We're really looking at this from, you know, a media perspective. Because what, you know, what I had said is, you know, if Meghan and Harry didn't know that that word catastrophic was there, you know, that led to this catastrophic, you know, press coverage, that people were questioning them. They were highly scrutinizing and questioning, you know, the validity of all these, you know, paparazzi. And then at the end, I said, maybe this is all part of a long play that Megan and Harry are outwitting everyone. Like, they know they're going to get all the negativity. They know they're going to get all the extreme emotion and hate. And maybe what they're doing is they're leveraging that for, you know, for relevancy and maybe to make the palace, you know, his father and brother take notice. So maybe this is all strategic. And while everyone sits in comments on loving Megan, hating Megan, how could you come down on Megan? Meanwhile, these two are getting what they want, you know, which could be brilliant. And Megan signed with WME recently over the past two weeks. So this is a powerhouse agency. Megan wants to be global. Megan wants to be big. We don't know what she wants to do, but she wants to be big. So perhaps Meghan and Harry are just looking at Internet culture as it is right now and deciding. I call it, like, the Barnum factor. All publicity is good. At publicity. Even the haters out there are going to draw publicity to us and maybe that will work. But at the end of it, we don't know. We. We really don't know. But it does make me think now, going back to the mistake that I made, I said to myself, I had made a commitment like, no more Meghan Markle content. And here's the reason why. I had posted something about Meghan Markle last year, I believe, and I did a podcast about Meghan Markle because she did a cover story in a magazine, you know, beautiful layout of the photos, you know, just before something was happening at the palace. And it's, you know, very similar too, with not to go back to the catastrophic comment, but Prince Harry, the day before, on May 16, the story came out that, you know, Harry has been struggling to get protection in the US or protection when he goes to England. And this has been an ongoing challenge with him. So this paparazzi cat is near catastrophic event happened 20, less than 24 hours later. So you can't help but wonder, was it strategic? So people like me, that's what I. That's what I grasp onto. Is this like a strategic move, you know, for him to do that? And, you know, that's what the royal family does. Not just his family, but not just Camilla and Charles and William and Kate and Harry and Meghan. But his late mother, you know, did the same thing. The royal family, you know, works with the press. Everybody works with the press. I work with the press. So there's nothing wrong with that. But the reason why I didn't want to do common anymore is because the last time that I did, you know, content on her, it was, as I said, it was after this cover story, but it tied into, you know, event of the palace. So in a podcast recording, I discussed the coverage how on the one hand, she had this glowing coverage in this magazine with this just, this is amazing spread with all the photos of her and Montecito. And then she was getting all this, you know, negative coverage too, of, you know, what was happening back in London. And I had tweeted the episode and I just had two words on it, you know, is Megan, you know, the beautiful cover girl, whatever, or the press is saying that she's this, you know, whatever. I was only commenting on, you know, what other people were saying. I mean, not me at all. And someone had replied back that morning. And in the reply it said, your racism is showing. And I was stunned when I saw that. And of course, my first reflexive move is like, who are you to tell me I'm not racist? Why are you calling me a racist? On a social platform, on Twitter where people follow me, why are you calling me a racist? I was annoyed. I was annoyed because I wasn't racist. And it really annoyed me that someone was going to tarnish my name by saying that, attaching that, you know, vile statement, you know, to me. But I let that pass, and I thought, I want to know who's calling me a racist? So I clicked on the profile, and I was not surprised to see it was a black woman. But I was surprised to see that she was a former reporter and, you know, in New York, top, you know, media market, had serious credentials. And I thought, huh, now I'm curious. And so I wrote to her, and I. And I did say, and this was the public piece. And I. And I had, you know, commented, you know, why are you saying this? Based. You know, based on what? And it wasn't pointed. It was, you know, curiosity. And then she wrote back and said, because your disdain for Meghan Markle is clear. And I read it again. I wrote back, and I said, how, you know, I'm. It really was writing a headline of both sides. To me, it was. It was. It was. It was quite equal and quite fair and balanced. But then we got into a discussion, and one that I greatly appreciated because she taught me a lesson. And what she said was that. And I had asked her, I said, did you even listen, you know, to what I said? I said, this is not. It's just comment. This is commentary on the press coverage of Megan. It's not, you know, commentary on Meghan. But she. But she told me. She said, you know, and she. She apologized. She said, no, and I apologize. But she said the reason why she said that to me is because it was a trigger to her. What was the trigger? And she said it was because when she sees people attacking Megan, particularly women, particularly white women, it felt personal to her. I never thought about it that way. I had never, ever thought about it that way. An attack against Meghan Markle, a public attack, is an attack against a biracial or a black woman. I see that. I don't feel it because I don't walk in the shoes of a black woman. But I understand it. I fully understood it. And I thanked her. I thanked her for that lesson. No, I wasn't intentionally being racist at all, but I can see in the tone of