Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Dr. Liza Egbogah: Toronto Mike'd #715

Episode Date: September 3, 2020

Mike chats with Dr. Liza Egbogah about systemic racism she's experienced in healthcare, fashion retail, aviation, school, and as a designer, entrepreneur and an osteopath, chiropractor and myofascial release expert on Canadian television.

Welcome to episode 715 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Pumpkins After Dark, save 10% with the promo code Mike. That's M I K E D. And that's a new promo code. So use that one now to save 10% CDN technologies, your outsourced it department sticker, you.com create custom stickers,

labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. The Kite-Ner group. They love helping buyers find their dream home, Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. The Keitner Group. They love helping buyers find their dream home. Text Toronto Mike to 59559. And Palma Pasta.

Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees. I'm all choked up here, Liza. From Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. I'm Mike. From up here, Liza. From Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. I'm Mike. From TorontoMike.com. And joining me this week is Dr. Liza Egboga. Woo! Is that applause because I got the name right? Yes, yes.

That's the shout. As I learned, I was all worried about the last name, which I nailed. I'm two for two. I'm yeah you killed it I'm rather proud of myself but then you said people will mess up Liza and they'll say Lisa or Lisa but I just assumed and I'm gonna find out right now on the record definitively were you named after Liza Minnelli? Absolutely not. So my parents named me Liza because it means, they said it means dedicated to God. And that's where they got Liza from. Not Liza Minnelli.

No, definitely not Liza Minnelli. They're not. I was so confident. Like I was like so sure of it. Honestly, I don't think they even knew about Liza Minnelli when I was born, to be honest. Well, you're younger than me. I'm going to say they knew about Liza Minnelli when I was born, to be honest. Well, you're younger than me. I'm going to say they knew about Liza Minnelli, I think. When was Cabaret and all that?

Oh, actually, that's true. They did know about it, but that's not who I was named after. See, already you're disappointing me, Liza. Am I allowed to call you Liza or is it Dr. Liza? Normally I go by Dr. Liza, but you can call me Liza. Okay, because I don't mind. I'd call you Doc. No, just call me Liza. Okay, because I don't mind. I'd call you Doc. No, just call me Liza.

You know, we're cool. I told you I had a song for you. Yes, I want to hear it. So here it is, actually. There's no words in this song. It's Felonious Monk. And the song is called Liza. And in parentheses, all the clouds roll away.

I've heard this. It's beautiful. uh i'll enjoy i also uh as i told you just before i press record uh the beer on the table is cold i literally just when pull when you pulled up i grabbed it from the fridge and you're welcome to try one like you mentioned you like fruity beers. That's the IPA. So there's a Hayes Mama. And that one, yeah. Try it. Like, crack it open and try it.

You know, if you don't like it, you don't have to finish it. But I have a feeling. Well, you had me at raspberry. So let's see if I can manage this. There you go. There you go. Okay, Dr. Liza. Oh, it is fruity. It's really good. Yeah, so that's the IPA. So you get Oh, it is fruity.

It's really good. Yeah, so that's the IPA. So you get the hoppy, fruity taste. I like the IPAs myself. And that's one of my favorites too. Doctor approved. Dr. Liza enjoys her haze mama. And it's a cool, like, what do you think of that cover?

I dig the cover of that. I love this. She's a mama, I'm a mama. And it's great graphics. I love it. So thank you great lakes beer right off the top for uh for giving dr liza egg booga a uh some beer to take home with her so that's all yours okay dr liza let's just right off the top i need to disclose

you know i'm a true journalist i have to disclose things and um you went to university with my wife, Monica. I did. University of Alberta. What's your nickname there? Like, what's your sports team? Is it the Pandas? Or am I thinking Bears? What are your, what do you call it? University of Alberta?

Oh my gosh. I can't believe I forgot. I think we're Bears. Are you sure we're Bears? Did you, did you play? I guess you didn't play any sports teams. Well, you know what? In my faculty

I was in pharmacology You were actually not allowed to belong to any of the sports teams In pharmacology Why not? So our advisor, he was a little bit of a dictator So he wouldn't let us take What he called Mickey Mouse classes He wanted all our focus

Dedicated to academics. So while I did sports when I was in school, like I ran track, I did badminton. In university, I wasn't allowed to be on any sports teams.

That's a hard-ass, yeah, dictator is right. Yeah. Like part of the university experience. Like Monica, who played a lot of volleyball in high school,

you know, high school volleyball and university volleyball are two different things. And I guess you lack the height and all these different things to play university. But to have a rule that pharmacology is that the. Yeah, that was and because I ran track in high school and good enough that I could have done it in university. But that just wasn't a thing. So I focused on karate, ballet, things that were extracurricular, no sports teams.

Do you remember Monica from the University of Alberta? Be honest with me. Of course I remember her. So I was good friends with her friend Jordana. Yes, yes. And then also with her friend Adrian, who I was in pharmacology with. Okay, yeah. I think Monica and Adrian dated.

I got a very interesting story. So I got all the, all this, all the data. They sure did. Okay. More details. I hope you're not going to grill me on that.

Only what you, I don't want to make you uncomfortable. I'm the one who's sweating over here. I don't want to make you uncomfortable is the real thing. So I don't want to go there. I was married to somebody else at the time so i have no like uh well you know it's not like she cheated on me it's all good uh so they had they had a fruitful relationship yes they they did i was friends with adrian adrian was friends with

monica it's all good i gotta get her out here i gotta get the second i got another microphone get monica i gotta find out i mean i got a lot of details but um okay this is the it was interesting holy can you i don't know obviously monica is gonna hear this podcast i guess i should warn you about that but um you is there anything else you want to share about that i'm fine with it anything else or just that no i'm just saying i was friends with adrian adrian was friends with monica and who's the other woman that you referred to sorry jordana yes so you had a mutual friend in jordana yeah and i met jordana and karate oh yeah because you're a black belt yes so don't don't fuck with dr liza no no i wouldn't do that anyways but uh okay and that's uh do you still you still practice uh karate you know what

when i started practicing i actually gave up all martial arts and boxing in order to preserve my hands because without my hands i can't practice so once i started practicing i gave up all contact sports so that's smart yeah i had to because otherwise you you know i hurt my hand hurt my wrist hurt my elbow then that's a wrap for hand, hurt my wrist, hurt my elbow. Then that's a wrap for me. I broke my wrist in March. If I had your job, that would have been devastating. That's a career ender, right?

