In China, someone decided to copy the “Japan Day in the Life Of” YouTube video series from a Tokyoite named Paulo and feature a lady Li Yi Xuan who adopted the Western name “Heather.” We will link to the video below and recommend you watch it on YouTube instead of within the article. 

Watch on YouTube (recommended): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVFiS8YXy-Y

If you watched the video as an African-American, you may have caught something that most brothas and sistas would not have caught and that is a major economic problem among our people. I think most of you if you watched the video would have caught it but we will review the video and reveal something African-American college students better learn and figure out. 

One of the earliest takeaways and kinda the biggest giveaway is Heather is from Beijing, went to Penn State, moved to Shanghai after graduation. She is working at a house converted to an office for a digital economy firm, let’s talk about that work. 

Not really relevant but noticed she using a biometric time clock to “check-in” at work. If you going to set up a small business, make sure you get one of these to track people coming in the office – but there is a better use – this can be used as a membership management service to track by the hour for exclusive memberships. You can track if someone check-in with their fingerprint and when they leave and bill them for those hours from the report and deduct from their pre-paid account, yall could have been set up these kinds of premiere membership models in the hood with this $200 device, let’s keep going. 

A lot of people were asking how the camera was able to transition from a regular video feed to a 360 perspective in several shots of the video. To help give you the answer, it’s the Insta360 X2 camera that can do these unique effects and more and you will see throughout the video, they make video-game, matrix-style effects, and rotating sweeps, so hope that answers the question for you all. 

Now let’s get to the real part of the video – Heather drops some teaser hints early on in the video, did you see them? These are the screenshots of what Heather purposely made sure was in some of the video shots. 

Heather rocking some red, black, and green on her wrist huh? Yeah, I wonder how many of you caught on watching the video. What the video described was Heather went to Kenya earlier in this year and I don’t know if this was an international trip she taken after graduation as most Asian graduates take an exotic overseas trip as part of custom/ritual – yeah, I know, we brothas and sistas got to get jobs when we graduate. 

The caption in the video screenshot says it all – she fell in love with Kenya and was very inspired by African culture. I actually think she wore all of that African bling on purpose for this video because she was actually going somewhere – to meet some African entrepreneurs and help them do business. 

As the caption states, Heather was interested in promoting African startups to market their products in China. Here is where we going to ask the obvious question that some of you should have asked. The question is obvious – she went to Penn State – did the African-American students at Penn State connected with Heather when she attended and make her love African-American people? You know full well those African-American students ignored the heck out of Heather when she was there at Penn State. 

Now it’s time to get real with African-Americans and this is the major lesson in this article. Heather was an ally and this is a huge miss opportunity, possibly the worst missed opportunity we have seen ever, period. In a previous article on Dream and Hustle, I talked about my biggest regret, and the first regret I listed is I did not keep the bond among my non-Black foreign friends while in college. Look at the picture again and look at that caption “help promote African start-ups” and she was walking around at Penn State. 

I stated this before and some of our own people acted silly – I got Asian colleagues around the world 100% down with helping brothas and sistas make it in this world. But again, on college campuses, we got Black folks in the 21st-century global economy talking up some “Black Identity” crap with a closed-minded mentality. As a result, you shut out awesome allies like Heather who, again read the article, helping Black entrepreneurs in China, she didn’t have to be that but she cares and she putting work as an ally, isn’t she? So let me ask again, WTF where African-Americans doing at Penn State when Heather was there? Because everybody in the YouTube comment section is saying they know Heather and she is a cool and outgoing person. 

Don’t worry, the video showed exactly what’s going on in the global economy that you African-Americans are messing up and missing out, let’s continue with the real good part of the video. 

Heather met with some brotha and sista entrepreneurs at a co-working space in Shanghai, China, and discussed how she can help market their ventures to the Chinese population. Let’s be mindful this is a customer base of billions of people these Black folks in the room have ground floor access to and working with an ally. 

BTW, do you notice something – yeah, those are some proper, beautiful Black people in that room, I know you see that as well as I do. This what you see in Asia, in places like Tokyo, Seoul, and Shanghai and the caliber of new generation, new wealth of global citizen international Black folks working at the global economy level at global cities. Remember, Heather didn’t have to be in that room but she cares about helping brothas and sistas in China reach billions of customers – who do we got like that in our community that can do something at that scale? I am thankful for Heather being an ally for our people like that, I love where her heart is at right now in that picture. 

Let me ask one more time – what were you African-Americans students doing at Penn State when Heather was there? I still remember what Notorious BIG said about what he did with chicks at Penn State, tho. 

This photo is the last photo but one of the most powerful photos that you can learn a lot from. First of all, this is Shanghai, China. You seeing a sista having dinner with Heather networking after the co-working meeting session. Also, you should have noticed that server with the tie in the background about to deliver them nachos, he is not Chinese either. You are seeing full diversity interaction in Shanghai, China, and a modern urban city where a Black woman can meet with allies and discuss her venture and growth in the Chinese market. 

The second thing is the caption explains a very important lesson for African-Americans students to learn from. Noticed they both explained they were part of an interest group on WeChat in China, they really didn’t know each other – they met up. This is how rapid networking, rapid innovation, and rapid growth is happening in urban China among all their super cities. I explained this similar effect in Tokyo, you can always meet people on LINE and meet up in Shibuya or Shinjuku or Shimbashi and have a glass of wine and appetizer and discuss business or social dating. You cannot really do this in our African-American community with the attitudes. 

I heard an elder ex-pat said something very powerful – the global citizen and future of connections will not be based on “common identity” it will be based on “common interests” – this means you can toss that Black identity and we going to focus on specific niches like Black entrepreneurs in Shanghai interest group. 

What is the overall lesson and summary? African-Americans better stop all that “Black Identity” hermit cultural isolation nonsense because those brothas and sistas in Africa already in a better position for global empire moves because they got an ally like Heather in the room working with them. You cannot be slipping like this as a young brotha or sista in today's global economy landscape. 

Let’s be frank because you know I’m on the same international level – why would I recruit or hire any African-American operating with isolationist identity over those beautiful brothas and sistas sitting in the room with Heather in Shanghai, China? I have global ambitions and I will pursue those who make ambitious global moves and got the resume to show. I don’t want someone at Penn State that ignored Heather while she was there, I want someone who immediately saw the value of someone like Heather and they sitting in the room appreciating her and what she willing to do for brothas and sistas. 

This is the revealing calling for African-Americans and this video revealed a lot that I hope many of you can see now. You better get global-mindset real fast because not only do you see we have awesome allies like Heather out there, you see how awesome it is to be in a city like Shanghai as a Black person and see there is the atmosphere to make real things happen and living in a thriving innovative culture at the same time. I will be hardcore honest, those sistas in that meeting room are exactly the proper sistas I wish to God I could have been around when I was younger. I hope you brothas and sistas catch a clue from this video and engage in some self-correct – the world is yours.