what I was talking about that it would come across as racist, particularly to someone who was black, particularly to a black female or a biracial female. And I thanked her for that lesson. And that lesson had. Has never, ever left me until last week when I posted about Megan Marle again. And I started it, though I will give myself credit for this. I started with, you know, with a disclaimer, which I said, you know, I am Megan Markle agnostic, or Megan Markle and Prince. Prince Harry agnostic. I am not a critic, you know, of hers. I. I admire Meghan Markle, to be honest. I can't imagine how awful it would be to suffer through, you know, the. Just the hate that she experiences. And then now that we start to understand more about them, like watching the Netflix special and even watching the Crown. I did a post on TikTok about watching the Crown, and I got blasted by people, you know, telling me it's not true, it's fictional. You know, it's fictional, blah, blah, blah. You know, everybody's coming at me, which people love to do on TikTok, come at people, you know, with their own context. But the. The Crown is based on real events, you know, so I wasn't speaking to a specific event, but how, again, how the press operates, how the royal family uses the press. And William came out and confirmed exactly what, you know, what I was saying about that. It's just in general, it's like leveraging the press. But, you know, from all of that, I just, you know, I've made that vow, like, I don't want to talk about Meghan Markle again. Not because I don't think she deserves it. Like, she's a public figure. She signed with wme. Like, she absolutely anyone should be able to talk about her. I mean, she's trying to be a global icon. She wants people to talk about her. She wants it. They're inviting it. Okay? And there's nothing wrong with that. But I don't want to talk about her anymore because I don't like what it draws into the comment section. It just brings in so much anger and pain, and I don't like that. It's. The narrative goes dark and hateful so quick. And so I'm just saying this. On this episode, I should probably put something up to remind me, like, molly, just stay away from it. Do not do anything that draws any type of hate, particularly as it relates to. To race. And then that goes into my second mistake, where I continue to talk about things that I thought would not trigger people that I thought fell into the line of speaking about the press and speaking about, you know, just commentary on Truth and reporting. And I'll get into more details, you know, in a bit. That started another. Another heavy discussion about race. Now, before I go, I go into it, I want to take one half step back, because I had mentioned that this woman, you know, this reporter who had educated me about Meghan Markle, I learned more. I think it is so valuable for people to have these moments, like, I'm going to say. I'm going to rephrase that. I think it's so valuable for white people to have these moments of recognition where they can see and feel more of what other people, other underrepresented groups, other minorities are feeling. And I mean, all of them. Not, you know, not just black people, but just everyone. Because there does come, you know, entitlement with being white. You know, there does come privilege. Not that every white person is privileged, but white carries just inherent privilege with it because you don't have the same challenges that other people, you know, that minorities have. And one of the best episodes, and I'm including this in the show notes as well, it was another piece that I had learned. I spoke with a friend of mine, Jeffrey Blount. He's an author, he is a former director at NBC News, and he is someone who talks about the black experience in such an eloquent and profound way. He really. He and his daughter had written a piece that went viral about people seeing black people, and she put it on Facebook, and it just took off like wildfire. And it was such a good piece. And then I asked him, I said, could I interview you? And I came up with somewhat of a provocative title. And it was how to Talk About Racism Without Sounding like a Racist. And this was in 2019. So this was the year of Donald Trump, you know, campaigning. But this was the year before George Floyd. And two things that he told me stuck with me. So these are the three things about, you know, learning about just black culture and what, you know, black people deal with. And one is he I had mentioned about, because this is what the episode was breaking down, how to talk about racism, you know, without, like I said, like, asking the questions that you think sound racist, but you really want to know the answer. Okay, so if I were to subtitle, it'd be like, a dumb white person really wants to know how to become racially sensitive and understanding it more. And this is before George Floyd. So this was so helpful to me. And the two of the things that he told me that stuck with me to this day. One, I had asked about, do you want to hear that people see color. Do they not want to see color? And Jeffrey said, no, we want you to see color. He said, I do not like when people say I don't see color. It's like a wash. It's a color wash. No, tell me that you see color, because then you're treating me as a black man, as someone who's black. You see it, boom, lesson learned. And then the second one that he said was about, at the time, I, you know, we were talking about Donald Trump and what Donald Trump was inciting. You know, we had the red hat with the mega hat, you know, the Make America Great again. And he said when he sees a mega hat, he sees a pointy white hat. I mean, I have chills right now. I've been saying that. He stunned me silent. Would you have ever thought of that? No. To me, it was campaign merch. Merch. I would never buy or wear or ever buy or wear. It was, you know, like, for me, like, I. I am. I am so far removed from mega Land. But when he said it that way, never occurred to me, but of course. So I have had more people talk to me about that episode, how much they learned, and I think, oh, it's been incredibly