Do not obey in advance.

Recorded today (29 January): Morning Tinto podcast, episode 2

Author

Chris Musei-Sequeira
January 29, 2025

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What happens when large multi-national corporations say, “so you want to be an autocrat… let me help you with that”?

Morning Tinto Episode 2: Do not obey in advance

Recorded today, my friend Heather Luna of keduzi and I discuss how corporations are changing their approaches to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) even without receiving direct threats from the United States of America (USA) Trump Administration. We talk at length about the Administration’s pauses on Federal funding. Then, I discuss a new voluntary Federal employee resignation program published just yesterday.

In the middle of our recording, Heather receives a note from a colleague stating that their AIDS medication distribution work outside of the USA is on hold because of the USA’s Federal funding pause.

At the very end of the recording, I dare to read a poem I wrote on a whim several days ago. I’ll leave the interpretations up to you.

Or: search for Morning Tinto on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music.

P.S. I’m aware that the USA Office of Personnel Management has just rescinded its memo pausing Federal funding. I’m also aware that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X, “This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze.”

Have you checked on everyone in your network who receives even one dime of USA Federal funding?

Previous Morning Tinto recordings

Where to find the perspectives you’ve been missing

FIRST: Subscribe to the Morning Tinto podcast, where my friend Heather Luna and I use the lenses of oppression and resistance to talk about events that happen right before recording.

SECOND: Subscribe to our professional offers-and-needs networking events announcement list. Heather and I regularly host FREE online events where professionals can offer help (free or paid) and ask other professionals to meet their needs.

THIRD: Follow these awesome folks on LinkedIn:

FOURTH: Forward this issue to people you know who are doing decolonial and anti-oppression work.

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My name is Chris Musei-Sequeira, and I use he/him pronouns. My mother was born in Trinidad and Tobago as a descendant of African slaves brought to the islands during the time of European colonization. She came to the United States of America (USA) at the age of 10. My father is Goan and was born in India, in Mumbai, and raised Catholic and English-speaking. He came to the USA for his graduate studies, where he met my mother.

My sister and I were born in the USA and lived a middle-class life in the suburbs of multiple American cities. I studied aeronautical engineering and technology policy in university, then worked at the Federal Aviation Administration and as an aviation consultant. I've lived in cities up and down the USA East Coast since the age of 18; I now reside in Queens, New York with my wife.

I thank Heather Luna and Lavinia Muth for showing me the importance of publicly expressing our positions. Because of our positions, all of us are very familiar with some aspects of the world while having no idea of other aspects. Positionality expresses how our individual positions affect our relationships with other people and with the world as a whole.

1  Orthodox Christmas: Why do some people celebrate Christmas on 7 January. (2025, January 6). BBC Newsround. Link. Archived link.

2  The White House. (2025, January 21). Ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing. Link. Archived link.