Hi, my name is Deshaun Carter, a policy analyst on the higher education team here at New America. Two cases currently sit with SCOTUS student for fair missions versus Harvard College and student for fair missions versus the University of North Carolina, which could likely ban colleges and universities from considering race and their missions process. If SCOTUS decides to overturn affirmative action, we can expect to see many damaging and rippling effects throughout the higher education system and other institutions. Here in New America, we acknowledge that we are not experts on affirmative action. However, we are very dedicated to making higher education more equitable and accountable, fighting for inclusion rather than exclusion, so that everyone can obtain affordable, high quality education. Therefore, we are very committed to using our platform to uplift those with deep expertise and knowledge to raise awareness and spark cohesive dialogue on creating policies to ensure that higher education institutions are a guiding light in embracing diversity, equity and inclusion. I want to welcome Dr. Liliana Garces, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law and with the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. Her work has been focused on race and equity and higher education. Don't want to say too much because I do want to give her the floor to share more about her work. So thank you so much again, Dr. Liliana Garces, for joining me on this call today. I'm very interested to learn more about your work and what brought you into this particular policy space. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity to join this important conversation. So I'll just say broadly my research, my work examines how law and education systems come together to shape opportunity or exacerbate inequality for historically marginalized populations in higher education, particularly for students of color. And I came to my work as an academic and researcher after having worked in law for about five years. My partner likes to call me a recovering lawyer. And it was my personal journey that really brought me to my work in law. And in that journey itself is what motivated my interest to then work in education. I'm someone who started from very humble beginnings. I grew up in a very small farm in Columbia in South America and I immigrated with my mom to the US. She came as a single mom. I was about 11. We made the very dangerous journey, actually, without documents. And I didn't speak any English at the time. And about less than 20 years later, I was working for the American Civil Liberties Union advocating for the constitutional rights of other immigrants before the highest court in the nation, the US Supreme Court. And the journey from where I began to that moment really represents the very best of what our education system has to offer to open up opportunity and help individuals realize their highest aspirations. But we know that that's not the case for the majority of students of color in our country, where education really serves to close doors of opportunity and oftentimes entrench racial and ethnic inequities. And so after working as a lawyer and realizing my highest aspirations, I wanted to really dedicate that next stage of my career to help education really serve this role of opening opportunity rather than further entrench inequities. And all really the motivation for my work, everything that drives it is a democratic theory of education, a working assumption that our racial and ethically diverse democracy individuals with diverse set of experiences should really be helping shape laws and policies that affect us all. But we know that the majority of individuals who are in positions of power and influence are predominantly white. And as long as that remains the case, we end up with a system of racial hierarchy, where selective institutions, you know, where students of color are severely underrepresented provide pathways to positions of power and influence the United States. And so a large part of my work as an educational researcher has focused on examining policies that are intended to provide pathways of opportunity to these places, to these selective places that are providing those pathways to positions of power and influence in our society. And policies like affirmative action has been an important part that has served this goal in our society. And so it's a critical study area for studying access and equity and higher education. And not just because it's policy that has opened up access and opportunity with an original intent of helping level the playing field. But because when we talk about legal and policy debate around these this topic, it really has a much larger and lasting deep influence outside of not just admissions, but in other practices. And really just reflects debates about how we as a society address racial discrimination and a history of racial oppression. How we engage in thinking about merit, who's meritorious, how we engage with questions of race and power and identity. So that's the frame generally my work and how I came to this area of study. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing. Again, yeah, I guess I thank you for sharing your journey. And you made a couple of great points about, you know, opportunity and, you know, the history of this country's. Yeah, when it comes to denying people access to just basic and vital resources and institution. So I want to get into talking a little bit more about, you know, what is the previous cases of around affirmative action. So this is not the first time a legal challenge, you know, to raise conscious emissions has come up. Do you see any differences between the Harvard and UNC cases with like Fisher versus Texas? Are there any similarities? And do you think the higher education policy arena has changed since affirmative action was last on the chopping block? Well, I would say that these are cases that have come back to the court in light of a very well coordinated effort to bring the issue back to the Supreme Court at a time when we have a changed composition and the votes to interpret the law in a way that really limits the consideration of race altogether. There's been a lot of different challenges to the policy. But all these prior challenges haven't fully been successful in limiting the consideration of race altogether. They have already shaped the practice in a way that's already limited. But we are at a time when three of the justices on the court who was recently as 2016 with the Fisher case voted to uphold the constitutionality of the practice have since each left the court and each of them has been replaced by a conservative justice appointed by former President Trump. And they're all expected to form a new majority as they join longer standing justices who in the past have criticized the practice. So that's really what's new with these new legal cases. In addition to having a strategy of with the Harvard case, having an Asian American plaintiff, which in arguments that really rely on perpetuating a lot of myths and stereotypes about Asian Americans and in divisions among communities of color. But in terms of where we are with the law, I think it's important to