Because even when it gets better, you get arthritis faster. And I do a lot of deep manual work with my hands. Okay, let's do this then. Please tell us, you know, what do you practice? Like, who's Dr. Liza? What do you do professionally? So there's a couple parts to me. So I'm a chiropractor and a manual osteopath. So when I'm in clinic, most of the work I do is hands-on therapy. And my specialty is something

called myofascial release. So that's a really deep form of muscle and fascia work. Okay. That literally restructures and fixes and that's why my office is called the fix okay okay i'm uh now would you say like i once uh had a sports injury and i had art therapy exactly so art so i do active release as well that's a form of myofascial release it hurt like hell it does hurt like like really like real pain it is but it's so worth it like it's if you say it's that good pain so it's doing its job and it didn't work no i gave up on it because i was tired of going into this to get to get uh to be hurting like i gave up on this and it basically long story short or long story longer maybe uh i couldn't i

used to run and this is a long time or 13't, I used to run and this is a long time or 13 years ago I used to run. And then on a long run, like a 19 K run, I pulled up lame and I couldn't even like walk. And then I, for, I took like weeks off and I couldn't even walk up the stairs. And a sports doctor at some point diagnosed me with something of the sacroiliac. And I can't remember now, but he, he, he told me to go to get art therapy to i don't know trick it back or something i i can't remember this 13 years ago but i did i would i was going in like to get my art therapy and i don't know after x number of weeks uh it didn't seem to be helping and i just decided instead of running a bike and the rest is history well you know what and the

thing is with any kind of hands-on therapy it's completely dependent on the provider right see i didn't go to dr liza exactly you're telling me there's good ones and there's bad ones yeah well it's a hands-on skill right so some people have it and some people some people don't generally with myofascial release if within six visits the complaint isn't resolved then you have to look for another form of therapy. OK, good to know. Good to know. Now, tell me about like so. So you're not just you know, you don't just service guys like me, but it sounds like you're like you're the favorite healer for like like some big sports sports stars and like fashion people and like do a little bragging. Like you serve us like the who's who.

Well, you know how it started. So I guess a decade ago, more than a decade ago, I had an actor who came into my clinic. I think he just Googled. And so he kind of started the trend. He referred a bunch of fellow actors and colleagues hotels in the area got wind of this that i'm good with the celebrities so they started referring people sending me over to the hotels and then when people would be back in town for something

like tiff or something oh yeah we film a lot of stuff in toronto so when they'd be filming in toronto i would see them during the time that they're in Toronto and then they would refer their other colleagues and when they said they're going to Toronto like oh my gosh you have to see Dr. Liza like she'll fix you up. Awesome like so I'm is there a like a patient doctor privilege at play here? There is so that's why if I'm seeing them in my clinic as a patient, then 100% confidentiality. I never reveal their names or anything about their treatments. But when I do events like TIFF and the ESPYs where I kind of do a pop-up and there's pictures, then I can talk about those people because there's literally pictures out there.

Right. They basically consented to this being public. Exactly. So are there any of those people that you could name drop? Like you want to drop some names of people who have consented to these oh sure there's pictures of me treating them so there's lee schreiber okay you know lee schreiber who uh i used to watch some ray donovan and uh i just saw this this crazy video from um john voight uh where he's talking about trump is like chosen by god to leave and Oh, damn it. I know.

And I was just, so it makes me like, I know they canceled the show, by the way, Ray Donovan. So it's actually been canceled, but I don't even want to pick up the show anymore because I'm so like, it makes me angry now to see Jon Voight. Is that, do I need help? Is there any cure for that, doctor? Well, honestly, I never watched the show. So, you know, I'm impartial there.

All right. So Lee Schreiber, though, great actor, and you serve as him. Who else? I did backstage with Genuine, Sean Paul, Brandy. Wow. I mean, there's a long list. Yara Shahidi, Anthony Anderson, the whole Black-ish crew. Yeah.

Jamie Foxx. Wow. Oscar winner Jamie Foxx. Yeah, there's a whole page of people so pictures of me treating them so okay cool and like athletes wise like is there any athletes who have consented for you to drop their name on toronto mic i'm not as good as remembering their names because i'm not big into sports lebron james has he ever been are you allowed to say wink? Oh, I can't see you guys. No, but there's Adele Beckham Jr. Yeah, big deal.

Malik Johnson, Jackson. So bad. I struggle, actually, I struggle with football, guys, because I don't watch football. So it's like, unless you're a big star, I actually. Yeah, I just, oh, Tony Hawk skateboarding. Oh, my God, big deal, yeah. Yeah, and.

Wow, Tony Hawk. Oh, what's the Steph Curry's brother uh yeah yeah the other Curry the other Curry oh Seth Curry Seth Curry that's right yeah okay cool that's something that I can remember but you know when a ESPYs pop up I'll literally treat like 40 athletes right so I can't keep track of everyone's name where do they have is that in LA where is that is that in Vegas okay yeah and is that in vegas okay yeah and uh so in a typical year i guess you'd actually just just travel and then they'd all be kind of in once like a honeypot there they're all there to get the uh the hands-on treatment by dr liza

yeah because earlier on when people would hear i'd do all the hotel calls right so that means i have my table in my trunk and i'd go around to hotels. But as I got super busy, I didn't have time to do that. So now primarily when things like TIFF or ESPYs or Oscars, you know, stuff like that where they're all in a place and I'll take appointments there. Okay, impressive. So here, I wanted people to know who's Dr. Liza. You know, some people listening will uh you from like your media appearances like uh canadian media appearances like where's a show like what are some of the shows you might pop up on uh so i'm one of the health experts on the social and monica uh when she was on matt leaves

oh these by the way i noticed this these these are the wasps that just showed up there's a couple of them not like my neighbors the wasps but they're really like i don't know how to describe it they're really lazy and weak right now like they're actually like kind of pathetic they're in slow motion and so i think don't worry you're not gonna get stunk but they're they're like pathetic i don't know what happens to wasps in uh september i know you're moving the glb there but uh and i'm sorry about the wasps. Normally they're not bothersome, but at this time of year, they're like, like slow and lazy and kind of pathetic. And honestly, if this was before the pandemic, I would have probably jumped up,

but I've learned to accept that, you know, nature. Well, that's it. If this, if there was no pandemic, we'd be in the basement studio. Although I do like it out here. So thank you. It's really nice out here. Thank you for being here. So we talked a lot about you as Dr. Liza, but there's this fashion side. Can you tell me a little bit about your fashion side? Because it'll segue nicely into some real talk I want to have with you. Yes. So in March 2017, so over three years ago, I launched Dr. Liza the brand, which is a line of shoes. And then recently this summer, I introduced bags. So essentially I design women's dress shoes that

feel like sneakers. So flats, high heels, booties, and then now bags that look sensational, but they're ergonomic, ergonomic. Posture friendly. Posture friendly. And these shoes, you can play basketball in these shoes? I can. I literally have played basketball in my pumps. And I'm talking about the high heels I've played basketball in. Okay, cool.

I've sprinted. I've ran a race against my brother in the almost four-inch booties. Did you win that race? You know what? He won, but it's because we were running in snow. And, yeah, it's a little bit harder and i realized i brushed by it real quick because you you dropped the social and then the wasp showed up just to throw me off my game but uh was there any other uh shows you wanted that you so i do breakfast television oh yeah in general most of the most of the shows in toronto

i've i've been on in some form or another and you'll come on would you come on like as a fashion person or would you come on as like a an osteopath so I'm usually on as a manual osteopath or a body and posture expert so different tips like oh dance moves for for back pain things that you can do to help improve your digestion things to improve your posture. You know wearing the right shoes. Carrying the right bags. That are good for your back. I need your help.

Because I have the worst posture ever. Like even looking at me now. I have terrible posture. So I do need your help. I concur. I know. It's also tough. Because I want to look at you there.