valuable. So those are three lessons that I have learned about racial sensitivity and how white people can be racially insensitive. One, I learned the hard way, you know, I was exposed as a racist publicly. And then two, I learned in just a conversation, you know, with two open minds, calm minds, rational. And you're just learning for the sake of learning, learning. So those were three. Three examples. So now let me just lead this into, you know, another mistake that I made, you know, over the weekend, which is, you know, really the reason, you know, a big part of the reason why I wanted to do this episode. So if you look at my content or if you follow me or if you listen to this podcast, you know how I feel about misinformation. Of late, as someone who works in crisis communication, you know, you would think I'd always work in this area of, oh, we have this big disaster, you know, we. We have a. There's this big hurricane coming, help us prepare for it. Or, you know, just, you know, you're run of the mill crises, you know, that are out there and writing statements now, I do all that. I absolutely do. But the work that is now swallowing me, particularly since I've opened up, like, hourly consulting and I get people from social media, particularly TikTok, I get all these people that are dealing with viral blowback Moments where they. Where people are quote, unquote. And I'm putting these in quotes, and I need to get rid of this term and not use it anymore because it's not accurate or they feel they're being canceled. Now, the reason why I don't like the word cancel is that cancel culture came from Twitter. It came from the MeToo movement. It came from a time when people who did things wrong were being called out for doing wrong things. It was a time for women in their minority group. You know, women who've been treated a certain way for so long, they were finally, like, standing up and they had a voice, and they were really speaking to the power imbalance that's, you know, been happening to them. And me too, was a. Here it is a trigger for a lot of women because they recognize in these stories, you know, stories that had happened to them. I'm one of them. Hands up to me, me too movement was definitely a trigger to me, but that was primarily on Twitter. Okay. And it was more of a controlled crisis, if that makes sense. When people were being called out for me to, you know, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin. Kevin Spacey, Louis ck, You know, you know, all those names, they weren't dealing with the hashtag as much as they were dealing with the accusations and the offense. Because when it. When it comes to me, too, I. In my recollection, I don't know of many people that said I was falsely accused. I mean, there were definitely some, if I remember correctly, a lot of the accusations kind of born out that, you know, these things happen. But now, because of social media particularly, I'm going to say tech talk and the algorithm, misinformation is now to the point where it causes problems because it's spread. I mean, misinformation has been a problem for decades. I mean, gotta go back, you know, to the wars, you know, been around forever, probably centuries. But weaponized digital misinformation is becoming more and more of a problem. It's something that I deal with in my work all the time. Before, it was just Facebook groups and people, you know, wanting to film you in, like, these activist groups, you know, leading a charge, whether it's animal rights or environmental rights. And they're using all these kind of dirty tricks to, you know, for an agenda. But because of TikTok in particular, weaponized information is. Is becoming a tactic that more and more people are using for gain. And I'm noticing it with my clients. And I'm noticing because I see. I see inside, like, I see the truth. And then I see how lies get used out on social media and they're weaponized against the person to destroy the person while the person who's bringing them down, there's some agenda. So in some, you know, either they want to push something through either legislation or a vote, you know, whatever it is, or if it's on social media, people are pushing this just for their own opportunity and gain of likes and follows and influence. So more people follow them and talk and chat and all this other stuff and it's becoming like a real problem. And I was working with clients and particularly ones who had these TikTok crises and it really makes you sick because people's lives are really being affected by this. So I have been on a bit of a tear lately on that because I've just seen the damage to it. Okay, now, now that brings me up to, you know, what had happened on Friday. I had noticed something in the press, you know, the, that night, late that night. And it was about a story. And I don't want to mention the story anymore because I don't want to feed into stories and I don't want to, I don't want to highlight stories anymore because that, that's the problem, that's my trigger is I hate seeing people's lives destroyed because of viral video. Okay? Particularly when it's wrong, like 100% wrong. Because I've seen that, I've witnessed it, I've worked with it. But it's, I just, there's just this viral video like sends a shiver down my spine. It really does. It's because to me it just, it signals a lack of control, okay? Because viral means it's spread everywhere and it can really affect people on the other side of that. And I know this, I know this firsthand. I've had my viral moments on TikTok, so I know how it feels. And then just working with clients. So I was doing a post about the significance of this and the severity of it and I was highlighting a recent story and I had said, you know, this is a four day news story about, you know, viral videos out there. And it was coming off of work that I'm doing because I'm noticing there's a lot of Internet and culture reporters now. Like this is a new beat. And what's, what's an example of an Internet and culture reporter. Like I was interviewed by USA Today by Internet and culture reporter and I actually don't know the exact title of, of