I have joined what Queen Brene calls the wild heart club and I can assure you, the price is oh so, SO high, but the reward is going to be amazing. Like everyone else who goes through this sort of experience, I am changed because of it.
Brene says “if you’re afraid to lean into good news, wonderful moments, and joy - if you find yourself waiting for the other shoe to drop - you are not alone. It’s called ‘foreboding joy’.”
Learn more about joy and how to cultivate it through an intentional gratitude practice.
Organizations that strive to be diverse and inclusive have to think about race and ethnicity. If we are ever going to make changes in our organizations, systems, and in our country, we have to work to make sure all of those entities are equitable and just. But we cannot only think about that one aspect of diversity.
Organizations that strive to be diverse and inclusive have to think about race and ethnicity. If we are ever going to make changes in our organizations, systems, and in our country, we have to work to make sure all of those entities are equitable and just. But we cannot only think about that one aspect of diversity.
I don’t need to recount the events of May 25, 2020 - we have talked about it and many folks have watched the video. For many Americans, the events of May 25 were truly shocking. They were outraged and wanted to see action. For others, though, this was not new to us. It was another death of a black body at the hands of police that was caught on camera.
I will be honest. When George Floyd was murdered, I was sad. But it was a sadness that I was used to. I didn’t watch the video - I stopped watching the murder of black bodies after the murder of Philando Castile because it was too much for me. I couldn’t watch the murder of bodies who looked like me and like people I loved anymore. But when George Floyd was murdered, I was honestly surprised. I was surprised that the conversations afterward were different from all the other times before. The circumstances were different - we were all home glued to the television, so everyone saw it.
I can get into the neuroscience behind what happens when we see someone get hurt - particularly someone who looks like us or who is in our “in-group”. What I think was surprising for me was the fact that many people don’t see black men the same way I do. The researchers that facilitate the Implicit Bias Association test have the data to back it up - the media’s portrayal of black men has been negative for decades. And black women? The narrative is that we are strong, sometimes angry, but strong and don’t need help. And for kids - black girls are seen as adults when they are young which has far-reaching implications. And black boys are seen as a threat from such a young age.
Some people will read this and be angry with me - they will tell me that I am divisive and that being this open and candid about race is a problem. Instead, what if we went toward empathy and tried to be understanding? What if we tried to see things from the perspective of another person, particularly someone who is different from us?
We have so much work to do to create a more equitable world and to recreate systems of oppression that hold back so many of us, but I hope that we all can commit to doing this work together. To doing the work of learning more about ourselves and others and using whatever privilege we have to create access for others.