remember that we have we've had a series of cases already that have really limited what institutions can do with affirmative action. In fact, I don't really think that what we have in place right now, we can call affirmative action. What we have in place is a type of race consciousness that preserves the ability for students of color to present their full selves. It is far from the type of policy that affirmatively addresses any kind of past ongoing consequences of racial discrimination. In the past, when we think about the original beginnings of affirmative action, and, you know, beginning with the executive order issued by President Johnson back in 1965 that required federal contractors to including public universities to take affirmative steps to promote the full realization of equal opportunity for women and for people of color, really the intent there was to help level the playing field. But that's an approach that the court already closed off back in 1978 with Bakke, which struck down that approach as unconstitutional. And what we have in place is a diluted form of affirmative action, which I think at most we would just call race consciousness. And it really is a very common sensical approach to admissions. It's an approach that considers all aspects of an individual's identity, including race or ethnic background. These are all factors that end up shaping our experiences, especially in a society where race and ethnicity really matters for shaping educational experiences and opportunities. And so when you're not able to consider those experiences, you end up denying students, especially students of color, marginalized students, the ability to present their full selves. And you're asking them to not really identify an important dimension of their multifaceted identity that ends up then leading us in a place where we're discriminating against a particular population instead of trying to provide a very common sensical approach that allows us to consider everybody's experiences. The other thing that is, I would say, related but maybe slightly different with these cases, in addition to having a very changed composition in the Supreme Court, is that the plaintiffs are presenting arguments that rely on these racial stereotypes about Asian Americans that try to prioritize standardized test scores as the primary of not the sole measure of a student's merit of what is deserving of admission at selective institutions. But we know from a large body of research that these are measures that are far from objective measures of merit, potential or talent. They really end up being more highly correlated to family wealth and resources. And this is something that institutions of higher education have started to realize as they begin to make tests, their admissions practices become test optional or just not require them all together. So that's, yeah, that's the two I think main things that I would say about these new cases and how they fit into the development of what's already been constrained and now trying to eliminate the consideration of race altogether. Yeah, thank you for sharing because it just seems like this issue will continue to come up over the years. And it's just, yeah, it's like 25 years later, 10 years later, and we're steadily seeing the same issue come up. And yeah, thank you for sharing. Sorry, as I said too, it's connected to our struggle as a society and how we engage in these issues. And so it's not surprising that it comes back and ebbs and flows as we debate this at the highest levels of the Supreme Court. Yeah, and with also the shift in our politics too. And like you said, who's sitting on the court and the shift in certain states, which I'm about to get into next about certain states who have been affirmative action. And I'm thinking about California and Michigan, particularly, you know, both have acknowledged that they have seen a decrease in diversity on their campuses, especially at their flagship and selective universities. What can we learn from these states and what should federal policymakers know? Well, the substantial body of research shows, including some of my own work, which has looked at what has happened with enrollment of underrepresented students, minoritized students at, in graduate fields of study, for example. And we see that these bans on affirmative action in states like Michigan, California and others have led to substantial declines in the enrollment of minoritized communities across a number of educational sectors in at the elective undergraduate schools and graduate fields of study, which have been my own, my own studies and that cuts across fields like engineering, the natural sciences, social sciences, the humanities, also at schools of medicine who are training future doctors who are going to need to be equipped to serve a multiracial democracy in society, in law schools, at schools of medicine, I mentioned, sorry, at business schools as well. These are all studies and a substantial body of research that has been presented in arguments before the court. They came before the court in last in 2016 when the issue was last deliberated before these more recent cases. And what it would require for the court in the way that I know many expect given the ideological makeup and the change composition is that, you know, just to be clear, it would really require extraordinary steps for the court to create a shift in the very commonsensical approach and admissions. The court would need to ignore that large body of evidence. It would also need to overrule for 40 years of precedent. And we'll look all the evidence that the trial court has, the trial courts that both the trial and the court of appeals and the Harvard case, at least, carefully considered. And you look at the evidence, it's about 250 pages of meticulous legal analysis combined. And you have also the interest of the business community, the professional fields of law, medical community, the US Armed Services, all of all organizations that have continued to try to defend a very limited consideration of race in their policies because they are, they play, they have deemed race conscious policies to play a very critical role in helping serve their goals and mission. And so these are all a very large body of evidence and research that the court would need to ignore and if it were to overrule prior precedent. Yeah, that's insane. And as someone who is, you know, interested in data and policy is like the evidence is right there and for them to ignore that that would be completely insane. And still talking about I guess states, still in the same line of around states. You know, many interesting and particular things are coming out of Florida and Texas, especially around their DEI efforts. Do you see their actions as a precursor to what we might see unfold nationwide, affirmative action is overturned? And what is that stake for higher education institutions and their current DEI efforts? Yeah, so, you know, these proposed bills and legislation that has passed target that's targeting diversity, equity, inclusion efforts, they're targeting not just what happens in admissions, but what happens throughout the educational journey after students are admitted. And these are really efforts that