this, of this reporter. And it was a story about Cakegate on TikTok. Maybe you've heard of it, maybe you haven't, but, you know, a person made a cake, paid a lot of money for it, and the results were disastrous. So they took it to social media, and then the cake maker went to social media, and then it goes viral. Okay. And I was asked to quote on it, and I. And I provided a quote for it. And I was in USA Today. So there you go. Didn't think anything of it. And so. So that's the culture. These culture reporters do stories like that. But I'm noticing now, now that I'm working in it from the PR crisis point of view, like for clients. And we're working with culture and Internet reporters about viral stories because now I'm being hired for people who go viral unnecessarily or unfairly. And we'll have the facts. The facts will be right there. But they don't want those facts because they're not reporting on that story. So it's not to diss the reporters. The reporter is doing their job. Their job is to write a story about the viralness of the story, not about the story, if that makes sense. So in my head, which is the trigger, it drives me crazy because. Because were we doing, like all these news. Oh, you know, I'm going to come back to this, but let me go back to what happened, what I did, the mistake that I made. So I was, I. I had made a post about. About this and how interesting and refreshing it was to see the news for the first time, attempt to clarify and correct the record on a. On a viral news story that, wow, finally, Finally. And you could track it. Like, you could see the headlines where it was just clickbait, click, click, click, click, clickbait starts on social media. It lands with a social media vigilante. You know, someone who gets a video and then they post the video and then they say, okay, everyone, this is a video that we have. We don't know who this is. We don't know what they've done exactly, but this is what we have that they did. So you go at it, Internet, let's go find out who this is. And then the video goes viral because everybody talks, everybody shares, everybody's commenting, and then we find out who the person is or the people involved. They find out where they work, and then they. They lose their job. And these videos make me crazy. They absolutely make me crazy. I get them all the time in my DMs, and I just ignore them. I. I absolutely ignore them because I absolutely abhor the practice. I absolutely abhor it. And I'll tell you, as a just a quick side note, the moment that that happened to me is there's three of them in particular, and there was one of them that had posted a nurse, and. And this guy was posted something to TikTok, which really you shouldn't do when you're at work. Like, let's just call it like it is. Just don't post any videos while you're at work. Uh, and he, I think he was like, doing a little jingle or something like that, and he talked about his job. And then this social media vigilante comes on and says, all right, we know this is the hospital where they work. This is who I think it is. We're out to get this person. And I saw that video. I went, wait a minute, what did he do? I don't understand. What. What did he do? I don't get it. Is it me? So then I went to the comments and everybody was. Everybody was wanted, this guy's head on a platter, Everybody. And I'm reading it, just almost incredulous, like, why. Why are we bringing this person down? What? And. And it. And I wasn't thinking, like, more this injustice of it. I was really curious. I thought, what am I missing? What horrible thing did this guy do? And then I saw a post. Someone had said a comment and said, oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't want to cause problems here, but what exactly did this person do? I went, thank you. Someone is like me. And then I looked some more and I kept going down, down, down, down, down. And I could see at the very, very bottom. That's what all the posts were like. What'd they do? What'd they do? What'd they do? But then the algorithm kicks in and now it's off with his head. Let's find his head and we're going to bring him down. So when I saw that post is the day that I unfollowed all of the people who became very famous during the pandemic. Because I think where a lot of them started was businesses taking advantage of people really started from a good place, I believe we want justice for people who are treated poorly. And, you know, that's fine, that's good. We want. We want justice for people who are treated unjustly. But this idea behind it now is. It honestly, it makes me sick. It really makes me sick seeing, like, I always go back to that guy. I always go back to that guy who Lost his job and he didn't do anything wrong. Right. I've never forgotten that. But anyway, so I was doing this post about, you know, how it was nice that we're. It's not. But it was refreshing now that the press, they were starting to scrutinize these viral stories to get the facts before they, before they perpetuate, you know, this misinformation, this potentially misinformation there. And you could see in the Google, you could see in Google how the headlines were now all being updated. They were kind of, you know, they were checking themselves a little and they were couching themselves. So they're so in, in the story there was some validation or proof to why this was wrong against the, the people who went viral. It was wrong and here's proof that it was wrong. Okay. And that was the, that was the crux of my post, that it was good to see that. And then people's lives should not be wrong, ruined, you know, because of misinformation and weaponized misinformation. And I raised the call for, you know, the social media vigilantism is, is a problem, you know, and the press just can't run with it if they don't have the facts. Okay, fine. And good. Normally I'd say that would be a great post because I do think there's, there's absolutely something there. But I thought I was doing a post that it was addressing privacy, exposure of people being filmed, how people now just film people, they, they hear a ruckus, they reflexively take out a