Good Day Fam! My 9-5 is with a super conservative company. Following years of senseless police brutality cases, they finally decided to break the deafening silence. Our executive staff hosted a town hall, moderated by our Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Officer. When the town hall was announced, I was skeptical. My thoughts went back-and-forth between, is this going to get real, or will it be a Kumbaya, “we’re all in this together,” training forthcoming type of thing? Our D&I Officer opened the call stating the goals and rules of engagement. The primary goal was to have a safe space for people to talk about what is going on and how it affects them.

With delight, I report we got real, and we got real, quickly. Our COO opened with, “…outside of these walls, I am George Floyd,” followed with examples of his own discrimination experiences to a captive audience of over 1100 people. The collective sigh of relief was felt by all in attendance, for certain. The floodgates opened, and people shared their thoughts and personal experiences. It was amazing. Unbelievably, there was only one Karen who decided to share how her life had been impacted. Her son was in a store shopping when a tear gas canister broke through the storefront window. We let her have her moment.

Like most of you, I could have taken the entire two hours to share my own racial injustices experiences. However, at the time of this town hall, I was too emotional to speak. Instead, I sent a message to the executive staff, asking them to make sure empathy is included in future messages. A member of the D&I team, knowing I am an author, asked me to write a blog for our website. It was quite a challenge to write a piece suitable for the conservative environment in my current state because I am so angry and hurt. I had to dig deep. And what do I mean by conservative? It took two weeks for this blog (below) to run up the chain for approval to post. I had a what not to say section, but was requested to remove that part. The politically correct reason, “if you tell people what not to say, it shuts down the notion of an open dialogue.”

The blog seems to well be received, with lots of comments; mostly thank you for speaking our truths and a few praising my bravery. Funny, I do not feel brave at all, because I still wrote this piece with my mask on.    

For those of you still working for the man, while simultaneously running your own business, have your companies been silent or have they stepped up?

We Are Not Okay

For anyone who participated in the emotionally fraught Let’s Talk About It town hall, hearing “We are not okay” should not be a shock. When I say we, I am explicitly talking about Black people. Of course, I do not speak for all Black people, but I can say the people in my circle are not okay. Let me be clear about something; I am not discounting anyone else’s pain and emotions during these troubling times. Most of you have probably seen the “house on fire” analogy spreading about all lives matter in response to Black Lives Matter. For those who have not, allow me to share: if someone says their house is on fire and someone else says, “All houses matter” while the firefighters are trying to put out the fire, they are minimizing the urgency of dealing with the house in flames. While it is true that all houses matter, firefighters must focus on the house on fire at that moment. The Black community is in flames.

 What I would like to focus on is empathy.

 There are millions of people around the world standing in protest—the entire WORLD, not just this country. Meanwhile, some of us have family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors ignoring the unjust racial inequalities that are so prevalent. Worse than ignoring, some outright deny the existence of those inequalities, or have, perhaps, spent the last number of years “under a rock” and have not been exposed to what most of us know (Black, Caucasian, or any other race) to be true.

 There is no desire by the Black community to be treated better or to be more important than anyone else. The desired outcome is equality and justice. Nothing more. Nothing less. It is disturbing to be still fighting the equality battle, 155 years after slavery “ended.” I can only hope the experiences shared by #000000;">XXXXX, #000000;">XXXXX, and many others opened some eyes to the fact that this is not just a poor, un- or undereducated Black person’s plight. In the year 2020, our CEO is afraid to go to certain places for fear of how he may be perceived or treated.

 Instead of empathy, some choose to focus on a symptom versus the virus, expressing outrage at the protests, rioting, and looting. While I do not condone, nor would I participate in, rioting and looting, I will not sit on a pedestal in judgment of how others express their pain. You cannot walk a mile in someone else’s shoes until you first take off your own. Most of us cannot really wrap our heads around seeing our brothers and sisters being murdered and incarcerated at an alarmingly high rate compared to other members of our society. 

 It is entirely okay if you struggle with your feelings on racial inequalities. We are individuals and have completely different perspectives on life. All we ask from you at this time is empathy. There are millions of people who are hurting right now, and they need space to heal.

The DELETED section:

If you care enough to have a conversation with someone who does not look like you, as #000000;">XXXXX and #000000;">XXXXX shared, please do not say any of the following things (not all-inclusive, but you get the point):

- All lives matter

- Blue lives matter (there is a time and a place)

- I don’t see color 

- I have black friends

- We had a black president 

- Not all cops are bad, it’s just a few bad apples (racism and bias is demonstrably systemic)

- If he/she just listened/complied

- I was mistreated by the cops too

- My life isn’t/wasn’t easy either

- What about “black-on-black” crime

- Research or regurgitate the intent or criminal history of any man or woman killed/mistreated (presumption of innocence until proven guilty)