are intended to expand the reach of the Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action beyond just admissions. The problem is that diversity is in, you know, realizing the educational benefits of diversity. It's not just about numbers of students on campus. It's really about the educational experiences that students are able to engage in. In my scholarship, I call this dynamic diversity, right? It's not just having a critical mass of students on campus who come, you know, from marginalized communities or, you know, students of color, but really about the engagement across racial difference among students. We have decades of diversity and inclusion-related research that consistently shows that programming and support to help those cross-racial interactions is essential for realizing the benefits of diverse learning environments, like helping build critical thinking skills, preparing future leaders to lead in a multiracial democracy, helping break down racial stereotypes, promoting cross-racial understanding, and just having students of color and increasing the numbers and sort of on campus on its own doesn't result in these benefits or for white students in choosing to interact with people of different racial backgrounds. Rather, what we need is the kind of interaction that is, that can provide those long-term benefits. And DEI programming helps across all those efforts. You need not just numeric representation, but a positive or a healthy campus climate. And that's what those, that programming can help facilitate, assess, support faculty to become better equipped in addressing impediments to productive interactions, like when you have small number of students of color in a classroom, for example, when we think about racial stereotypes or tokenism and becoming more aware of how to overcome some of these barriers and support the educational experiences for all students in that space to help really realize the benefits of diversity is what all those efforts are about. And so in the same way that considering race as a factor in admissions has been really central to achieving the mission of institutions of higher education, that is exactly what diversity, equity, and inclusion programming and policies do. They help realize the mission of institutions of higher education for providing a high quality education for all students, for opening doors of opportunity and supporting the educational experiences in a way that is promoting the mission of the institution. So, yeah, I think what's at stake for institutions of higher education is really their mission and their ability to help sustain and contribute to a healthy democracy. Yeah, thank you for that. I think you kind of answer my next question about, you know, diversity, equity, inclusion, and also belonging is so important to have on college campuses. I mean, it's like you said, it's one thing to admit the student, but we also have to be able to provide those supports for those students to stay there and also follow through and succeed. So thank you for sharing because it seems like with what's going on and I would say most concerted leaning states is that it's like so many like laws are just coming out or bills are being, you know, pushed through or introduced day by day to like ban diversity and equity and inclusion like through the whole entire education system. So thank you for sharing. Kind of want to jump into, I guess, a little bit more about the decision overall. So what would you like the general public to take away from what is unfolding and what is one hope and also one fear you have about the upcoming decision? So in terms of what is unfolding, I would come back to understanding that this is really a very important debate that relates to how do we tackle racial inequity in our society? Do we do that by attending to the ways in which race really shapes opportunity and in educational trajectories and address that head on? Or do we do it by ignoring or thinking that we can overcome those inequities by not addressing it directly? I think these are two perspectives that are at play with the kind of fundamental arguments that these cases represent and grounded in what we know from research is that when we don't attend to the way that race shapes education opportunity, we end up exacerbating those inequities. So we don't get to a place where race no longer matters by not looking at race and the way that it actually matters so that we can tackle it head on. In terms of, I'll start with a fear. I think one of my greatest fears is, well, the larger sphere is that this is really going to undermine a healthy multiracial democracy, connecting back to the very fundamental role that institutions of higher education play in helping provide a high quality education for all students and providing pathways of opportunity for leadership and areas of influence in our society in helping reduce the racial prejudice and stereotypes that we carry in creating leaders who are more prepared to address the needs of a multiracial society. So that's one of kind of like a large fear. Another fear, which is related to lessons from my research, is that even if we have a favorable ruling, let's say, or maybe a narrow ruling, that the decision would be interpreted more broadly than it calls for. Because legal decisions don't implement themselves. All of us in various roles at institutions and administrators, faculty, give them meaning through the ways in which they come to be enacted. And that meaning is going to have very important consequences for democracy overall. And what I've learned from my research is that administrators can interpret or implement a decision more restrictively than necessary. Even when we have a policy that doesn't prevent a particular practice, it can still lead to responses that are motivated by fear and not the decision itself. I've seen that in studies that have looked at institutions that have chosen, for example, to not have race conscious admissions, even if they're in states that allow for it. And I've seen it in responses of the work of administrators, for example, who are charged with supporting an educational environment for students after they're admitted. And they're in a state, for example, where a ban on affirmative action has passed, they all of a sudden they feel like they can't talk about race or engage in those efforts, even when that work is outside the context of admissions, right? So the policy has to do with admissions, but it's taking an effect in other areas of the institution. So my concern is that a decision would lead to kind of overcorrection in the way that programming and policies happen on campus in admissions and in other areas as well. And so we really need to understand how the law can shape our actions in ways that end up having this really powerful influence on actions that undermine equity and inclusion more restrictively than necessary. I guess one hope is that we can think about what new practices we need that can come from a more expansive view than what the legal framework has already circumscribed. So I know there's a lot of concern around how might the decision further restrict our work, but we need to remember that prior decisions have already restricted the