phone. It's like a trigger to me, okay? And just like that reporter who called me out for being racist, my post was a trigger to her, to that, to that black reporter. So now I was doing the same thing. So here I was so focused on the exposure and exploitation, you know, of these people and how, you know, how things can be taken out of context when it's only a 90 second video. Something that I failed to acknowledge and a really important aspect of that story was that it involved black men as part of that story. And it was framed in a way. And I want to say this so I can admit fault without exposing too much of the post because again, I don't want to be someone who is a part of spreading viral media. I don't anymore is, is just this understanding that how I was couching appeared that I was, that I was supporting the white person, which gave the appearance that I was saying that the, that the black people were wrong. Now certainly that was not my intention at all. That was something I completely overlooked that there was a real risk that I overlooked. And that is how black, black people, black men specifically, young black men specifically, if they are ever filmed, or even not filmed, I mean just in life, if they are perceived as doing harm to someone and someone reacts, that it could be very dangerous for them, it could be very costly. It could be they, they could be harmed, but they could also be killed. Okay, historically we know this, okay, Emmett Till, great example. And now because of again this viral hyper exposure, people, I feel like it teaches people to pull out phones now. And we've seen the videos of women walking their dogs and a black man walks by them and they start calling the police because a black man is attacking them. We've seen videos of women who, a delivery driver who happens to be black comes in to deliver a package. In other words, they're doing their job. And the woman's like, I'm calling the police. Who are you? Who are you? Even though they're wearing a uniform and they have a package, you know, addressed to this person. We've all seen those videos. I've seen all those videos. I do not deny for a minute that that absolutely takes place. My goodness. This week, you know, we are days from the three year anniversary of George Floyd and, and his death, you know, at the hands of a police officer, not the hands, at the knee of a police officer. In Minneapolis, my hometown, across the river in St. Paul. We know that it's there. And that is what I fail to do is to look at that aspect of it. So, so, so in social media things can be one, taken out of context. But also creators can deliver things out of context. They may have an intention in mind. And, and I've said this before, and I've said this, you know, I, I believe in other TikToks that I've taken down or I've, I've tried to explain is if I am communicating something in, in a post, in a TikTok in three minutes or less, and people don't get it. It's not their fault that they don't get it's my fault. It means that I didn't communicate it accurately. Like I didn't do my job, I didn't do my job. And that was definitely the case for this one because it was a much bigger consequence because in the past it was, you know, there was no consequence. But to this one there definitely was. Now my trigger, like I said, is weaponized misinformation. And ironically, in this post we were talking about the same thing, you know, innocent black men attacked and killed because of weaponized misinformation, which in a follow up video I was trying to explain that, but, and those were my intentions to really explain, hey everyone, we're all kind of on the same side here. But that was wrong because it was not only interpretive as racist, I was absolutely being racially insensitive to it, which I've learned is racist. Okay? And I understand that. So I regret, I deeply regret it that those words, you know, had that effect. And, and, and I know based on the woman with the Meghan Markle on Twitter who taught me that, I know it's a trigger. So people are going to be hurt by that. It's going to be an extreme sensitivity for people who know people who that happened to, but probably for people who, who has had that happen to them. And I am, as someone who is a champion of diversity, equity, inclusion, which I think my content shows, particularly since late May of 2020, I, I am the last person who wants to come across as racially insensitive or, or, or racist. So again, you know, my sincere apologies to anyone who's affected by that. And that post was never meant to draw any attention, you know, to, I didn't want to draw any attention to people, you know, or groups in that. It's just really more of a general reflection on this broader issue of misinformation and the harm that it caused. So again, it's like we're all talking about the same thing, but we're coming at it differently. Much, much differently. So I, and I fully understand, which is something, you know, I see in social media all the time. And I, I adjust my social media posts all the time. I'll take them down or I will, you know, I may not, I may turn off a stitch or turn off duet because I don't want it to be taken out of context and, and it can be so easily misconstrued, which is what happened. So people took my post, stitched it, which was 10 seconds and then, you know, and here I'm calling out social media vigilantes. Well, biting the hand, it came back right at me because that's what happened. Social media vigilantes and other people, I assume, well meaning people, I don't know, I didn't see them, but I assume there's probably well meaning people out there that said, hey, what is this? But also I do know just from being tagged to it, information that I was saying was being, you know, it was, it was out of context. It was completely out of context, but I was being labeled as just this awful, horrible white woman who's a racist, who wants to draw, who says that, you know, black men should be hurt, and, you know, oh, my gosh. And in the responses. So now here I help people get out of these, and I. And I work on the inside, and I have clients that tell me. They're