The Rose That Grew From Concrete
Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s law is wrong, it learned to walk without having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared.
— Tupac Shakur
The last two weeks have been very challenging. Last week, I learned that while the 7 officers who participated in the raid that led to her death still haven’t been directly charged in connection with Breonna Taylor’s death, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly wrote and published a book about “the truth” behind the tragedy. For me, this news led to a week of nightmares about Breonna Taylor and after a day or 2, I didn’t want to sleep or could not sleep at all. Since I couldn’t rest for more than a few hours at a time, my routines were thrown off and I couldn’t find my appetite. Eventually, without sleep or food, my energy was diminished and I felt like a shell of a human. Soon enough, I stopped showering and my hair remained in the same two pigtails for 5 days in a row. Between finding my niche remotely on a new team and trying to avoid the landmine that is the internet during a time of chaos and tragedy, I was feeling quite lost. People close to me know that LinkedIn is my happy place and that I don’t have any social media accounts, but the thought of reading something about Derek Chauvin while logging on to check the LinkedIn News and Views of the day made me literally sick to my stomach. I had officially run out of safe spaces during COVID-19.
Plus, I felt like a fraud. If I was so right about the good intentions of the folks around me, why are we here…again? How could it be that people really “get it this time”, when this time feels so eerily similar to exactly where we were last year? Black humans have become involuntary martyrs in a war that we did not start, and without any end in sight. We’re hoisted as heroes posthumously as if all along we were born for this, to persevere with the knees of white folks on our necks. Always Be Resilient. Imagine the capacity wasted on the necessary navigation of racism. Ruby Bridges was only 6 years old(!) when she advanced the cause of civil rights in the fall of 1960. Please do not forget: Ruby was a child. Ruby experienced traumatizing levels of abuse and violence at the hands of full-grown adults every day, similar to what we’re still reading about. Ruby is alive and has been for 66 years. Don’t let the black and white images fool you. There are plenty of color images, including the one below, to remind us that this isn’t some dusty, ancient tale irrelevant to the present state of things. By the way, 3 Black students were actually assigned to Frantz Elementary that year, but 2 dropped out. Ruby Bridges attended this all-white school alone.
If there was ever a time I felt like the universe was trying to tell me that something just isn’t working, this would absolutely be that moment. Due to recent events, I’ve wondered if my dedication, education, or specifically anti-racist methods would stand a chance against the behemoth of traversing modern-day DEI efforts.
It took me a moment, but I finally remembered — I’m not new to this, I’m true to this! I have already been the first and/or only Black woman in my office more often than I have not. I’ve already cultivated an incredible network thanks to hard work and almost a decade of experience in pioneering operational processes, HR best practices, and DEI initiatives. I already pivoted from paralegal and excelled as Events and Operations Manager. I’ve already been told, “no” a million times, and have still proven and demonstrated spectacular results in knowledge transfer, culture shift, and relationship building. I already know that I’m skilled at fostering a healthy work environment where everyone gets to thrive. I have already accumulated countless testimonials from clients and co-workers highlighting my commitment to equity, and I proudly demonstrate the difference between an ally and an accomplice. Still, there is no shortage of instances where I’ve been shut out when it matters most, hidden behind menial tasks that belong to someone else, or stripped of the chance to enact lasting change. In my career, I’ve been told ERGs are a no-go because I’d risk isolating our top-performing white employees. I’ve been told, “we don’t have a diversity issue here” unless I’m trying to create one. I’ve even been told that while my point was valid, I seemed kind of emotional about the whole racism thing. Those articles you see now about folks currently being asked to present 5-8 years of DEI experience? We hate to see it because we’ve been out here. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that I never lose when I bet on myself.
The race equity agenda is about ensuring that anti-racist practice is a wholesome part of organizational practice, embedded into the systemic functioning of a business, which supports best in class, equitable outcomes for employees and customers. — Carmen Morris
Let’s switch gears and discuss some recent wins! I am so elated and grateful for the wealth of support, resources, and motivation I’ve found or have been met with along my journey! I have met so many badass change-makers in the last 6 months and I can’t stop thinking about how powerful it will be once we return to certain freedoms and can really shake things up together. This post of mine was just a verbose way of saying that I am ready to start bragging a bit more openly about the work I put in every day and in every way. I’m excited to learn more about what other folks are accomplishing and I genuinely look forward to learning about how we can collaborate to do good shit. I recently shared news of completing a LinkedIn course called “Developing a Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Program”. Below are some other recent certifications I’ve worked towards:
- “Unconscious Bias”, Project Management Institute (PMI)
- “Running Company Onboarding”, HR Certification Institute (HRCI)
- “Developing Cross-Cultural Intelligence”, National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA)
- “Cultivating Cultural Competence and Inclusion”, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
- “Creating a Positive and Healthy Work Environment”, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
- “Human Resources Foundations”, HR Certification Institute (HRCI)
A very awesome career coach named Candyss Weaver advised, “It’s not what you know or even who you know, but who knows you. It taught me a valuable lesson regarding networking strategically”. To her point, if any of what I’ve written about so far is of interest to you, let’s connect! If you want to just connect with another human being and share about what gets you out of bed this month, let’s connect about that too! As always, thanks for reading.