work of racial equity. And those restrictions have had to happen with this narrow opening of diversity and attending to the educational benefits of diversity, the forward-looking benefits of this, but that has come with some trade-offs. And in some ways I think it's an area that has left us less fluent in how we talk about race and racial inequities almost in a place of being too comfortable and not maybe not engaging the creativity that we need to really tackle the very fundamental problems of racial inequity in our society and in the role that institutions of higher education can play in addressing them. So my hope is that we can realize the opportunity that the challenge might present by becoming what I like to call more racially literate. And this is a term that comes from legal scholar Lonnie Guinear who is a former mentor of mine. And she talks about the importance of being racially literate, of understanding how structures in our society shape inequity, how race and class and power intersect and how all these pieces need to be attended to so that we can address these really fundamental issues in our society. And one of the really fundamental, I think, aspects that will require a reimagination from institutions of higher education is this question of merit and how we capture it in admissions. How what we attempt to in that at that stage is actually aligned with what we value in as an institution in the contribution that we want to provide. So how is the mission of and values of institution aligned with what's considered at the point of admission. So if you think of it as an incentive system that is rewarding the actions that we care about, then how are those factors aligned with values of a democracy of the we think about maybe the ability to cooperate with one another to think creatively to to face obstacles and overcome them to just to name a few of the pieces that that is society we value, then those are the factors that we should be considering in admissions and addressing other pieces that might be in place that are creating inequities that for too long affirmative action or race conscious admissions has been more of a band-aid on the system. And yeah, so my hope is that we can realize that opportunity that a potentially more restrictive decision will will help us come to. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for sharing all those great, they're all great nuggets.  And like you said, taking the band-aid off and like the band-aid is just affirmative action is like a band-aid to like, okay, let's patch things up, let's patch up our systems to try to make this sound cute and that we're trying to support communities of color. But we're really not, but it needs to go like the action has to go further than just affirmative action. So thank you for sharing all those great nuggets. My next question, I think you may be already touched on a lot of a lot of things, but I want to think more towards what federal policy to look like. You know, in New America, we are focused on federal policy, just given our location being in Washington, D.C. What would you like Congress and the White House to know about the fallout in front of actions of return? And how could the decision affect federal policy? And what can Congress do to maintain and improve access for students of color? Oh, this is a this is a large question, this is not one that I'm fully prepared. No, it's take your time. This is like, like I said, it's I know it's a lot to take in. But yeah, we will be interested in I mean, I'm interested, but also I think the general public is interested in what, you know, what can Congress and the White House do like, to just make sure that we're ensuring that students of color from all walks of life, have their opportunity, you know, it's secured for them. Yeah. Yeah, I know so much, I think, begins at the K-12 level, and making sure that we're funding schools in a way that is providing the rigorous academic training where students are prepared to engage in the types of yeah, sorry, this is too large of a question for me. No, no, go ahead. No, take your time. Yeah, I think I think one of the important parts that I don't know how you get at this through federal policy, but we do need to incentivize I think public institutions in a way that can help align with what needs to happen in what is valued at the point of admissions and things like the rankings, right? Here's where I'm not sure how policy connects to what the current rankings are, but we should be ranking institutions on how racially diverse are their student bodies? What is the educational experiences that they're providing? What are the employment opportunities that they're providing across race and promoting these goals of what institutions of higher education should be doing and contributing to a multi-racial democracy? So whatever those policies are, I think they need to incentivize a different approach and admissions that really attends to what that alignment needs to be. Yeah, and I think you answered it perfectly. Transparency, I think that's one thing about universities and institutions of higher education is that we need more transparent and vocal about what is going on on the actual campuses because as a student of color, as someone who identifies as a student of color once myself, you know, thinking about if you're going to be able to see students that look like you and you see someone or faculty that look like you. I think that's so important to have on campus and also be very transparent about at these universities because a lot of these students who are going to these college campuses, they're going for the first time. They're first generation students and they have no idea of what's yet to come when they step foot onto that campus and I think just having some type of sense of belonging on the campus is a start to just making sure that they're on the right path for post-secondary success. I would add that it'll be really important too to make sure, you know, there's the kind of usual areas of financial aid, making sure that we're doing that equitably given the different contexts for different populations. But when we think about other sectors in higher education like historically black colleges and universities, minority serving institutions who are also training and providing those pathways for in our society for future leaders and future doctors or future lawyers, they need much better funding to be able to because, you know, from I'm not an expert in that area, but these are spaces where students feel a sense of belonging and are empowered and are learning great things but institutions are doing that with a lot less resources than selective institutions. So I think targeting efforts toward these really important places is also should be a priority. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for speaking with me today. Yeah, like I said, myself in America, we really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us and talk about what what the future of higher education is going to be when come June 30th is when we'll find the decision. So thank you so much again. And yeah, I really appreciate this. Thank you so much to Sean for the invitation. I really appreciated it too.


