everyone keeps trying to reinvent the wheel when there are so many of us who have been doing this work, diversifying our industries, for years. your new idea isn’t new. there are others doing that work. find them. support them. instead of creating something “new.”

I have zero patience at this point for people emailing me with ideas for new initiatives when I’m like x org is doing that talk to them. I am not magic lol. I just know how to research and find people and I pay attention when people are speaking

It’s like every white person woke up (finally) and decided oh hey I wanna help but not by supporting what poc have been doing for years and desperately need support doing but by creating something new. Why. Because they want to be seen as doing something to help

I wish more people would just say, how can I help you and not I have this thing I wanna do give me your thoughts on how to make it better or hey I have this thing I wanna do can you make yourself free at x time to do more unpaid labor in support of this thing I am doing to help

And then people get so upset at you for daring to say no I’m sorry I’m BUSY. And try to guilt me by talking more about the help they wanna do. You’re not paying me. Yes I wanna help but in case you haven’t noticed I do a lot and I can’t just be where you want me to be when.

when I started @PocPub i was 23. It all happened bc @jmarcellecorrie asked me how I knew so many poc in the industry and I thought about the work I did to build my network and how exhausting it was and was like everyone shouldn’t have to go through this.

I tried really hard not to reinvent the wheel, I spoke to mentors of color at different levels to find out about past initiatives to make sure we weren’t just doing what was already being done. Did I do it perfectly, absolutely not. Have I learned a lot in the past years. 100%.

The fact is it’s not easy to run an org whose purpose is supporting and amplifying poc in the industry when you’re struggling snd depressed about your own career (not now, back then). I have my amazing team to thank for literally running the org in 2018 when I was burnt out

And so like that’s the problem we face. We do these initiatives. We burn out. The org goes away. And a white person swoops in every few years when diversity convos pop up to talk about a new idea they have that a dozen poc had amazing ideas on how to do but got no support

Thankfully @PocPub is here and thriving and doing amazing work. We’ve helped get like what 50+ people jobs in this industry from our network alone. And we have a lot more work to do.

Maybe also it’s the fault of being someone who doesn’t like to brag who believes that this is just the work that’s supposed to be done. @Sj_Fennell is always telling me to brag more. But also if you can find our website contact page you also can see the programs listed there

Did you know @LatinxinPub also exists? They run mentorship programs and do so so much. And then @diversebooks’s internship program is fantastic!! Literally breaking down doors. In short, we might not always be the flashiest but we are here.

I think all the time about all the initiatives started by poc that no longer exist. Like... the answer is not to make yourself a white person/org the head of initiatives to support poc in the industry. It’s to find (yes you have to search) ppl doing the work and amplify them.

There was a tweet going around that was like remember how people react when you say no and I will forever think of that bc like... the pushback... the silence... the disbelief I get when I’m like what if you instead support our “____ program” tells me everything.