Today is the day!
Today is the day!
I was overwhelmed with the number of likes and shares from my Sunday morning musings yesterday (ICYMI, I’ve now posted it at https://medium.com/@alic…/a-grey-day-in-america-9c2c3aefe5e0).
But today is the day we go back to work. Will you choose business as usual or will you disrupt in the spirit of racial healing? Racial healing expert Milagros Phillips told me last week that even when we who believe in racial justice grow weary of pushing for disruption, we must remember that planting the seeds is all we can do, and then we have to exercise patience and perseverance. Still, today, will you:
-Listen and ensure your black and brown colleagues are heard?
-Be willing to take a risk on an idea your black or brown colleague suggests, then back them up with support and guidance?
-Ask a black or brown person about their hopes and desires and then help them pursue them?
-Give financial support to a black or brown entrepreneur, knowing that the benefits of generational wealth are likely not something they can as easily fall back on as white entrepreneurs?
-Acknowledge the black or brown person you pass in the hallway, in the elevator, on the street, as you enter the meeting room knowing that simple act is radical for them to experience in the white spaces they frequent at work?
-Pay attention to your initial assumptions about your black and brown colleagues and intentionally exercise empathy?
-Be the leader who calls out a white colleague who commits a micro (or macro!) aggression in the meeting, in the break room, on the phone, or whatever?
Today is the day! Will you seize the opportunity? I hope so, but I also can’t make you!