Hey everyone, welcome back to my channel. I hope you've all been well and happy new week because I always seem to upload at the start of a new week now. I've missed you guys and I've missed chatting with you guys and I've really been enjoying vlogging like my work life recently. Some of you guys have been asking me to film more of like my work and life balance where I can. So that's what I'm trying to do this week, show you guys kind of how I managed to fit everything into my schedule. Sorry for the loud noise, the coffee maker just switched on. But yeah, life can be quite busy sometimes. And I'm feeling like I'm starting to get behind of how to manage things. Although I do have a lot on my plate and I won't deny that. So yeah, sometimes I feel like even I need to sit back and think how am I managing to do everything and maybe if there's any tips that I have I can share them with you. But yeah, I hope that you all enjoyed this vlog. Before we get into it, I wanted to ask if you could please give this video a thumbs up if you enjoy my vlog content because it really, really helps me. So thank you in advance for doing that. Okay, let's make our coffee and be on our way to work. Today is actually a mixed day. Sorry, I need a second shot of coffee. My hair is really bugging me out but I don't have time to blow dry the front anymore so I don't know, I guess I might have to just tuck it back. Oh, that actually looks better. Today in the morning I'm doing maternity ward cover which is taking care of the postnatal ladies that are, that's basically women who have just given birth. So the ones who need to be reviewed by a doctor I will see, otherwise a lot of them are cared for by our lovely midwives and if they are stable, they won't need to be reviewed by the doctors. In the afternoon I'm in gynecology clinic with one of my consultants and there we see gynecological problems not obstetric. Obstetric clinics are called antenatal clinics which essentially means like pregnancy. Science over. Let's have the coffee and let's go to work. The three of us have been together since we can all. I think we had a sheet of one. Yeah, that was it. Yeah. It's like the Christmas reunion, the birthday reunion. Yeah. The birthday, birthday, birthday reunion. Yeah, in fact it's a reunion. And we're having breakfast. It's so nice. I mean, I'm not too sure about this one. I mean, let's give you the bread.  Yes. I feel like that will help us and that will help the salami. You actually are going to Mars this one. I'm going as well. You're good. I'm not playing. Yeah, I'm so excited. I've never been to a concert. Yeah. I've never been to a concert. I'm well into it. Crunchhead. Love it. Love it. Can I just say. You can always tell. I've seen one like Instagram's TikTok. You gave one of them to me. There's just one of them. The whole video is going on. Beautiful. I just realized. What? I'm lost. That's so cute. They think that one. Do you know what? I can imagine they're slow. You're not in the Balenciaga Bacuconia. Yeah. That is like the Dior version of mine. Yeah. That wasn't me. That wasn't you. Any rich man. We'll just call your own boyfriend. He'll be there. So I've just got lunch out with the girls in the shopping. And I'm definitely coming down with a cold. I had a turmeric shot and also this like cayenne, pepper, orange juice thing. And it's kind of helped kind of hazard. And I'm going to go to the gym, which might sound to you guys a bit crazy. Like who goes to the gym when they're feeling a bit run down. But I feel like just going for a walk, putting my headphones on and zoning out a bit will make me feel better. Because if I come and sit on the couch and accept the fact that I am feeling sick, it will make me feel sicker. And I have a set of weekend nights to do this weekend. So it's really not ideal for me to be ill. Anyways, before I go to the gym, I wanted to show you guys because my best friend is launching a gym gear brand. And she hasn't launched it yet, but she's given me some of the samples to wear and I'm wearing one now. And I swear I'm not just saying this because she's my friend. But A, this is the softest, butteriest fabric I've ever tried on a gym gear. It fits so nice. I'm wearing a size small on the top and bottom you guys will see. But it's just so, it's so flattering and it fits so nice. And we know she wants me to sweat test it to see how it is in the gym when I go. Obviously she's sweat tested it already with the company and everything. But she wants to see how I react to it and some other of her friends. But I'm obsessed and I want to show you guys and she said she doesn't mind if I show you. So this is the set. And look at the detailing on the bum. It's got the scrunch bum. So it's just making me look so nice. These are flared at the bottom. So they just make you look taller. They make you look more elongated. And I just feel really like sexy but also gym appropriate and comfortable. My boobs feel well supported in the sports bra because offered with a lot of these like gym bras that are made to be more fashion than gym. They don't really support you that well but these are nice. They're padded. Like you can have like, it's like wearing a push-up bra but you're just wearing a top essentially. And I would wear this like brunch. Like let's say you want to go to have breakfast or brunch with your friends and before you've got to work out or after you've got to work out. I would so wear this. I feel it's so pretty. I've just paired it with some brown Jordan's and I'm going to wear my puffer jacket over it and I'm good to go. Look, I'll show you my puffer jacket. Just like casual girl style. How cute. And I just, I love the detailing on the bum. I want to like show you guys. I don't know if you can see. It's adorable. Sorry, I'm so sniffling. But yeah, as soon as she does launch it I will definitely share with you guys that you can shop it because it's insane. So guys, it's the start of my night. It's like 9.30pm and we're going in for a section and then we might be going in for a Guiney case as well in Guiney theaters after. So it's really busy already. I'm just making myself a tea whilst the patient gets anesthetized and I will be off. Good morning guys. I had planned on waking up and going for a walk after my nights. Taking my dog, doing some admin on the phone whilst I'm on the walk and getting some life things done. Getting ready, packing my gym bag and then going to see my best friend Celia for breakfast and then from there having a productive day. And best believe I should be outside hers right now and I'm here talking to you guys so I need to run. I completely overslept because coming off of nights my sleep routine got messed up because I woke up at 7pm yesterday instead of waking up earlier and then going to bed earlier. So yeah, I completely messed that up but it's okay, we move. I'm going now for breakfast with Celia. We're going to a place called Greenbury in Primrose Hill. I need to dash because we're going to