Episode Notes

Zach has the honor of chatting with Virginia Democratic Delegate Lashrecse Aird in a wide-ranging interview about the Biden/Harris ticket, voting rights, and COVID-19. Listen to the full show to find out the greatest challenges Lashrecse has faced being both the youngest woman ever elected to the Virginia House of Delegates and a Black woman! She also implores everyone listening to vote, paying particular attention to making sure you get your absentee ballot as early as possible.

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TRANSCRIPT
Zach: What’s going on, y’all? It’s Zach with Living Corporate, and look, every single week–every single week–we come to y’all with fresh content that does what? Center and amplify Black and brown people at work, right? And we do that in all kinds of ways, rights? We have conversations, we create dope media that centers and amplifies Black and brown people at work by having discussions with Black and brown executives, entrepreneurs, activists, professors, authors, influencers, and–da-da-da–elected officials. I’m really excited about the person we have on our podcast today, Delegate Lashrecse Aird. Delegate Aird was sworn in in January 2016 to represent the 63rd House District, which includes all of the city of Petersburg, all of Dinwiddie County, and parts of Chesterfield County. She holds the special distinction of being the youngest woman ever elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. A tireless and trusted community leader, Delegate Aird is actively engaged in numerous civic boards and organizations. Through her hard work and clarity of vision, she has risen to a position of leadership in each organization that she’s served. Currently she chairs the 4th Congressional District community of the Democratic Party in Virginia. In addition, she’s a member of the Petersburg alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, the James House Board of Directors, Sports Backers Board of Directors, and is a member of the Responsible Leaders Network and the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt. Okay, so we’re gonna get into this content, and look, before we get into this content let me just also thank y’all. We launched a Kickstarter a little over a week ago. Well, I guess by the time you hear this it’ll be 2 weeks, right? It’ll be officially two weeks, and I’m just so thankful. I’m so thankful for everyone’s support. We are over 300% funded against our initial goal, and the thing about it is some people ask, like, you know, “Why should we continue to give?” Look, with Kickstarter, if you don’t hit your initial goal you get nothing, right? So we wanted to make sure we set a reasonable goal that we thought we could hit in time, but we were just shocked at the fact that we hit it in 8 hours. So this is a real-time update just thanking y’all, thanking y’all for all the support. Please continue to support and back us. It takes time, effort, and of course money to continue to create the content that we create at the quality and scale that we create it, right? You’re listening to episode, like, 270, and we’re creating and dropping three podcasts a week every single week, not to mention all of the social media things that we’re doing, the newsletters, the webinars that we’re now launching. We have more content coming for your head top very soon, so announcements coming on that very, very soon, so make sure you stay tuned with us. But yeah, just thank you so much. Anyway, I wanted to go ahead and record the introduction separate and just kind of give you all a thank you as we transition and get ready to get into this discussion. So the next thing you’re gonna hear is my conversation with Delegate Lashrecse D. Aird, who represents the 63rd House District of the Virginia House of Delegates. Peace.

Zach: Lashrecse Aird. Lashrecse, welcome to the show. [laughs]

Lashrecse: Yeah, that’s right. [laughs] Thank you, Zach, for having me. I’m looking forward to the conversation.

Zach: I’m looking forward to it too. You know what’s funny is I asked you how to say your first name, and then I’m over here struggling with “Aird.” The irony.

Lashrecse: You’re not alone in that. That’s okay. [both laugh]

Zach: Okay, so your journey is inspiring. I’d like to understand what it’s like being a delegate who is not only the youngest woman ever elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, but also being a Black woman. Like, what challenges have you experienced already, and what lessons have you learned?

Laschrecse: You know, Zach, I really appreciate that. I feel like when I went into elected office in 2015 I knew exactly what I was doing, but almost 5 years later I can tell you I had no clue what I was doing, and I have learned so much along the way. You know, what I can say with great clarity is one of the greatest challenges that I experienced once elected, you know, is age discrimination. That layered with being Black and being a woman, you know? When you are surrounded by older elected officials, men and women, there is this assumption that your age is synonymous with your experience, your expertise and, you know, your life’s work, and so a lot of older members in an elected body, they dismiss you without getting to know the lens in which you see issues and the lenses in which you see things.

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