like, you have no idea what it's like to be attacked online. You have no idea how vulnerable it makes you feel, how scary it is, you know, when your reputation is at hand like that. And I've had touches of it, definitely, but it's like, oh, yeah, no, I absolutely do. But let's go back. I mean, racism, certainly racism, racial insensitivity, a problem has been a problem, will continue to be a problem, and we all need to do better, myself included, on how we can, you know, properly address that and be mindful of it, you know, when that does come on or, you know, when it does happen. But this issue of misinformation, you know, because as it relates also to race, it does. It does play into that because there's a lot of misinformation about minorities, you know, specifically, you know, like, politically in this political. Now we're entering another political season, and you see it as. It's used as a talking point, and it's. And it's so awful and dangerous, and it is a serious issue in today's digital age. So it's crucial that we approach it with caution and responsibility. And there are consequences of spreading misinformation. It can be severe. It at, you know, on the low end. It could lead to misunderstandings or hurt feelings. It could perpetuate harmful stereotypes. But it can also lead to people getting hurt, possibly leading to people getting killed. You know, we see that, you know, viral moments where people get shot now because they assume something was happening. Like, you know, someone coming, driving up to a house and being shot because they think that there's an intruder, you know. But back to viral moments. You know, so for me, this marked a moment. For me, again, it's just reaffirming my, you know, my thoughts and remembering the whole Meghan Markle incident and just not doing Meghan Markle content or not, but also just moving forward. You know, anyone who follows me, either you're listening to this podcast or anyone who follows my social media, knows I'm a teacher at heart, that that's what I do. Like, I want to teach people what I learn, and then I go to social media to Learn things and learn how social media works and learns how reputation and crisis communication works. And then I spit it out and give it back to people. And to, to say, though, if there's, you know, anything that came out of it is, oh, boy, did I learn. I learned about social media and how it works and what happens and how people generally respond out of curiosity, and how people can respond with just malice and hate. So, you know, actually gives me. Gives me the, the taste of, like, being Meghan Markle. I mean, hardly. How can I say that? The only thing I could say, though, is you just get an experience of God. God, she has to go through life like both of them. But really, Meghan Markle has to go through. And a lot of people, right, where people just hate you. That's. That cannot be an easy way to live. So, but moving forward, I'm committing to doing something different now. So something that I have with this idea of social media vigilante ism being out there. And I had just posted something about a week ago, two weeks ago, about it too, that I was taking a turn. Like, I, I didn't want to be a part of, like, tearing people down. I still like to use examples like brands or businesses, celebrities, if you will, like, for lessons, like, what can we learn? But I don't want to do. I don't want to come in on a side and give the. The impression that I'm coming after someone, because that's my trigger. I. I hate people coming after people. Like, I don't hate. I don't hate anything, but I hate, hate. I hate hate. I hate it. I hate it, and I hate seeing it, and I hate seeing it in the comments and when you have algorithms. Because this happened to me and I had people, you know, just sending me just hate. It's like TikTok said, oh, okay, let's now do alt hate. Now you're going to get hate for everything. And on other posts now, people are fighting with other people. Like, I have a post about John Mulaney, you know, just, you know, someone asked me, is John Mulaney's comedy special, do you think a PR move? I'm like, yeah, I absolutely do. I thought it was a PR move for him to explain what he went through with the intervention with the drugs, how he came out of it, touched on the marriage ever so slightly. Didn't want to go down, you know, down that rabbit hole too much. But now I'm noticing today it's all people hating on each other. I'm almost ready to Shut down the post because people, because one of the things I said was about addiction. I said, if there's a silver lining in this, you know, John Mulaney coming forward to talk about addiction is teaching people about addiction and how, and how deadly it can be and how awful it is. And we have fentanyl deaths. And you know, so he's, he's enlightening people. And I like that. But right now in that post, it's people fighting against each other. And that's the algorithm. Okay. And that's the last piece that I want that I, that I want to say about it. Social media platforms are breeding grounds for rapid spread of false information. And when it's weaponized, it can have detrimental effects. Okay? So with the absence of fact checking and the viral nature of content sharing, this misinformation, it gains traction, it leads to the distortion of public opinion, and it also exacerbates societal division. That's what happened to me all weekend. I was called a racist. Oh, I am not a racist yet. TikTok said, or there was a portion of TikTok that is convinced that I am based off of a 10 second clip of something that I was talking about with misinformation and the press. Okay? And forget me, this happens a million times a day on there. And I do know, again, as I said in the beginning, like this vigilantism and people who want to call out people I know, in many cases their effort, it's rooted with this desire to promote truth and justice. I mean, that's me. I'm all about truth, truth and justice. But you run the risk of inadvertently amplifying misinformation or unfairly targeting individuals, which is what I did. Which is exactly what I did in my post and