This Week's Opening Thought: May 6, 2024

This week's opening thought: Every Black and Brown person I know, every person of culture I know, has a kazillion skills and proficiencies at their disposal. It comes with the territory of being melanated in a world of pallor. Many of us have random skills we've acquired because we had moments where we've worked jobs to survive or added something to our repertoire to keep the jobs we have. I've been working since the age of 13. I've worked in everything from retail to non-profits and colleges. I've worked with contractors and programmers. I've managed multiple storefronts and led numerous teams in leadership roles. I've trained people in every sector you can think of. I have a wide array of skills and experiences I can draw upon in almost any situation.

And that's why I only show about 10% of what I know 95% of the time, tailored to the job.

You see, white supremacy drives people of pallor to only be "impressed" by people like me if I somehow constantly provide proof that I'm qualified to be considered impressive. And after you do all of that showing and proving? White supremacy dictates that you're supposed to accept being used by people of pallor to cover the deficiencies and dysfunctions of workplaces and systems that you're not welcome in. The more skills you bring to the table, the more workplaces of pallor believe you should do.

Of course, this doesn't extend to the people of pallor working in these workplaces who are given leeway to be mediocre. They don't have to be exceptional. They just need to be likable, pliable, average, and meet the bare minimum work requirements to be considered a "team player."

Melanated folx never have that luxury.

I can count on both hands twice how many folx in leadership roles have tried to use me because they saw I had a skill that had nothing to do with my job but was lacking in their workplaces. And I can count again how many times I put up a boundary only to be punished and be told that I'm "not a team player."

The "workhorse/pack mule" ideology that is at the base of white supremacy still exists in the brains and bodies of people of pallor and the workplaces they've created. Workplaces of pallor make it known that melanin will always equal being expected to do way more than you signed up for and having every skill you have exploited as your co-workers of pallor get raises and promotions they didn't earn.

If you're a person of culture reading this, you're likely overqualified for your job. You've probably got years of real-world work experience and skills you've learned. Five problems are going on in your workplace that you have a solution for. But these workplaces don't deserve all of you. They haven't earned all of you. Don't let them walk you into a co-dependency trap driven by white supremacy. Keep your skills you don't get paid for to yourself.

Let one of those higher-paid mediocre co-workers you're surrounded by every day figure it out.

This Week's Opening Thought: April 29, 2024

This week's opening thought: If you live in the United States of America, you live in a country that is super-OK with genocide being levied out by those they've accepted as allies in pallor while being more than willing to take military action against student protestors who are speaking out against this genocide with nonviolence.

I just wanted to throw that out there in case you're living in the United States and want to continue looking the other way so you don't have to face the reality of what it really means to be “proud to be an American."

And for those "proud Americans" who want to consider themselves neutral in all of this? I hope you know that neutrality is passively siding with oppression.

How proud you must feel.

On Being Called the "Whisperer"

Hey, people of pallor with power and privilege and those who seek to curry the favor of white supremacists and "societal norms!" Here's your Wednesday reminder that a person being melanated and sharing their experiences navigating white supremacy in your workplace does not mean that person wants to be your "racism whisperer." The same goes for queer-identifying folx not wanting to be your "LGBTQIAA+ whisperer" and people with disabilities not wanting to be your "disability whisperer."

We didn't sign up for that.

We want to do our jobs well enough to be proud of our work and keep our jobs while dodging your ever-increasing scrutiny of our work due to your unwillingness to unpack your sh-- and then go home. If we share an experience we've had with you in the workplace, it was likely shared to educate you to the point that you will hopefully quit doing us and people like us ongoing harm.

You will never pay us enough to be a "whisperer" about anything in your white supremacist workplace environments. No money can ever supplant that sick feeling we often get in our guts when we have to be around you, listen to you say hateful and ignorant things, and mull over when is the right time to educate you instead of telling you where to go and how to get there. No money will ever aid our nervous systems in not feeling like the moment we put ourselves out there to gently call you in or teach you that our livelihoods are in danger. No money will ever make us feel OK with being tokenized by you, pushed to share our stories repeatedly with you, or make the number of boundaries we must have while in your workplace to exist and not be harmed by you feel any less burdensome.

