Connecting Awesome People Podcast Appearance!

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Image Description: An encircled picture of HR consultant Pharoah Bolding can be seen on a striped background. The words “Featured in today’s episode” are above the encircled picture in green and white. To the upper-right of the encircled picture in a blue and white circle. In the circle is a white silhouette of a microphone. Under the microphone is Pharoah’s name in green and white letters.

Hey, y'all! I'm on this week's episode of Cinder's Connecting Awesome People podcast! We get real and candid about the trauma of being Black, melanated, and intersectional in the workplace. We also talk about HR and DEI. And, if you know me or follow my work, you already know this wasn't some "baby gloves" conversation.

You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/57osaWxRCNIFHEWGegukLX?si=JOonioSyQKGNSWzuJVC38A

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/connecting-awesome-people/id1728583997

[Image Description: An encircled picture of HR consultant Pharoah Bolding can be seen on a striped background. The words “Featured in today’s episode” are above the encircled picture in green and white. To the upper-right of the encircled picture in a blue and white circle. In the circle is a white silhouette of a microphone. Under the microphone is Pharoah’s name in green and white letters.]

On Tamir's 21st Birthday

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Image description: a picture of a 12-year-old Tamir Rice. He is smiling at the camera while throwing up a peace sign. The sun from a nearby window gives his soft brown skin a glow.

TW: discussion around police-involved shootings, murder, anti-Blackness, and racism.

Tamir Rice should be 21 years old today.

Tamir should be celebrating with friends and family, with a long weekend to do so.

But Tamir is not here today.

Tamir is not here today because, at the age of 12, he was murdered by a police officer who had been deemed emotionally unstable and unfit for duty by Independence, Ohio’s police department but lied about this to get a job with the Cleveland Police Department.

Tamir is not here today because he was murdered by a Cleveland police officer who never received a background check when he applied for the Cleveland Police Force.

Tamir’s family received no justice for his murder because a jury believed the officer who murdered Tamir was justified in his actions. After all, Tamir had an airsoft pistol that looked real, and there was no way the officer could know the difference.

Meanwhile, white mass shooters on murder sprees get lengthy negotiations, gentle trips to the police station and Burger King, and so much benefit of the doubt and so many excuses for their actions that it’s blatantly apparent whose lives don't matter.

Tamir should be celebrating the benchmark of adulthood.

But Tamir isn't with us today.

[Image description: a picture of a 12-year-old Tamir Rice. He is smiling at the camera while throwing up a peace sign. The sun from a nearby window gives his soft brown skin a glow.]

On Bus Stops, Kylie Minogue, and Distance

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As I was transferring buses on my commute to work this morning, I walked up to the stop for my second bus, where a white woman was waiting for the next leg of her trip. As I came to a stop, I sat on a bus bench about six to eight feet from where she was standing. As soon as I sat down, she immediately moved out of the space and stood on the other side of the LED sign showing the bus arrival times.

She put 10 feet and a wall between us.

And all I did was sit down at a bus stop while waiting for my bus.

Maybe she moved because I smiled at her as I approached the stop, which I unconsciously do all the time. After all, I’m friendly, but I know how people view big Black men in overwhelmingly white cities like Portland, so I try to exude an aura of "not dangerous" to minimize the unspoken fear factor I evidently add to the pot of by existing.

Maybe she moved because of my pink headphones and Singin’ in the Rain t-shirt.

Maybe she moved because my laptop bag, adorned with patches of Alfred Hitchcock, Mario, Luigi, Spider-Man, Chibi nigiri, and musubi, offended her.

Or maybe she moved because she’s racist and full of stereotypes and anti-Black rhetoric to the point where she felt the big Black guy boppin’ to Kylie Minogue posed a clear and present danger to her safety.

All I did was sit at a bus stop while waiting for my bus.

These moments happen to me all the time. I know that one misconstrued smile or glance, or a moment that I’m seen as an invader of some white person’s space, could be the difference between me getting to work on time and never going to work again. And I know that all I can do in these moments is hope that a higher power has my back because even when a Black man does the right things to protect himself, he’s still a potential bullet shelter or convict.

And all I did was sit down at a bus stop while waiting for my bus.

I got to work on time. So, there’s that.

Meanwhile

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TW: Murder, racism, gun violence, white supremacy, anti-Blackness.

The white woman in this picture is Susan Lorincz. 4 days ago in Florida, Susan used a high-caliber firearm to murder Ajike Owens, a Black woman and mother of four. Why? Susan got into an argument with Owens' children over a tablet, which somehow escalated to Susan throwing a pair of skates at the children and hitting them. These actions were, of course, accompanied by a litany of racial slurs. One of Ajike's children went into the house and told their mother what happened. Ajike went to Susan's place and knocked on the door to confront her about the situation. How did Susan respond?

Susan shot Ajike through her front door, leaving her lying on the front lawn.

Ajike was pronounced dead at the hospital.

It took Florida's Marion County Sheriff's Department four days to book and charge Susan. You read that right. FOUR. DAYS. And let's be honest with one another: Susan was arrested because the Marion County Sheriff's Department couldn't ignore the public outrage from the Black community and their allies in Florida. But Susan isn't facing a trial for murder or a hate crime. Oh, no. Susan is being charged with manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery, and two counts of assault. Yep. That’s it.

SIGH.

We're not going to play the "What if a Black person did what Susan did?" game because that game is tiring, and we all know what the answer would be. And we're not going to play the "What if a Black woman did what Susan did?" game because we all know how Black women are viewed by the toxic white supremacist patriarchal anti-Blackness that permeates the roots of the gnarled tree that is the United States of America. Why aren’t we playing those games, you ask? Well, for starters, it's a tasteless endeavor that diminishes the lives of those lost, making them examples for a lesson that most white people don't want to have taught them for various reasons. And let's be honest: unless you're a white person living under a quarry of rocks for the past century, you should know how this goes by now.

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Some Thoughts on Voting on Election Day 2022

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Image description: A screenshot of a measure from the 2022 Oregon midterm election. The measure centers around the Oregon State Constitution stating that slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited - unless it’s considered punishment for a crime.

Here’s an example of why voting matters. The picture accompanying these words is a ballot measure rundown for the Oregon 2022 midterms. The highlighted measure in question is a measure called Measure 112. Measure 112 addresses a state constitutional matter. You see, the Oregon State Constitution was amended some years ago to remove most of the white supremacist racist language that was its foundation. Not all. Most. Most of the language was addressed via amendments. However, those amendments created loopholes in state constitutional law. And what is the loophole that Measure 112 addresses? Slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited - unless it’s considered punishment for a crime.

You read that right.

I should’ve been surprised when I saw this on the ballot, but I wasn’t. Over the years, I’ve seen some of the horrific things removed from the Oregon State Constitution, leftovers from Oregon’s founding as a white utopia. What sits with me whenever I see these things is that we have to put removing racist laws from a state constitution to a freaking vote. This should be a given: abolish hateful laws without asking the public for their opinion. Yet we all know we couldn’t be further from a consensus on hate and history as a country if we tried. And you know some people will vote “no” on removing this hateful loophole. If enough people don’t vote “yes” to have this removed, how long do you think it’ll take before some cruel creature of a person or law enforcement in some small Oregon town weaponizes this loophole?

Why do we vote? We vote because we are nowhere near a point in U.S. history where our laws and human rights are intended to apply to all citizens.

[Image description: A screenshot of a measure from the 2022 Oregon midterm election. The measure centers around the Oregon State Constitution stating that slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited - unless it’s considered punishment for a crime.]