what other people do all the time. So to address this issue, we have to just call for more responsible dissemination. Let's think a little bit more critically. I know I am when I'm, when I'm posting out, geez, I'm going to have a checklist. But I, I just want to. Here's my call to arms. Let's try and put a, put a stop to the vigilantism of it just for the sake of bringing people down. Because the algorithms being used by these platforms have inadvertently contributed to the breeding of this hate and division online. What makes people go viral and really popular and hey, you know, they make all this money as influencers. That same algorithm, you know, that's designed to maximize user engagement is also creating hate and polarization. It creates These echo chambers, it creates these filter bubbles and it reinforces existing biases out there. It limits, it limits exposure to the truth and to more diverse perspectives. You know, I think like one person had posted on another post of mine, so again, like publicly shaming me to say, went to one of my previous posts about inclusivity and said, oh, you're just being performative here. You're, you've never been inclusive in your life. Like, okay, may I present to you the last 10 years of my DEI content. But I get it, like that's, those are the rules, it's the rules of the road. But I really want to be more of an advocate now for helping my clients. And you too, you are absolutely going to hear me talk about it. And if you don't want to hear me talk about it, you can unsubscribe right now because I am going down this path of just the negative consequences. And let's talk about, you know, the algorithm transparency. Let's talk about accountability, let's talk about the ethical practices. Let's talk about truth in, let's talk about truth in the press. I really believe the press is adding to this too because media conglomerates now, they want click, they want clickbait. Why? They want people to go to the stories. Why? Because they want eyeballs, they want clicks, they want to sell advertising, they want to make money. Buzzfeed just went under. A lot of these digital platforms are going under because they're not making enough money. How do you make money? Well, we have less journalists, less writers and we need more stories. So we have to make them clickbaity. And what is the most clickbait story out there? Viral vengeance. Viral frickin vengeance. And that is misinformation. And it's, and it can be so costly, not just to a reputation, but truly it could be, it could cost a person their livelihood, it could cost a person their life. Is when people don't know and they make these assumptions. So I want to prioritize the well being and safety, you know, of users. So I, I am not. And if I do, call me on it. If there's a post that I put out there, I'm harping too hard on someone, let me know, let me know. If I'm being racially insensitive, let me know. But do it with sensitivity. Like, and that's the other part. You know, people are asking, why don't you post an apology video like you tell everybody that they need to do. And you're such a hypocrite. Well, you want to know the reason why? Is because I don't think people should be putting up apology videos anymore. Not necessarily because of social media. It's not that people shouldn't apologize. I, I, I'm not saying that. But go to TikTok to apologize. I don't know. I don't know. You want to know why? Because of the algorithm. And people are just going to tear it apart anyway, and it's going to feed the algorithm. I've seen, seen it, I've seen it happen. I've, I've seen it happen as a casual user. I've seen it happen to clients I know from the inside. And it's just g, it's, it's ugly and it can really, really hurt people. It can really, really hurt people. So for that, that is my new pledge. To be more mindful and sensitive of how content can appear, to be mindful and more sensitive to content being taken out of context, I. E. Stitch and duets, but also to be mindful of how content that I produce can be more proactive. Like, take that pause and talk about the other risks out there, you know, not just from truth and accuracy, but okay, what if, what if this affects, like a specific group or a minority or a, or a person, you know, let's listen to the voices that we normally don't listen to and see what this content does. So that's my charge. Today was the year anniversary of my dog's death. And so I was reflecting a lot today, and this is what I was reflecting on. I do not want to be a part of this viral takedown. So I, my last story on that was I had mentioned Kategate and how I was in that story. And I thought, now that's a story. If I get an interview request to do that, I, I am politely declining. I am not going to do those stories anymore. When it involves someone who's pers, like someone who's private, like someone who's just running a business and someone wants to film them or someone wants to just take it and go, and then they're going to mix it in a bad, deadly stew of the, of a negative algorithm. I don't want to partake in it. I'm not going to talk about it. I'm just going to focus my analysis on analysis and not commentary. Now, this week marks three years since George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis, since that viral video of, you know, then police officer Derek Chauvin was kneeling on Floyd's neck and the video went viral. And we all know what happened from that. Now, now there is, this year, you know, there's going to be third annual Rise and Remember events that are happening, you know, around the country. One definitely is in Minneapolis, you know, at the scene of where George Floyd was killed. And these Rise and Remember that, you know, that I saw, they're there to, you know, hold in remembrance all the people who have been lost to these pervasive impacts of systemic racism. And so there are these gatherings to, you know, to promote racial justice and equity. And, you know, and these events are incredibly important. So I would call anyone. I mean, geez, if I were in Minneapolis, 100%, I would. I would definitely be there. But I also think this is