be about 10-15 minutes late to our reservation but oh well, we live, we move and then from there I'm going to come back home grab my gym stuff and go there and do some work and be as productive as I can today. A quick OOTD. Don't mind the mess behind me. I have got my coat for work and my shoes. We're going to have breakfast. What did you all do? I'm a classmate. None of that. I ordered scrambled eggs with bagel I will show you. We're at Greenbury Cafe in Primrose Hill. Celia chosen. I've just tried on the hourglass concealer and oh my god. I wish I'd like to show you guys the side by side but amazing. Wow, I've got this really tough form so I'm going to buy that now. I have leaned you guys on a water bottle and I've literally had to crouch down to fit into this frame. I don't know what I'm doing. My camera stand is upstairs. I thought I'd like to show you guys before I take Banksy for a walk what I got from Space and K. So, I think I showed you this. Oh no, I didn't show you this one in the shop. I showed you this one in the shop. It's Drunk Elephants Be Hydra Serum. My skin gets so dry in winter and I just need this underneath my moisturizer for hydration. It's got Vitamin B5 I believe in it which is good. I can't tell. It says Hydration Serum. I can't remember. I've looked this up in the past. Provitamin B5 which complements Vitamin C so try and mix it with a Vitamin C serum it says I have a Vitamin C moisturizer so I use those two together. Then I got the hourglass concealer. I'm wearing it right now and oh my god the coverage is incredible. I had the NARS creamy concealer on this side when she tried on me and this on the other side and the side with the NARS just looked like I had nothing. It was incomparable. Bear in mind that side had also been set with setting powder too so it should be even better. I'm really excited to use this and just see how it wears throughout the day. She's got her eyes now so she's put this concealer for me and then I've just left it so hopefully it lasts nicely and then the last thing I got was from a brand called Naturium the Retinol Complex Serum so this is it the Retinol Serum I have quite a few friends who are plastic surgeons a lot of them recommend using retinol as part of your skincare routine so I am going to implement this this one was quite affordable it was 22 pounds and because I have X-memory I use it once a week and I'll let you guys know how I get on with it but I'm really excited to use it. I'm going to go take Banksy for a walk now and then I'm going to come back and go to the gym and do a workout and then do some actual portfolio work for my specialty off we go I'm looking at the results of the projects for Harvard and I'm so scared to see if a plastic it's like a project proposal oh my god it's loading and we get like two rounds of feedback on it before we sit by the job and I'm so scared okay I don't understand how it works either because I never had to use it really the feedback is actually quite positive I'm going to end today's vlog well I'm going to end this week's vlog here I hope that you guys got a bit more of an insight about how I kind of balance my life and how I get around to doing things this week was a bit harder because I was quite under the weather otherwise I tend to get more done during my nights so I did some like practice questions and provision for an exam I have later on this year during my nights so but it was really really busy on my second and third night as well which made it a bit harder but anyway I hope that you guys enjoyed this week's vlog if you are enjoying these weekly like surgical and lifestyle please give it a thumbs up it means a lot and I will see you in my next video I can't do it because I'm in the cafe drinking care of my life


Ladies, I'm Bianca Renee, and you're watching Bianca Renee Today, and today we're gonna talk about everything postpartum, that glorious time where you say goodbye to your once in shape fit body and your long, luxurious, full hair and any sleep you might have had before. But although I did endure a lot of postpartum pain and physical changes to my body, I can now say, looking at my beautiful six month old baby boy, that it was all worth it. Now the two most common physical things women talk about postpartum is postpartum weight loss where we all try to snap back to our original state and postpartum hair loss where we lose all the hair that we might have gained or retained during pregnancy. So I'm gonna talk about my experience and those two departments. But before I go into that, I do wanna mention our inner physical health. I guarantee you that your baby does not care about your edges and does not care about your new body fat. In fact, my baby actually enjoys squeezing the new belly rolls that I have in excess skin. Why is that their favorite toy? But what the baby does care about is having you around for as long as possible. So I'm trying not to focus not just on my physical appearance, but on my physical health. So one thing I've been doing to get some extra nutrients is taking a multivitamin by ritual. This course of today's video is sponsored by ritual. Ritual makes an essential for women multivitamin that I've been taking every day. It has nine high quality nutrients that are really hard to get enough of every day. And I know I'm not getting them in my everyday diet. Those nine nutrients include folate, omega-3, vitamin B12, vitamin D3, iron, vitamin K2, boron, vitamin E, and magnesium. These vitamins are vegan, sugar-free, they have no GMOs, they're gluten and allergen-free and they're made with a no nausea design so they're really easy on the stomach and don't make me nauseous.  So it really tastes like you're swallowing mints instead of pills. Not only are these easy to swallow capsules transparent, ritual is also transparent with where they source their ingredients. So you know exactly what you're getting with no sketchy fillers and you can go on their website and see exactly what each ingredient does. So ritual is actually a subscription service. So after 30 days, another bottle will just arrive at your doorstep.  Each bottle is $30 so basically you're getting your nutrients for a dollar a day. But, ritual is actually giving all of you 10% off your first three months so make sure to use my link that I'll put in the description box, go to ritual.com slash beyondgrinne. So now that you know how I get my nutrients inside my body, let's talk about my actual body. Here's a photo of my body before I decided to have a baby. Rest in peace to my abs. Here's how I looked during most of my pregnancy. Many people didn't even know I was pregnant. I got a lot of, you don't even look pregnant. You only look pregnant from the front, not from the back. And are you sure you're pregnant? You're so small. Word of advice, never talk about how large or small a woman is. So it's never good to say, you're so big because just nobody wants to be called big. Even if we know we are and we know we're carrying a baby, it's just something we just don't want to hear. And if someone is small, we also don't want to hear you don't look pregnant because you definitely are.  