This is down there. I feel like this setup is not ergonomic. As you would say. It's not. But I mean you have to do what you have to do right it's a pan doctor lies it's a freaking pandemic we're all just trying to get by here now dr lies uh i noticed uh you know i i i uh you're a woman of color yes a black woman black woman yes so that's the color black okay yeah women of color i mean there's so many women of color but i am because i technically monica's a woman of color. I mean, there's so many women of color, but I am a black woman. Well, because technically Monica's a woman of color. Exactly.

Because she's not white. I find the term women of color, people of color is way too broad. Yeah. Because even in that, we all have different experiences, right? So I'm a black woman. You're a black woman. Yes. And part of the reason I actually wanted to have you on the show is because Monica was telling me about some pieces you wrote.

Oh, you wrote some pretty like, like, like long form pieces on some subject matters that I'm very interested. Like, I'm very interested in your perspective because I, I wander through life as a white guy. Like I,

I'm sincerely, uh, interested in the stories of a black woman's perspective. Cause that, cause how else do I know what, what life is like of a black woman's perspective. Because how else do I know what life is like for a black woman? It's true because our experiences are completely different in everyday activities. You know, just things that you take for granted. So that might be a challenge for a black woman.

I read a piece by Marcia Ian once. And she talked about DWB. Do you know what DWB stands for? Driving while black. Right. It's a thing. Yes. And I read this thing and it's like,

I, I put myself in her, her comfortable shoes. I don't know if she had the Dr. Liza shoes. She does have Dr. Liza shoes. Okay. Well,

I put her, I put myself in her Dr. Liza shoes there and it really did open me up. And then you start, once you start reading perspectives from other people's, like other people's perspectives, you start to think more about other people's perspectives instead of kind of going,

you got these, these blinders on. I'm a white guy and everybody's experience is like mine. And then she, she talked about driving while black, like something I simply have never had to consider, like driving while black. And it's a big thing. I find I am exempt from that most of the times because from far away with the blonde hair, they can't really tell that I'm black.

Now, if I'm in the car with my husband because we both drive luxury vehicles, he gets pulled over for no reason all the time. And in the passenger side, I have to catch myself because I'll go to the police. Why did you, why did you pull him over? I know why you put, and then I have to call myself back so that we don't have a negative interaction. But they will pull him over for absolutely no reason except for that he's a black man in a luxury vehicle. That's it. All the time. And I.

And he's an accountant. No, it doesn't matter though because he's still a black man. No, no, no, no. But that's it all the time and i and he's an accountant i mean no it doesn't matter though because he's still a black man no no no no but that's a good point i'm threatening as threatening can be but the color of his skin and the color of his skin alone is what makes him a threat oh so many questions dr liza i've decided decided I like to call you Dr. Liza. Yeah, I'm comfortable with it too. I'm sticking with Dr. Liza. So I'm going to read something that you wrote. These are your words. If they're not, let me know. But I think they're your words. They say if there is no room at the table, bring your own. Do you know what it's like to bring a table every time? It's exhausting and tables are heavy. If you have to carry it enough times, it may break you. Also very hard to carry

a table alone. You wrote that. Yes, I did. Okay. Tell me a little, so can you, can you now elaborate, uh, since we have, I actually have you captive here for at least an hour. Could you elaborate? Because Garvia Bailey, actually Garvia Bailey and Donovan Bennett, when the protests were first happening, so the George Floyd murder and the protests following that, I had on Donovan Bennett and Garvia Bailey. And quite literally, the conversation was,

what is it like for you as a black person living in Toronto? And Garvia very eloquently talked about this stress, like this constant stress of just because she wakes up every morning, a black woman. And she was very eloquent. It's a really good episode. You should check it out. But is that, so can you just elaborate on like the,

like what it's like to have to bring your own table? You know, no room at the table you bring your own and what that what that entails please well I mean when you are a black kid starting from as you know far back as you can remember your parents will always and this goes for every single black kid, your parents will tell you that you have to work harder than anyone else in order to get to the same place. So for example, if your white friend can get a 70%, you need to get 100% or add more on to that. That's the only way that you guys will even be close to, you know, be close on the same level. And then that goes for absolutely everything that you do, right? So I'm an entrepreneur myself, right? So out of school, I opened my own clinic and I had to work much harder and create a whole different image in order to ensure that I would have patience

and not be discriminated on and, you know, have an empty clinic based on my race alone. Because there's this conception that black people are not as smart, right? So you have to constantly prove your intelligence, which means taking all the courses, taking extra classes, getting extra degrees, right? I don't know how many certifications I have. It sounds exhausting. It is exhausting. And you do all that just to even get the door open

and just to get people into your door. And you can be a successful entrepreneur and drive your luxury automobile and your husband can be a – is he a successful accountant or a shitty accountant? He's a successful – no, no. Actually, I guess he's not just a, he's a corporate, I mean, he's a finance director, so I should say accountant. Okay. Well, yeah. Don't sell him short, Dr. Liza. Come on. A global finance director. But he's still, he's still getting, he still gets pulled over. Uh, and he's not, he's not going, uh, 140 kilometers in a hundred when he gets pulled over, right?

This is literally like just because a black man is driving a luxury automobile. Exactly. And it's almost like there's this punishment out there that if you are black and you're successful, people absolutely hate to see that. So my constant gripe before this whole started was I would always complain about, because I travel a lot. I fly a lot. Because I mentioned I go to New York, I go to LA, I go, you know, for all these trips. Sure. And so I accumulate so many points that most of the time if I'm flying a flight, I'll be in first class. I would say 90% of the time when I fly, that's a bad experience. So if I'm flying in economy, generally things are okay.

If I'm flying in first class, they go out of their way to treat me like I don't belong. So whether it's going into the priority lane, I'm like, guys, I'm here at this airport every week, and you still tell me no to get out of the line, that this is for priority. I'm like, I'm elite status. I'm here at this airport every week and you still tell me no to get out of the line that this is for priority I'm like I'm elite status like I'm here like every every week in fact you should recognize me right or then when I go to board because they call zone one they'll be like ma'am no you we're not boarding yet I'm like you guys just call she's like yes for zone one only oh and this is all based on just looking at you yeah exactly or like when I go to check in my bag and i'm like oh you forgot to put the priority tag you're not priority i'm like yes i am prior it says right there on my bag i'm flying first class oh i guess so and then they'll reluctantly put it on so they'll literally go out of the way to make me feel like you do not belong in first

class you don't belong in the lounge You don't belong in boarding zone one. Okay, so I used the word exhausting earlier, but this would piss me off. Like, aren't you angry? Aren't you, doesn't it piss you off? I am angry. And there's only so much that you can do, right? Because when you complain, it's always the same thing.

Other people, and you don't get sympathy from anyone because they're like, we hate people who travel first class anyway and black people shouldn't be in first class. That's the kind of approach. So you don't get any sympathy. Nobody cares. No one's outraged by it.

Okay, so what you're describing would be this is systemic discrimination, right? It is systemic and especially with Air Canada because I fly so many other airlines and i find the consistency with air canada something that's shocking to me you know to the point where imagine being in first class and you know they go around giving the snacks they'll literally skip me oh my god like i'm not there and then i have to go up and be like oh you miss me oh did i i'm like how, you miss me. Oh, did I? I'm like, how did you miss me?

It's right there. Like, you know, where's my staff? And this isn't like a one-time thing that's happened to you. 90% of the time. Get out of here. 90% of the time. And when I tell you I was traveling minimum once a month, that just shows you how often that happened.