a time, and I'm mindful of the time of this podcast. I never have podcasts this long, but this was an important topic to me. And because this is the moment, like, this is the topic of what happened this weekend, that, like, is changing me profoundly, as is just a content creator. But even in my work, even in my work, it is. I. I do not want. I am now going to be committed to how can we communicate to eliminate the misinformation that can cause hate and pain and systemic racism and all the things that it can promote? How can we. How can we use our communications to do better? Show what we've learned and show what we can do. Now, a piece about DEI that, That I saw in a story, and this story came out in February. NBC News reported it. It was Curtis Bun's story, but DEI roles increased by 55% since Floyd's murder. Okay, since 2020. So they had cited a report from that, a society for human resources management. But now black employees, DEI employees, they're losing their jobs to layoffs. You know, with the economy, with layoffs happening across the economy now, like, what. What was cut? You know, you always hear about, oh, marketing, advertising, you know, the first to go, DEI roles, 33% attrition rate for DEI roles at the end of 2022, Amazon, Applebee's, Twitter lead the way with DEI layoffs since July 2022. Now, that could be like, in context, it could be massive layoffs. I mean, we certainly know that Twitter had massive layoffs and reporting Amazon did as well. I didn't know that Applebee's did, but. And so it would be reasonable to assume that DEI is a part of it. You know, that could just be, you know, a part of it. But still, the. These roles, you know, these roles are, Are going away. And so what that means, you know, less DEI roles Means less diversity, equity, inclusion within companies. And that affects culture, and bad culture creates crises. And I'm saying this as someone who knows, because I work with them all the time, so that's something to be mindful of. So if you're listening to this and you are a business and you do not have DEI roles or you. You want them, you need them. It's interesting. Like, I was working with someone recently. They wanted to introduce to an event. They wanted to bring in more people of color to an event. I mean, they were called out for it for not having it. And when they first approached me, it was, you know, I need to do this now, because I've been called out for it. So now I need to do was. It was rote. And I, in a delicate way, said, well, why don't we look at it this way? You're not just doing it because you have to do it. Let's do it because you want to do it. And also, let's just look at the opportunity there. Just look at the opportunity. If you want to look at it that way. More voices, more diverse voices. It's not just checking a box. That's just a part of it. Yes, check that box. But look at the benefit that comes from that one. You're giving a voice to someone. You are giving a voice to a minority, a voice that we don't normally see, a person of color. Now you're also. Who are they speaking to? Other people of color. You know, they're speaking to other people like you. It's profound. What can be. What can be done if you. If you do this? And that's the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion. It just. It creates better culture at businesses. Because I do think that's. My other thing is bad culture creates a lot of crises now. And I'm. And I know I just mentioned that, but that's really the next problem. Okay, so wrapping up this podcast right now. What. What are some ways that you can be more inclusive? It's. It's the end of May. Okay, so the last week of May, to me, and I. I probably remember this more than, like, the average. I'll say this, the average white person is that George Floyd was not killed in June. The impact of George Floyd's death was in June. George Floyd was killed in May. So at the end of May, every single year, I. It's like a clock with me. I remember it. And the reason why is because it happened in my hometown. You know, I grew up across the river. I didn't grow up that Far from where George Floyd was killed. So to say that people in my hometown were talking about it would be an understatement. So it is ingrained in me. And In June of 2020, I did a series of. I dedicated June to just inclusive content, not just about. I think in June 2020, I did a George Floyd. And then I. My friend Tanya McKenzie, she's in California. She is an amazing black creator who works in public relations. She and I talked about civic engagement and duty. I also did a podcast about Pride Month. And, you know, the importance of pride. This is the month. It really. Diversity and equity inclusion should be all year. Should be all 12 months. But if there was ever a month to say, you know what? We need to do the right thing, let's do the right thing. Let's do this now. Let's do this now. Okay, June is Pride Month. It's Pride coming up. Juneteenth is coming up soon in a matter, you know, matter of a few weeks here, start planning. What are you doing for Juneteenth? What are we doing? Okay, now I'm including links to all of these episodes in the show notes. I have a. I have a How to communicate Juneteenth. I have a episode about Pride. Have two episodes about Pride and episode about George Floyd as well that I would definitely want you to check out. So for everyone still listening, thank you for spending the hour with me talking about a really important issue. Well, a number of issues, but just the importance of just being mindful of what our words and our content can do to other people. And just try and think out of our own universe and our own selves and think about other people and what they're feeling and what their. Their triggers are. And also heading into June, an idea of being more diverse in our efforts. We need to have DEI back into the workplace, back into our culture, because then hopefully we'll start educating more people and we can prevent just this weaponized misinformation from happening where people can be harmed. That's all for this week on the podcast. Thanks so much for listening. Bye for now.