Am I too small? Is the baby not healthy? It's just too much. The best thing to say to someone who's pregnant is you look beautiful, period. But here is me at the end of my pregnancy where I was at my biggest. I eventually blew up in like the last two-ish months. But what you should be aware of is that once you push out the baby, you don't just go back to normal. I personally gained 41 pounds in my pregnancy. My baby came out as eight pounds, one ounce. So spoiler alert, the other 33 pounds don't also come out with the baby. So immediately after the baby left my body, this is how I looked. I know, very sexy, right? You gotta love the hospital diaper I'm basically wearing. And yeah, I still look pregnant. So one thing that I did learn about my postpartum body is that after you have a baby, you still have contractions. What do you know? So a little freebie that you get from breastfeeding is that when you're breastfeeding, it sends a signal to your uterus, which then contracts. So those contractions that you're having are actually shrinking your uterus.  You could at least give me a small tummy as a consolation prize. So fortunately, I personally lost majority of my baby weight from breastfeeding. For the first maybe month or two, I still actually felt those contractions.  And I kind of just like pushed through the uncomfortableness of it.  So that actually worked out for me. My original post-pregnancy plan was to continue to go to the gym Monday through Friday like I did before I got pregnant and while I was pregnant, but then COVID happened. So all the gyms were closed. It's really hard to stay motivated to work out from home. But I have to admit that has been one positive side to this whole quarantine thing is that I got no place to go. So what clothes am I really trying to fit into? But regardless, you always gotta remind yourself that you just pushed out a actual baby human. Give yourself a break. Remember, took your body nine months to stretch out. So give it some time to stretch back into place. There's always a lot of pressure to snap back, but for why? So it's a little timeline of my baby weight journey starting from the beginning, month by month, getting a little bit slimmer. I really had a lot of extra skin that I wasn't sure where that was gonna go. But this is how I look today and I'm totally fine with it for being six months out. And now the topic I know many of you have asked me about which is have I experienced postpartum shedding? Yes, I have and I actually saved it for you to show you. So here is my shedding from before I got pregnant and while I was pregnant. Just a little hairball, nothing crazy, a very decent amount of hair shedding. Postpartum usually doesn't kick in right away like you'd pop out the baby and then your hair falls out. It's usually around month, four, month, five. That's when things start to get real. While you're pregnant, your estrogen levels are really high. So usually you'd see a lot of hair growth during your pregnancy. If your hair is not growing, you're having a really good hair retention, meaning not as much hair is now falling out anymore because of all the different levels and hormones in your body. But then once you have the baby, your hormone levels dip and so do your hair follicles. You go from losing 100 hair strands a day to up to 400 hair strands a day. Let me show you the amount of shedding I had today after I took a shower. So this is how much hair I lost today. Definitely more shedding than I'm used to. But around that four month mark, I probably had maybe double this amount. And that was kind of weird. I personally only noticed the shedding while I'm detangling in the shower.  So that was kind of concerning, especially when you had a curly hair channel. But I just had to remind myself that it's totally normal. I just had a baby. This is just one of the beautiful things that happened along with our stretch marks. I know some of you are looking at this like, that's it. That's the much shedding I have and I don't even have any kids. It's possible. Everybody is different. So once again, do not compare yourself to other people.  So if after a year, you're still losing a ridiculous amount of hair, it is best to consult a healthcare provider or a specialist to see if there's some other underlying health issues that are making your hair fall out. So what can you do, you ask? Well, within my research, I learned that many people say that there's nothing you could do to stop postpartum shedding. It's just part of life. But there are things you could do to minimize it or make it come back sooner. Now, although you see this much hair loss, you also are looking at my hair now thinking, well, your hair looks fine. That actually looks really long. And that could be because I was trying to prevent as minimal hair loss as possible. One of the most common tips people say is to continue to take your prenatal vitamins. One thing that I did learn is it's supposed to be taking your prenatal vitamins before you get pregnant. So if you're trying to get pregnant, you should start taking them now. Then you take them throughout your pregnancy and then you continue to take them after. But technically, nowhere on any of my prenatal vitamins that I've tried state that it's going to help with hair growth or prevent hair loss. It's kind of just one of those motherly things that gets passed around. And since there are definite vitamins in prenatals, it doesn't hurt to take, but it's not a scientific fact where if you take prenatal vitamins, you won't have any shedding. I think it just helps.  So I've been taking things to grow my hair, including the Curlsmith Ultimate Length 30 Day Therapy. I've been applying the Scalp Stimulating Booster and the Curlsmith Full Length Density Elixir. I apply this to my scalp every morning and this to my scalp every night. If you wanna know more about these Curlsmith products, I have a full video. You guys can watch that out and see my full hair growth journey. Now I did see results from using these hair growth products, but still I got a couple of comments from people saying that my results were invalid because I just had a baby. Therefore, my hair is supposed to grow more after I have a baby. I thought that after you had a baby, you're supposed to lose your hair. So I thought these were gonna really prove a point because I was gonna fight an uphill battle of my hair falling out and trying to make it grow at the same time. If it didn't help with the shedding, it probably helped with just production of more hair. So even though my hair was falling out, it was making it so new hair was growing just as fast. So it was kinda just like this little cycle of hair falling out and new hair growing to where I'm able to retain my length, retain my volume and not experience any crazy balding or shedding. But let me give you some