Yeah, you still, I guess it's because you said you have the points and everything. I would be like, fuck this airline. I'll travel any airline but this one. In's because you said you have the points and everything. I would be like fuck this airline. I'll travel any airline but this one. In Canada you don't have an option. Right. You have to fly Air Canada. Right. It's not like there's kind of have a monopoly if you their only reward program you can have

if you live in Canada is with Aeroplan and Air Canada. Okay. So there's no option I can't be like oh I'm going to another airline. If I'm flying internationally, I'll always choose the option that's Star Alliance partner that's not Air Canada.

Lufthansa or whatever. Yeah, exactly. And Lufthansa is much better. Okay. In fact, I haven't had any issues with Lufthansa. And when you speak with other black men and women,

do they have similar Air Canada? Oh, they all do. I mean, they... I've never heard this, but maybe I'm asking the wrong questions. Well, no. And then even because I was putting together a complaint, so I researched on Twitter, exact same things that happened to me. It's through any black person who flies first class, you'll find that.

Okay. Okay. By the way, anytime something something like because i didn't even know about the canada thing i was gonna start talking about the fashion industry oh yeah let's talk about okay there's lots to do here hold on there's lots to do here dr liza are you kidding me holy smokes um i okay real quick real quick i i do have a uh do you do you like lasagna is that are you allowed to eat lasagna in the dr lies a household is lasagna approved food at home yeah i'm just making sure you're a healthy person i gotta make sure it's okay because it's delicious as as af honestly i'm gonna give you a large

frozen meat lasagna for you to take home with you and you have a child right yeah yeah so he'll like the lasagna okay it's gonna he's to have multiple meals out of that lasagna. It's very big. So that is an empty box for the camera, but in my freezer right now. So before you go, make sure. We're going to take a photo after this, and I'm going to give you a lasagna, and you can take that home with you. And I have to cook it.

Well, it's easy, though. It's like 45 minutes at 375. I can manage that. Even I can do it. Are you kidding me? Ask Monica. It's my specialty, making the Palma Pasta lasagna, and everybody loves it. It's the easiest thing. So thank you, Palma pasta, for sending over

the lasagna for Dr. Liza. Thank you so much. And just before we get into this, I want to just let everybody know that there is a promo code still for Pumpkins After Dark, but they changed it. So it's a different promo code than the one I've been speaking about for the last month so pumpkinsafterdark.com that's where you go to book your day and time to do the pumpkins after dark which is a drive-through event this year it's a large park in Milton, Ontario and they have like thousands of sculptures that illuminate the night skies and these tunnels and it's really going to be cool

and it's super safe because it's a drive-thru event. But you got to use the promo code MIKED, M-I-K-E-D, to save your 10% at Pumpkins After Dark. So new promo code there. StickerU.com. Dr. Liza, you got to do this. You get your custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business.

I also want to get you a Toronto Mike sticker made from stickeru.com so you can bring that home too. Because, you know, you'll want to put that on your luxury automobile. I want it on the bumper of the luxury automobile. So thank you, stickeru.com. CDN Technologies are your outsourced IT department.

So contact Barb Paluskiewicz at cdntechnologies.com or barb at cdntechnologies.com. And who else do I want to thank? Austin Keitner. If you're looking to buy and or sell in the next six months, contact Austin Keitner. Just have a conversation with him. He's a great guy. He's a wonderful FOTM. And you can get a hold of Austin by texting Toronto Mike to 59559. And Dr. Liza, okay, so you're in sort of one of the pieces Monica pointed me to, my crack research staff, Monica, my wife. She said that you wrote this very interesting piece about systemic discrimination in fashion retail. So I found this interesting because we all think about, what do I think about?

Pretty woman, okay? Yes. There's a big scene in Pretty Woman. I know this. I've seen it. Julia Roberts is dressed like she dressed in that movie. And then she was in like a high, ritzy, high end fashion retail boutique or something. And they didn't think she could ever afford to be there. And they were rude to her. Anyway, she could afford to be there because she had Richard Gere. He had a, you know, you remember this.

Okay. So that's a whole different thing. That's Hollywood. Can you share, give me the real talk. What is it like to be a black customer in fashion retail, from like fast fashion stores to luxury boutiques? Please, spill the tea. So it's interesting in that it's not just discrimination

because they think that you can't afford it, but also being criminalized, right? So they're also worried that you are going to steal from them and that's part of the reasons why when you're a black customer and you go into a store first there's a good chance that they'll ignore you or if they're not ignoring you they will follow you very closely and be extra extra attentive not because they're offering good service but to ensure that you are not going to steal anything right so you can i would go into chanel either there'd be two things you know either they'd be very dismissive when i entered rarely would i ever get a hello right so i just

come in no hello nothing that's is that based on the pretty woman thing they don't think you can afford to buy oh yeah they think i'm just window shopping like obviously i'm not going to buy anything so why you know why waste your time why waste energy there's no commission for you yeah and let's be very cold so that she leaves as soon as possible because we don't want to see black people in our store it's not good for for business oh my god right so it's a very very cold experience and then when it comes to the the cheaper stores they'll follow you around because they think that you're going to steal right right like yeah like you're gonna steal like they think you're gonna steal a five dollar shirt from forever 21 and that's why they're following you following you around and immediately

they want to take stuff from you to put on the counter oh can i put that at the counter for you the reason they want to put in the counter for me is not because they want to unburden me it's because they want to make sure i don't walk out of the store with it you know it's fine i was i just i understood that first part the pretty woman part which is that uh you're not going to be able to afford these clothes i'm not i'm not going to be nice to you because there's no commission in it for me because you're not going to go spend these are expensive places these boutiques like i wouldn't know look at how i'm dressed okay dr liza i've never been in a luxury boutique but i you know i've seen them on in the movies and stuff like that uh but the thing is they can't see past that right so if i walk into chanel in a six thousand dollar chanel coat that's not going to help them help me and the six thousand

dollar chanel bag because they'll assume that they're fake oh right knockoffs right yeah once you're black they can't see anything but the fact that you are black and to be specific here because um we're talking about toronto here right like this is toronto so you're not you're not talking about you don't like i guess i guess what i would be curious to know is is this something you do you experience this i don't know in la or miami or LA or Miami or whatever? No, literally just in Toronto. So if I go to Chanel in New York, Miami, LA, anywhere but Toronto, I actually get great service, which is why any of my major purchases, except for the one that I bought in Toronto,

have been bought outside of Toronto. But isn't Toronto, maybe New York, but one of the top in terms of diversity, one of the most diverse cities in the world? It is one of the most diverse cities, but there's still this perception in Toronto of what black people are. So in places like New York and Miami, they're used to seeing black people and saying, oh, you know, black people are celebrities. Black people have money too. used to seeing black people and saying, oh, you know, black people are celebrities, black people have money too. So therefore, you know, in the US, there's just more black people in general, they're used to offering that in that level of service. But in Toronto, there's still this

conception that black people are criminals, we don't have good jobs, we can't afford to be there. And that's why I find and i tell because i travel i've traveled all over the world is that for me i find the most racism i experience is in toronto but i also live here right right so yes right so and so you have more retail experiences in this city than any other city in the world. Absolutely. But I mean, I'm from Calgary. Oh yeah, that's right. Right? But I still, the kind of racism I experienced in Toronto, I never experienced in Calgary.

