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Really looking forward to @KimCrayton1's Being Antiracist at Work. She does this work every day to educate and shine a light, but I've really appreciated this focused series.
"There’s never a point at which you’ve just arrived and there’s nothing else to learn - it’s a lifetime of practice and learning." Opening with a great intro from @operaqueenie
. @KimCrayton1 showing the difference between quantitative and qualitative - both are important, but quantitative is often prioritized. Qualitative is context, is lived experiences, is different perspectives.
Kim always has really useful resources to share in addition to her own experiences and perspective. This study offers additional perspectives of Black women in the workplace, esp. during Covid: https://wiw-report.s3.amazonaws.com/Women_in_the_Workplace_2020.pdf (start on page 26).
While this graph leaves out some context (e.g. Black men), this is a stark reminder of who exactly gets to bring their whole selves to work; of who gets to be part of the "work family" that leadership loves to talk about.
Great advice from @twiffanyjana on how white people can begin and continue their antiracist journey. "Human beings are sacred and special and precious, and it’s worth learning more about another’s experience."
Continue to be honest with yourself, and communicate across differences. Have grace for yourself and grace for others, and don't allow your fear of being wrong to prevent your ability to learn and change.
( @twiffanyjana also has a book, Overcoming Bias, that continues this work and education! https://bookshop.org/books/overcoming-bias-building-authentic-relationships-across-differences/9781626567252)
. @polotek with advice on how we can get past feeling angry and helpless (and often paralyzed from moving forward) once we realize that racism is systemic: recognize that systemic means pervasive within society, but that it is still about *human decisions*.
Understand how those human decisions manifest as oppression and inequality, and understand that it happens while we're in the room - we're just not paying attention. We can continue our antiracist journey by paying attention, standing up & speaking out when we see that happening.
We have to stop prioritizing our feelings over the harm we cause.
Things like age, race, gender, sexual orientation shouldn't be political issues - but the reality is that they are. Companies & leadership cannot say they are "apolitical" and also think they are able to do the work to create a safe, equitable, inclusive workplace.
The understanding needed to create the kind of environment where everyone can truly thrive requires us to acknowledge those "political" differences and make sure people are supported in the way they need in order to create equity, safety, inclusion.
Lies we tell ourselves in the workplace:
- Assume positive intent
- Meritocracies
- Pay for performance
- We're apolitical
- Culture fit
- Assume positive intent
- Meritocracies
- Pay for performance
- We're apolitical
- Culture fit
It's ridiculous for an industry that prides itself on the ability to uniquely solve complex problems to take the view that the only choice is "focus on the work" OR "focus on social issues", and that attention on one forces us to deprioritize or ignore the other.
Changing the world is uncomfortable work. It requires us to be challenged. It requires us to honestly acknowledge the problems that need to be solved, and to acknowledge our part in creating and maintaining those problems.
Appreciating @KimCrayton1's breakdown of the C*inbase latter - she's really peeling back the layers of doublespeak and surface interpretation to highlight the problems and contradictions within the perspective that the letter takes.
In addressing Q&A where questions ask about HR or management - reminding us that the role of HR is not about inclusion, diversity, and equity unless it’s part of the company’s foundational ethos - which comes from top leadership with the authority to make decisions.
Q: Creating an inclusive culture for Black women to bring their full selves to work - what are some ways managers can help with this?
A: This question sets up a silo, not a system. If that manager leaves, is the Black employee still safe? Managers can lead this as a group to set more holistic standards of support and safety - but these changes need to be at the *organizational* level.
Q: If I know that a Black coworker and I are both up for promotion is it appropriate to advocate for them first? Or is this wandering into white saviorism territory?
A: It’s wandering into white saviorism territory. You’re competing - but if you’re aware that your whiteness is giving you an advantage, that’s the problem.
Again, this goes back to Kim's previous answer about change/action at the organizational level. It’s not about your promotion vs your Black coworkers promotion - it’s about the lack of equity that’s built into the system of promoting people.
Q: How do you encourage that top-down actionable support of antiracism, inclusion, safety at work when it's not being done proactively by leadership? (Note: this is my question.)
A: I don’t know what to tell you. We’re in a place where we’re having to make these kinds of moral decisions for ourselves when leadership won't.
A (cont'd): And that decision is also a privilege - e.g. how many Black employees are free to just up and leave a job in the middle of a pandemic (ref. to C*inbase)?
Q: I want to make sure BIPOC employees feel safe, have a seat at the table and access to leaders and mentorship on my team/in the company. What advice do you have here? We recently hired many new BIPOC employees into a historically white team.
A: Protect them at all fucking cost. What strategy was in place to support and protect them before hiring? Hiring (diversity) isn't the answer to solving inclusion & equity if you're not giving people a safe space to come into.
Q: If we are working at a company that has continuously demonstrated that it doesn't care about equity, inclusion, and supporting Black employees, what is the best way to demonstrate that that is unacceptable? Do we quit, or stick around and raise hell?
A: Use your power and privilege - leverage your privilege to advocate and push for change.
. @KimCrayton1 pointing out that many of these questions are based in needing a strategy. How can you make a difference? How can you have hard conversations? How can you use your privilege to advocate? How can you support your Black coworkers or people who report to you? STRATEGY.
Q: For a very small B2C tech company which has more customers than coworkers, it seems anti-racism at work might take the form of giving more for less to customers who are marginalized within tech. What are your thoughts on discounts/scholarships to folx who are marginalized?
A: Kim gives a reframing of this question/perspective. As it stands, it's coming from a white savior POV. Reframing as: prioritizing marginalized folks, prioritizing their needs; choosing to support their work, their lived experiences.
Q: any thoughts on holding leadership accountable when they talk a good game but you don't necessarily see much action?
A: Corporate blackface is all over the place these days. Get a coalition of people to speak up against their company's corporate blackface, both internally and externally. Let others see that people are speaking up. Challenge the perspectives and lack of action.
Q: How do you be a sponsor without being a white savior?
A: Sponsorship should be about being invested in the person, in their career. There should be a relationship. It shouldn't be "just because they're Black" - it's because of the value they bring, the work they do. Again, it's about strategy.
. @KimCrayton1 talking about the contradictions where Black people have to over-prove their credentials, in how we expect Black people to be mediocre, and then feel threatened when they rise to their expertise. We make it harder for Black people to succeed.
Q: Ways to call out observed racist behaviour at work, esp. when it hasn't been overtly labelled or called out - whether to bring up with the person you think is targeted by the behaviour? (aware how this might feed into white saviorism) How to avoid causing further harm?
A: Other than making sure the harmed person is taken care of, leave them alone. It's not their job to call out the behavior. Like Kim says, spot the patterns. You call it out, call it what it is. Get uncomfortable. Do the work.
Oooh. Upcoming event on Feb. 13: 2030 AntiRacist Agenda - you can sign up at https://being-antiracist.com !