Leave us be and digest what we shared with you. Own your actions instead of commodifying human beings.

This Week's Opening Thought: April 1, 2024

This week's opening thought for people of pallor: The levels of obliviousness, hatred, and ignorance you have to have in your unmelanated bodies to weaponize the acronym DEI and try to re-position it as "Didn't Earn It" when people of pallor have been getting by on being just people of pallor for centuries is hilarious.

Real talk? I've got my issues with DEI initiatives. I don't think they go far enough - but I understand why. I think DEI is a series of deep and necessary conversations and reflections on who we are as individuals and a collective that the dominant culture has neutered. I think DEI has been diluted by white supremacist ideology in many circles to cater to people of pallor who can't find it in them to acknowledge that history, generational trauma, and epigenetics play a part in the oppressive states we exist in to the point where we can do and be better as a society. I also think DEI should never be under Human Resources's banner in a workplace because that's where progress goes to die. But damn.

"Didn't Earn It?"

Really, people of pallor?

"Didn't Earn It?"

Most of y'all's "heroes" and "luminaries" are nepo and trust fund babies. Most of them have used people like you as stepping stones to achieving more wealth than any of our families will see in seven lifetimes.

"Didn't Earn It?"

Most of y'all have built careers and businesses on being unmelanated, generic, and mediocre with an inflated sense of ego and entitlement. Most of y'all think you're the most competent person in the room, even around topics you know nothing about. Meanwhile, Black and Brown folx, Indigenous folx, and melanated communities, in general, have spent decades of their lives grappling with possibly being the smartest person in a room full of fragile people of pallor but having to be quiet so you aren't singled out and harmed. So many communities of color have had to code-switch or assimilate to survive and keep a roof over their heads.

"Didn't Earn It?"

I've watched as people of pallor come into workplaces, contribute less than a minimum effort, barely come to work, do long-term irreparable harm to everyone around them unless they bow to their will, and get praise for being a good hand and countless promotions and raises. Meanwhile, I've watched as Black and Brown folx, Indigenous folx, and people of color get written up for calling out isms and phobias in meetings, standing up for themselves, or publicly chided for the one time we're 10 minutes late.

"Didn't Earn It?"

Some of y'all are aiming your self-loathing and feelings of inadequacy in the wrong direction.

P.S.: The unmitigated gall it takes to weaponize an acronym for life work dedicated to making our world a more equitable and inclusive place for everyone as a racial slur, then to use it to do further harm to the people and families impacted by the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse and the Black mayor of Baltimore shows how vile and fragile some of y'all are.

This Week's Opening Thought: March 25, 2024

This week’s opening thought, for Black folx: So I wake up this weekend and see the news that some Black folx are defending Candace Owens after the hatemongers she spent so much time cozying up to dropped her ass to the point where now she’s trying to curry favor with Black communities via homophobic, transphobic social media posts and a grift on Go Fund Me. And all this after the hatemongers of pallor dropped her because even THEY thought she was too hateful and anti-Semitic to kick it with anymore.

After all the anti-Black sh— Candace has said and done, some of y'all are out here right now like, “She has some valid points.”

No.

No, she does not.

Candace ain't here for y'all. She’s using you for her grift because the people of pallor she so desperately wants to serve have discarded her, so she’s trying to tap into the stereotypes of the Black communities she has dragged for a decade and playing on the anti-Blackness many of y'all dabble in around homophobia and transphobia.

Candace is still the same bag of crap she has always been. Candace ain’t spitting knowledge. She just decided to tap into the “Ain’t all skinfolk kinfolk” Venn diagram to try and save herself from the obscurity she deserves. And some of y’all are so anti-Black that y’all think she’s spittin’ fire because said fire makes you feel seen.

You really wanna be seen by Candace Owens?

Your anti-Blackness is showing.