So it was a fresh waking. But you probably couldn't afford to be in these luxury boutiques in Calgary because you hadn't, you know, because you're... That's true. But I mean, even going back, because my family's still there. So I also go shopping in Calgary. Right. This is so disappointing to me because I always,

like I always tout the fact that this is such a multicultural, diverse city. Like, and I don't expect to hear that we would have, you know, our luxury boutiques are sort of, you know, there's more systemic discrimination there than you might have in, I don't know, New York or you name the big city. Yeah. Oh, way more.

Right. Because I mean, in New York, you name the big city. Oh, way more, right? Because, I mean, in New York, they're just used to a different level of, like, for example, when we were in New York at YSL, Kanye West was there too, right? So they're used to black people being a certain way. They don't have this, it's not as close-minded as it is in Toronto because we kind of...

But, no, sorry, continue, please. It's like undercover racism, in the u.s they acknowledge it right here we don't really acknowledge it well i never hear i mean again i maybe i'm not asking the right questions or talking to the right people like this is something for my my i've i've i really do need to like talk to stop talking to myself if you know what i mean yeah all right we don't have to talk about tragically hip every episode right there's monica who's not not black but is a woman of color uh she's she's kind of when we're talking off the record she's there's a profile okay yeah you know of these

other mics she'll say and it's like this they're all like a certain vintage they and the white guys are all into these similar things. You know, go leaves go, tragically hip. There's a long list of things that kind of fit the profile. I can see where she gets that from. And I apologize, but you're a product of your environment. But at least I'm totally trying to hear different perspectives. Well, we're doing it right now.

Yeah, and the thing is people, until they know, because I was actually just talking to one of my friends not so long ago, because earlier this year, we met at Holt Renfrew, because I had to give him something. Okay. And, you know, when the George Floyd happened and things started, you know, and he was talking about this, I said, do you remember when you met me at Holt Renfrew? Did you notice that I had two security guards beside me? And he's like, oh, I did.

I'm like, well, this is why. And that's because they think you're going to steal something. I was at Holt Renfrew with my Chanel bag. And this is why I don't go shopping. I haven't been shopping in any of these stores in Toronto in over 10 years. But yeah, there were two security right beside me i don't blame you i don't blame you something like like i don't blame you at all for that so like how do you buy your chanel like do you buy online is that well now i don't i stopped buying designer altogether in the

last two years because i realized that those brands who i'm giving my hard-earned money to don't actually want me to have their products so why would I give them my money right right so I and before you know when I stopped shopping in Toronto I would enjoy you know I'd go to New York I'd go to Miami London you know different places where I could shop and you know have good customer service but then there came a point when I realized if a designer does not want my business, not only, I'm not going to give them my business and I'm not going to promote their brand either. But you can, you can make some noise about this, right? Like, do you, do you speak to

the manager? Do you write your letters? Like when you have these experiences, when you had them in the past? Oh, I mean the letters, they're not even worth the letters for brands like that because the whole, especially luxury fashion industry, it's systemic there, right? Because they don't associate black people with luxury and they feel like black people tarnish the luxury brand. And then they're worried white people won't want it because black people are wearing it exactly and that's why companies like gucci and those made a different department to cater to black people right because they're like let the rappers and you know we'll have a different because they bring so much money so let's make a whole department of tacky stuff that you know those black hoodlums will love right and they created a whole different department so that they don't tarnish their main brand this is why i only wear t-shirts okay i actually just looked down i didn't know what i was wearing because i never forgot what am i wearing oh yeah it's a acid test good local band gave me this

shirt for free okay so no no luxury uh i won't be supporting these luxury brands either no and for me the reason why i used to buy luxury brands is i'm not someone who likes to have tons of stuff. I like the idea of having things that you'll value and invest in that, right? Like why would I want 10 garbage handbags that are just going to throw in the garbage rather than having a collection of great handbags that will carry me through my life? And that's why I was an investor in luxury goods, not actually for the statement of it because I knew that they would always see me as black like my parents told me that from a young age it's really so that I believe in investing in quality pieces and not being

wasteful because I hate throwing away garbage and collecting garbage no that's there's I'm I'm with you like buy it once like instead of having to rebuy it every couple years I don't want something that I love that's going to fall apart right so i'd rather invest in things that i'll love and i'll you know when i'm 80 i'll still carry my bag is it sorry is it a you have a son or a daughter a son a son so it's okay because i have a six-year-old so i'm totally unrelated uh now have you had like have you and your husband had a chat with him yet about different rule set that might apply to a young black boy or man versus what conversation I might have had of my oldest who is very white? So, you know, I've talked to him about this since he was two. I'm not telling him that it's because he's black because I don't want to.

He's the most joyful boy. Like, I don't want to crush him this early in life. Like the world will do it. So don't make it easier for the world, you know, but you have to reinforce certain things, right? Like when he's talking about police, you know, that he, I'm like, you can't necessarily go to police for help in certain occasions. No, you cannot become a police officer when you grow up.

No, they're not all police officer when you grow up. No, they're not necessarily always the good guys. Your friends can play around and make gunshots and do all this stuff with water guns. You cannot play with water guns, right? And even when he was, was it two or three at his Montessori, this is when he first learned about Spider-Man. So him and the other boys were, you know, doing that Spider-Man sign where you shoot web. Right. And then I get a note from his teacher saying, yeah, Bemi said that he's going to shoot me and you need to talk about that because I'm very scared. Oh, my. She did not write this to any of their parents. They were clearly talking about spider webs,

but she saw the word shoot from a three-year-old. Oh my God. When they're talking about shooting webs and felt so threatened that she had to write me a letter. And she couldn't say this to my face, which is why she left me a note for me to pick up in his cubby. So the teachers

themselves will criminalize our children from the age of two three and say that they're scared of a three-year-old when you have one of the happiest most joyful loving like compassionate kids there because he said he's going to shoot you with spider webs but you assumed that he said we should have a conversation about guns at home because it's not acceptable. No one mentioned a gun. It's almost like she's willfully ignorant. She is. Yeah, exactly.

And the thing is, you have so many teachers who are like that. And so you get scarred from an early age. I used to be called to the principal's office and have teachers send me to the principal's office all the time when I was in school because my marks were too high oh wait they said I was cheating oh my god right so if I had a book report and I said I wrote read this many books because I was a bookworm I got sent to the principal's office for like lying or making yeah they said there's no way she read that many books or if I got got 100% on a test, she was cheating. There's no way she got 100%. So that's why I would get sent to the principal's office

is because my marks were too high. And so it doesn't matter what you do when you're black, you're criminalized for it. But how do you feel when, and I don't, actually, to be fair, I don't hear it a lot in this country, but I'll hear it a lot from Americans, particularly if they're staunch Republicans defending their president.

I'll hear things about, you know, comments will be made from high-profile Republicans, actually, about how there is no systemic racism in America. Like, everything's fine. Like, nothing to see here. Like, I do they not, are they willfully ignorant? Is this the... I wouldn't say that that would be considered willfully ignorant.