more tips you could do to help minimize your postpartum shedding. One thing that is involved with me applying these oils is doing scalp massages. I have to massage it in my scalp every morning and every night. So whether you have these oils are not any time you do a scalp massage, you are stimulating blood circulation in your scalp which is going to help with hair growth. I also was cautious of losing my edges so I got Jamaican Black Castor Oil and I applied it to my edges just to really get some extra nutrients along my hairline. You also want to avoid pulling your hair back in tight protective styles. Anytime you're pulling really hard, you're adding that tension to your edges which is gonna make that hair want to break more easily. So try not to put your hair in really super tight slick back ponytails or buns because right now your hair is very weak. One thing that I did like about the Curlsmith Ultimate Lengths 30 Day Therapy is that it contains biotin. Biotin is known for hair growth but also can sometimes cause acne. So I was really afraid to try these at first but fortunately as you can see acne free and I still got the biotin to help with my hair growth. In order to strengthen your hair we're also gonna take it back to some classic Bianca Renee tips which is to deep condition once a week. If you're already deep conditioning once a week this is already a part of your routine but having a deep conditioner is going to add those nutrients to your hair especially if you choose a protein treatment. So maybe do a protein treatment every other week just to strengthen your hair follicles.  So try to consume foods that are also high in protein. You also could do black tea rinses or a rice water rinse. I haven't done the black tea rinse yet let me know if you guys want me to try it but I did do a whole series on rice water rinses so it's a very kind of like messy DIY experience but it has its benefits. I much rather just use the Curlsmith products that have rice water in it. Although I say this tip on a daily basis this is definitely not the time to straighten your hair if you have curly hair or even if you have straight hair it's not a good time to be adding a lot of heat to your hair because that's definitely just going to add to the breakage. I would recommend using volumizing products so even if your hair is really thin or fine it could look more voluminous and you also want to avoid really heavy creams that are going to weigh down your already thin fine hair. So try to find some lightweight products to make your styling look a little bit more full. The last thing that I want to show you that you probably are going to need are some hair drains to catch all of your shedding. This is one from Amazon I put in my Amazon store. I use it in my shower to collect all the hair that does fall so you don't clog your sinks. This one is also amazing. It's called the Tub Shroom. It's also on Amazon. So you stick this in your sink and it catches all your hair so you could just take it out instead of all this going down your drain.  So that is my experience with postpartum shedding. I am losing more hair than I'm used to but fortunately it hasn't been excessive. I do think it's because of my normal hair routine of deep conditioning every week, doing protein treatments, avoiding certain bad ingredients, not applying heat to my hair, doing scalp massages and also taking that extra step of using hair growth products to encourage faster hair growth and length retention. If you experienced postpartum shedding as well I'd love to hear your story. Leave me a comment down below. And if you have any tips on weight loss after pregnancy or how to retain your hair or deal with postpartum shedding leave all that advice below. The more tips the better. Before you go make sure to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe. I post new videos every week. You also can follow me on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok at Ms. Bianca Renee. I'll see you guys next time. Thanks for watching Bianca Renee today.


Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to your news update on CMC markets, the Japanese Prime Minister Abe Once a summit together with Trump as soon as possible Trump the Trump election campaign rhetoric as we all know now wasn't rhetoric only its actions its business deals and deals First values base politics second see yin pin will be the first Chinese premier To speak in Davos. He will be speaking today Now that we have a more in what looking at Trump administration. We've got the disruptive Brexit EU exit Now China could try to profit from that by defending structures of free trade and globalization Question is how far we see go to fill the gap of Trump on the world stage Will China take advantage that will be the big question here from Davos today Another big speech will be from Theresa May today Regarding the Brexit negotiation terms How hard will the hard Brexit be and that will be the big question number two out of speeches that are coming to dying see Once they have the Chinese Premier once they have international cooperation and openness Trump once Sees the EU as a tool of German domination and sees the NATO as obsolete He wants to build walls So there are two different concepts of political and economic order existing that that is a new New way of seeing things after the existing order after World War two is Suspended somehow lots of uncertainty. So we've got for the markets coming for 2017 but the volatility is still very low, which is astonishing Markets ignore that uncertainty Question is how long will they really do Now we all know that Hillary Clinton will not be sworn into oath on Friday She will not call David Cameron and closer ties with Europe. It's different Davos 2016 was all wrong They expected that there will be such a call and that there would be Hillary Clinton in the White House and such and so on They were all wrong At least that was the was the forecast that Reuters and other news agencies had from a consensus to you out of Davos They were really wrong with that assumption. If you look at BMW Trump wanted to instigate a 35 percent Penalty tax for importing cars from the Mexican plant that BMW plans to build and For every car that is being imported into the United States there would be a 35 percent tax but for every tax he needs to involve Congress and Republicans the Republican Party has been more For free trade in the past so that is unlikely that there will be some special tax He can at least without involve in Congress set tariffs But that must be aligned with trade deals and there is a trade deal with Mexico still intact If he has some special tariffs, he would like Yeah, not not really be in line with that trade deal. So that would bring the World Trade Organization To look into what he does there so for now, this is a lot of Beating the Trump what my Donald Trump does but the details and how he really wants to execute on those threats he is proposing will need to be seen