They have a message and they're trying to reinforce systemic racism because that's literally what America was built on, right? So they know that there's racism. The whole country was built on racism and trying to make black people seem like they're inferior because that's how the whole country was built. So it's not that they're being ignorant. They know exactly what they're inferior because that's how the whole country was built so it's not that they're being ignorant they know exactly what they're doing like the whole you know the whole target is to criminalize black people and make them seem inferior that's how the country was built

that's how the world was built how did britain get their sugar i mean the whole the whole world was built this way so okay before at some point i'm going to ask you like what can i do what can we do and what should we do those are the heavy questions that are coming but i want to ask you about being a black woman designer in this country okay because you talked about your shoe line yes now you're no so you talked about being a consumer and you have a lot of uh you know evidence of systemic racism in retail and in in this fashion retail in this city particularly uh but what about as a black woman designer uh what about tell me about being a black woman designer in this city this country

so when you're a designer your whole life experience fuels what happens with your business, right? So for example, I launch a shoe line and, you know, one of the things you think, okay, how am I going to retail these shoes? How are people going to buy them? They're shoes. So obviously it's great for people to try them on. Okay. If I was to buy shoes, where would I go buy shoes? You know where I always buy my shoes? Tell me. Online. Do you know why I buy them online? So you don't have to experience the racist bullshit. Well, yeah. Well, no one will help me get a shoe size, right? So I'm just going to be sitting there and no one's going to help me. And if you have to try on the shoes and there's no one there to help you and, you know you don't feel great you come in there you're willing to spend a lot of money on

shoes but then you get this horrible service and so I'm like if I myself can't go into any of these stores you know where I could buy shoes then how could I sell my shoes online and is it good for a shoe brand not to have somewhere to try your shoes on? Not really. No, that is like I might buy a T-shirt online, but I like to try on a pair of shoes before I buy a pair of shoes. Exactly. And how do you approach it, right? First of all, you have to pick places, right? And even if I wanted to, say, have my shoes in Holt Renfrew, even though Holt Renfrew wouldn't help me. Do you think that they would even

talk to me about getting my shoes in their store when they don't even want me as a consumer in their store? So you can't even get in the door. I could bring a table all I want, but that table can't fit through the door. I can't get in the door. Oh man. So how am I going to retail? I can't. Here's another Dr. Liza quote that ties in nicely with this. You wrote, if more people don't see us, make us part of the grants and awards, include our brands and stores, get us involved. We can't move forward. Like there's so like, I mean, grants and awards.

Like is there so systemic racism is basically painting the whole infrastructure here exactly and it's literally in every single facet from you know large corporations to institutions to people who are dishing out grants and loans and things like that and the only way as a black person that you can get the funding that you need is if you already have money to begin with. That's the only way. And while in the U.S. there are actually more programs for black entrepreneurs and black professionals, in Canada we don't have this. You know, we have small budget ones like, oh, you know, you can win a thousand dollars, you can win this, but those will only go to people who they feel are really suffering, right?

So if you're already a black professional, you know, and I'm a doctor, no one's going to help you because they're like, oh, well, you're fine. So how do you get to the next level, right? Now, if I had a big sob story, you know, like I'm a single mom, I have five kids, I, you know, I can barely get by. You know, then I might get that $1,000 grant. But $1,000 doesn't go anywhere when you're a business. This I know.

Absolutely. That is true. So, I mean, when I was talking to Monica about all this and I started reading all the things you wrote. I mean, it gets like, firstly, I'm sorry for your loss. I know your your father passed away. How long ago did your father pass? So that was two years ago. He had gone to.

So he had spinal stenosis. It's a narrowing of the spine, like a form of arthritis. And then one of the things that you do when you have that is you lean over to try and take some pressure off. I'm his daughter. I told him, you know what, you don't need surgery for this. With six months of manual therapy and an exercise program, you'll be set because you're not on any painkillers. You're not on anything. People convinced him that he should get surgery right so he talked

to a neurosurgeon in Chicago who does all this great work he's like oh he's in this for this and this I'm like understandable but those are white people those are white people you as a black man cannot go to Chicago and get elective surgery they They will kill you. That is what I said. And so I tried, I thought I had convinced him not to get the surgery. And then a week beforehand, he's like, okay, well, I sent you my arrangements. It's going, it's happening. And at that point, it can be done. And, you know, he went into the hospital. I went there to meet him. And once I met the nursing staff and everyone, I was like, this is, this is exactly what I was saying. They were so rude. They treated him like garbage. So you're trying to explain to these people, do you know who this, who this man is?

Like he's, he's not just, I know you see black people as one way, but you should really Google who this man is when you're offering his, offering his care. And, And he was not a candidate for that surgery to begin with, but all they saw was dollar signs, right? And they don't care about his life. They don't care if they kill him as long as they get the bill. And he never came out of that hospital. Oh, my God. They killed him by overdosing him.

And you warned him that. I did. But the thing is, when you are an expert in your field it doesn't matter your parents will always see you as a child and do you know why they overdosed him with medication no they see black people they don't look at us as human right so anything to like you know make the patient be quiet and not complain so they over they literally overdosed him with medication, gave him three times the dosage,

and killed him with it. So it was a straight-out murder. Now, yeah, okay, because he's a black man. Yeah. So you're, if I'm reading between the lines, if your father was a white man, he'd be alive today. Of course. If he was a white man, like, two days after surgery,

he'd be up and at him. Oh, my God. So now is now this. This is Chicago. I mean. Well, this is a flip. Now, let me ask, because Monica works in health care software and we sometimes talk about how the American hospitals, they see them as they see their patients as customers like these are their customers because you're right and he was a non-insurance cash patient right so that's why even though he was not a candidate for the surgery and a very dangerous candidate for surgery they still went through with it because they don't care if he dies now did your father uh was he living in america no it's just he wanted the best the best surgeon he literally went to find the best surgeon. Okay, but you as a doctor, let me ask you as a doctor, do you think here where you're not a customer, you're a patient,

would that still be the case in this country? My mother-in-law was killed at the hospital here. Do you believe your mother-in-law? Yeah, that's my next question. If your mother-in-law were a white woman, do you believe she would-in-law okay yeah that's my next question if your mother-in-law were a white woman do you believe she would have died absolutely absolutely not and that's why i told her like you first of all i told her not to go to a hospital where they typically cater to people of color i say people of color because there's black people there's any people you know

it's diverse in scarborough do not go to a scarborough hospital where it's predominantly minorities because they're they're used to giving you the worst of the worst that you should need to go even here scarborough oh of course the thing is if i wasn't a doctor when i had my son there's a good chance that i might have not made it out of out of having my son i could have died very easily in the hospital see okay so okay i'm sorry i'm just i'm sorry okay so i you know i i understand driving while black and i even understand your story of the retail experiences like you were so eloquent i totally can understand that. I honestly didn't know about this. Like, uh, this is my own ignorance. And again, I need to talk to different people and ask the right questions here. I know, but people don't want to talk about it because it's really

hard to be like, Oh, I could have lost my life this time. Oh, this is how my dad died. This is how my mother-in-law died. Oh yeah. This is why we had this experience at sick kids. And Oh, had I not had a degree in pharmacology oh maybe my son would have kidney failure you know like you have to look at everything differently when you're black because the health care system is a very dangerous place for us i'm learning yeah well you've your father and your mother-in-law these are these are two firsthand experiences you've had where you believe they would both be alive today if they were white exactly and one of the reasons why i didn't want to become a medical doctor because i'm like i can't work in a system that's knowingly going to just kill people and

treat the thing is when you're uh when you're doing massage or manual therapy even if you are racist it's very it's nearly impossible for you to kill your patient. Now, in the medical system, when you're in a hospital, if you're a racist, your patient dies, right? And it's life or death. And I couldn't be in a system or surrounded by colleagues, whether it be nurses and doctors, who are going to let people die because they were black. I couldn't be in that system at all because there's no way to reform that kind of system. Dr. Liza,

how, like, so systemic racism, how do you root it out? Like, how do we correct this? How do we write this? The thing is, the people who have a vested interest in systemic racism don't want it to be corrected, right i know i'm so dumb

and who are those people like like like is it so i'm in the health care let's talk about health care for a moment uh like where is the like like like well there's incentive for everyone right like so for example in the in the u.., there's an incentive to keep black people criminalized so that you can have them in prison and create free labor. So it's just another form of slavery. So you want that system. They need to be criminalized. They need to be looked at as threats so that they can be locked in jail and then slavery can continue through prison labor, where most made-in-America goods are made in prisons. through prison labor where most made in america goods are made in prisons in health care system yeah especially in canada we don't have the number of beds to just keep people in beds we have to

clear out some of those beds right so we need to have a system to decide who gets killed so that we can free oh my god there it is okay the light went on okay okay that's horrific yeah but that's what happens right so we need to have a system to clear out the beds. We have a public health care system. Okay, black people, people who are too old, you know, certain people, let them go clear out the beds so that maybe we can save someone's life, which is worth, you know?

So literally every system you see has a reason for creating these systems. Air canada why do they have this racism problem because you know what maybe in first class just like they have in their brochures and all their commercials they only want white men in first class right they've clearly put it out there right so they make you so uncomfortable that you don't buy first class tickets from the airline. Yeah. They don't want the other, they don't want the white male customers to have to deal with all these others in there. And you'll see on their intro video, when they look at the people boarding economy, the safety video, Indian woman, black, you know, and then always in all their messaging for first class it's always a white male right but when it comes to serving staff when it comes to economy when it comes to the person with

all the bags and all the kids person of color and that's it's not an accident that's all on purpose by design yeah they want to keep it that way oh my god this is so hard i know i'm hearing you now and it's funny because i've never been in first class i've uh why do they keep trying to put me in first class that's what i want to know just you know why are they i'm an economy and they're tapping me on the shoulder sir you're in the wrong section get over there i'm like i know get up where you belong buddy i'm like i'm dressed like a homeless guy what are you talking about well if you put on a suit you know what you would probably get upgrades when you travel i'd probably yeah i'd probably need a haircut too come come come move up to first place let's balance it out and dr liza i feel

like that's already been a lot but i also learned uh i'll ask the question uh was your first clinic stolen from you it was so i need to leave okay keep going i'm gonna lean back i gotta soak this in yeah so this when i when i had my son i you know i had a i had a large clinic and had eight different practitioners and i thought you know what now would be a good time to still be at my clinic because you know i love that clinic like i you know that was my founding clinic out of well it's like your baby yeah exactly and so i thought you know if i if i sell it and still work there and maintain you know my you know working status without having to manage that would be that would be great so there was a chiropractor who I hired to join on in May after my son was born.

You know, no other clinic in downtown Toronto would give her a chance. But I always root for the underdog, right? Like when I see people, you know, I'm like, I believe in you. I'm going to help you. Like, I'll bring you in there. I'm sure we can make you who you need to be. And so then two months after I brought her in, she's like, you know, I would really be interested

in buying the the clinic I'm like oh well that's perfect because I'm actually looking at selling it and I want to work under you know work in the clinic and so we went through with that our closing date was in September right she paid the deposit because you pay a deposit but then with commercial uh transactions when you're buying the business you don't have to finish paying until 60 days after okay so 60 days after the fact i came in like just for you know my regular like work on a saturday the locks were changed on the building. Oh my God. So I go down to security. I'm like, oh, my key's not working.

Can you help me up? So security comes up and he's like, my key's not working. He's like, does someone change the lock? Because that's not allowed. We're supposed to have, you know? Right. And so then we called the building manager. The building manager's like, what?

She changed the locks. She's like, she can't change the locks. We're not allowed to have locks. So that's against safety code. Sure. And then, you know, so I was like was like okay and then later that day i was like okay so i just went went home and then i got a letter from her lawyer saying you are not welcome back at the clinic anymore and not only did she not pay me for the actual clinic,

she didn't pay me for me actually working there for those two months. Oh my God. And there was no recourse. Like you, there's nothing you can do. so, but this is the thing. And this is how people can know when you're black,

that they can weaponize. Okay. So I guess this woman though, can we establish this woman is this woman's a white woman? No, actually she's not a white woman. That's why I say the woman of color. So she's Persian. Okay, from Iran.

Yes, and so you'll find, especially in Toronto, a lot of the people who hold up white supremacy are people of color themselves, right? Like in Indian people, for example, in Toronto, some of them are more anti-black based on the, you know, the tiered system they have in India. So she's a caste system, right? Yeah, exactly. So that's why I say you cannot group us as people of color. Because some of the most atrocious racist things to black people are from other people of color.

Gotcha. Right. So and then she knew about, you know, how the justice system works against black people. So a week after she stole my clinic, she launched a lawsuit against me. Oh, my God. Yeah, to say that I owe her all this money because now my patients won't see her after she stole my clinic and didn't pay for it.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Yeah. But are you, so you're of the belief that if you were a white woman that this would have never never happened and then not only did she do that then she also started making complaints to my college and doing all this stuff in order to make sure that i had no recourse and that i you know I couldn't I couldn't come back from that so until this day it's still it's still open and she's you know weaponized the justice system every time and said

I'm this I'm that and tried to essentially criminalize me when she stole my clinic and that can only work when you're doing this against a black person and she knows that right because who steals somebody's clinic and then sues them and criminalizes them and saying they're the criminal right i didn't yeah and that's the kind of system that works against us every single day it's like when the carnies took over the simpsons household i remember that the squatters rights i remember this yeah no that's this is wrong okay so I know I brought in a Simpsons reference. I just, you know,

I had to, you know, but that's what it's like. And you're essentially powerless because the system will never be on your side. Okay. There, the system will never be on your side.

And because it doesn't matter if you're the right, like completely, all the facts are there. All the numbers are there. It's like pretty straightforward. This all speaks like when, uh, now, you know, hearing these stories and we heard about you know your father your first

clinic you know shopping for like a chanel bag you know flying here canada uh trying to be a designer in this country grocery shopping you can't what happens that like what can they do the uh so like for example i think you're No, when I fill up a cart or whatever, they'll be like, oh, are you with Instacart? I'm like, oh my God. Yeah, we've used Instacart

during the pandemic. Why else would you be in this area? Right? Oh my God. Yeah. I'm like, yes, I'm shopping at Instacart in heels, grocery shopping.

Oh my God. Because there's no way I could have this many groceries. Okay, Dr. Liza, so this is clearly ingrained in the system. This is why we call it systemic racism. So bigger question and smaller question. So this is clearly ingrained in the system. This is why we call it systemic racism.

So bigger question and smaller question. So maybe we do a small, so smaller question is, I'm one, I'm one guy who has great influence. I always say I am one guy who has great influence over four other people, my four children. Okay. I, I think I used to have more influence, but I have still have some influence there. What, tell me what can i do like i i like what what's an action item for me like what can i do i i like to think i treat everybody uh i like to think i should give everybody the respect uh regardless of skin color this is what can i do well the thing is it's being conscious of your choices. And as a parent, you have the privilege to be able to educate your kids on right from wrong and set a positive example from them. So if you have, you know, if you have people who've never actually gotten to know a black person

or been close with a black person to the point where they're comfortable asking questions how do they know that everything that they're seeing is toward you know focus on them right right but if you get to know and you talk to and say you don't get to know or talk to black people you know find resources where you can read through their work, right? And actually understand what they're going through. And I think that works for every group when you're trying to understand another group. Like, for example, during COVID, when there was this huge anti-Asian sentiment, having lived in Asia myself for five years, you know, I felt that too. And I was like very vigilant in defending Asian people because my receptionist, she's Korean. And I could, you know, for me, that made me just as angry as if you were being racist to me, because I understand

that all people of all cultures were inherently the same. And racism against one group is never okay. So don't turn a blind eye. Don't speak out. Yeah, exactly. You cannot let that happen. Just because it doesn't affect you doesn't mean you can just turn a blind eye and say that's okay. Just because I'm not Asian doesn't mean that I'm not going to stand up against anti-Asian racism.

If you're white or you're not black, that doesn't mean that you should be sitting by, and this is what I've seen in the last couple of months, people who are sitting by and just watching and letting, you know, people say things that they shouldn't say instead of putting them in their place. Right. Zero tolerance.

Zero tolerance. That's the only way. And I liked what you said there, which is really, honestly, they shouldn't say instead of putting them in their place right zero tolerance zero tolerance that's the only way and i liked what you said there which is really honestly what what i'm trying to do more of which is basically uh talk you know talk to people uh of different backgrounds about their experiences like because yeah if you live in your little white guy bubble or whatever you know you won't know you won't know it's different i learned a lot today yeah and different communities have their their own different different struggles right for sure oh my god okay dr liza i'm so glad that you were here is now i i i know you were saying to me earlier like a whole hour like you're used to like eight minute hits on these

media programs just so you know you've been an hour expert stuff this is more personal so no this is real talk dr liza that stuff's important too um kamala harris uh uh monica says you're not a fan no i'm not i'm not a fan i mean she is essentially one of the people who is big on prisons and locking people up and locking black people up. Right. But the fact that the only thing is we need to vote for them. Well, we don't need to vote because we're in Canada. But the only reason that we need to root for them. Yeah. We have to root for them because we're essentially just voting or rooting against Trump. Lesser of two evils.

Exactly. Which is usually how I vote anyway. Exactly. Like no politician is good, right? So you just have to pick the one that is, you know, the best or the worst. And this is, I don't usually bring this up. And in fact, but this is an election, I believe, where there's a very clear choice. It's not about whether you think Biden is too old or is he, you know, is he slipping a little because he's in his late 70s or you don't like Kamala Harris.

Like you said, you're right. She was a public, the attorney district. I forget the term. Well, she had very anti-black policies, right? Like she's upholding slavery, right? But she's still not. But I mean, we're going to get literally donald trump we used to talk about dog whistle rate uh racism i feel like they stopped using the dog whistle and there's no like to me this is very clearly they're speaking

to a white nationalist oh yeah it's and it's created this uh you know it's magnified this all over the world especially in canada Like we have one of the biggest, most vocal white supremacist groups out there in Canada. I think we have the most in the world, right? I don't know. On social media, yeah. They're not FOTMs. So I'm sorry.

You are a friend of Toronto Mike now that you've made your first appearance on the show. So you are an FOTM. But where are these white supremacists? Well, there's a study that showed that Canada has the biggest group of white supremacists on social media, and I think primarily Twitter. Maybe they're the white proud. I forget.

Well, you'll see. If you go under any tweet for CP24 Global or any tweet that revolves around Toronto, you'll see their tweets. You'll find them you'll see who they are and your experience is doing all these shows like the social and breakfast television at these big media companies and i wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to bite the hand that feeds or whatnot but have you ever witnessed any uh racism in in these canadian media institutions let me just tell you i've had some serious talks with producers this summer,

because as a black expert, there's almost like a hiding, right? So they want you to entertain. When it comes to food, entertainment, black, great. When it comes to doctors okay white asian perfect when it comes to finance oh yeah chinese and white right so they have these specific boxes where they want you to fall into right so they try to push you into that box and when you are out of that box for example i've been on oh gosh over a hundred and over a hundred shows over the last four years and you know how many times i've made it onto their social media on instagram how many once really once because they don't want you know i i make i may make great tv and have great content but they don't want it out there because I'm a black doctor. And that type of expertise doesn't fall under black people.

We're not supposed to be academics. We're supposed to be sports, athletes, music, dance. Man, this has been an... Is there any final, anything else you think you should share with us? I say us, like with me, before we say goodbye here, because I know I promised an hour. I've exceeded that. That's what I do here. I promise an hour and I actually take as much as I can.

So that's my move. Don't share that. I like to keep that a secret, please. Maybe I shouldn't have recorded that. But Dr. Liza, is there anything else, like anything else uh like anything else you'd want to tell the listeners uh and and then and then of course tell us like if we if we want to get your services like it sounds you're dr liza and you uh again these words are hard for

me to pronounce osteopath that's not a hard word to say yeah chiropractor but really right now since my clinic is still closed by buying my shoes and my bags right okay what's your website drlizashoes.com dr liza that's like like liza minnelli but not named after liza minnelli drlizashoes.com is where you go for the fashion when will your clinic do you have any uh idea of when the clinic opens well if you could talk to the contractors that that would be great. Would you like me to? I do have a persuasive manner. I kind of flash my baby blues at them and things happen. You might want to be put in touch

with them, but when you're a black woman speaking to them, it doesn't really transpire. Well, I'm sorry to hear that. And I am sorry to hear the daily systemic racism that you need to endure. And like you said, you need to work extra hard to get to kind of the same place where doors are flying open for these white women.

And I'm sorry. I am sorry on behalf of this country and the city especially. I'm sorry that you're treated the way you're treated simply because of the color of your skin. It's awful. Yes, but I hope that can change. You know, if everyone who's not black can use the privilege they do have to help uplift or support a black person, then we'll be a lot better off. And that brings us to the end of our 715th show.

You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Dr. Liza is at Dr. Liza. D-R-L-I-Z-A. And that's also your Instagram handle, Dr. Liza. She's nailed that, Dr. Liza. She got in early there. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.

Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Make sure I get you that lasagna. Sticker U is at Sticker U. The Kytner Group are at The Kytner Group. CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. And Pumpkins After Dark are at Pumpkins Dark. See you all later tonight when Stu Stone drops by for another Pandemic Friday. It's back to school.

See you then. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Rome Phone. Rome Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit Rome phone.ca to get started.