This Week's Opening Thought: February 23, 2026

This week’s opening thought: I find it very interesting that after what appears to be three instances of a particular Black-centric racial slur being shouted out by Tourette’s Syndrome activist John Davidson at this past weekend’s BAFTA Awards (when Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo stepped onstage to present an award, while Oscar-winning production designer Hannah Beachler was on her way to dinner after the show, and a third was aimed at another Black woman minding her Black business) that suddenly so many people of pallor are experts on Tourette Syndrome.

I’m not an expert on Tourette’s, but I do understand it. I understood it before these incidents happened this past weekend. Unlike the many “concerned citizens” out there who suddenly have an opinion on Tourette’s because Black folx are collectively side-eyeing John Davidson, I didn’t need to become a Google Scholar to understand how it manifests and the struggles that folx who have Tourette’s endure. Still, I know enough about the condition as well as white supremacy to understand that a word like the one John shouted out multiple times to multiple Black people has to be a regular part of your vocabulary to use it so effortlessly three times in one night, so clearly and pointedly during a tic.

Let’s not belittle those with Tourette’s like that.

Let’s not bolster stereotypes of people with Tourette’s as a cover for a person of pallor’s likely ingrained racist beliefs.

Tourette’s targets the neurological filters that restrain language, the same filters that allow people to make concerted decisions about how they word and say things. But Tourette’s is still governed by a person’s vocabulary: words they use casually, thoughts and ideas they routinely chat about with others, beliefs they have about people, race, gender, culture, you name it. Tourette’s affects inhibition, not whether or not saying racist things is something you have no issue with saying.

I’ve known people who have Tourette’s. I’ve known people of pallor who have Tourette’s. Some of them likely had Coprolalia as well. And none of them ever said to me or around me what John said to Michael B., Delroy, Hannah, or the other Black woman he verbally assaulted this past weekend.

John may or may not be racist. That ain’t for me to judge, regardless of how it feels in my brain and body. But let’s not use his disability status as a pass for absolution. He should still be held accountable, and BAFTA should’ve done better. As for the sudden experts? Don’t be hoppin’ online, trying to check Black folx for calling out what we see or act like we don’t understand Tourette’s Syndrome or other nervous system disorders. The majority of us speak truth to power based on facts.

And don’t expect Black folx to stop side-eyeing you if you want to keep throwing another racist apologist log on the fire.

This Week's Opening Thought: February 17, 2026

This week’s opening thought: I’ve spent this month trying to protect my peace, embrace rest, and take care of myself. That has primarily meant keeping my thoughts to myself, processing my feelings, and moving them out of my body. It’s gone fairly well, but honestly?

Being Black, legitimately trauma-informed, actively anti-racist, and actively anti-oppressive while working in HR is not helpful in my pursuit to prioritize all of the aforementioned things for myself.

Truth be told, the years I’ve spent developing and continually learning about my body, my brain, my emotions, my personal, professional, and generational traumas, and the weight of the world around me have lessened how much I end up carrying in my brain and body. But there are days where I watch Black and Brown folx, Black women, people of color, folx with disabilities, and folx from LGBTQIAA+ communities get mistreated or ignored and then get equally ignored, disregarded, or told I’m being “unprofessional” when I amplify their voices and stand with them in real time that literally make me want to punch the air like Tre in Boyz n’ the Hood. And some days it hits like a brick when I’m attacked or mistreated, and no one who witnesses my harm is willing to stand with me in solidarity.

Today has been one of those days.

Real talk? HR, when you’re not doing it “by the book” and upholding white supremacist workplace culture, is a lonely profession.

It’s doubly so when you’re doing it as an empathic, empathetic queer Black person.

If you’re marginalized, invisible, and/or melanated, and living authentically in a world where you don’t fit? I want you to know that I see you. I know there are many days when it’s hard, when this world seemingly finds glee in doing you harm. Please know you’re not alone. Please take care of yourself. Please do not prioritize these workplaces or anyone who claims to love and care about you over your health and well-being. You deserve to be able to be openly, verbally, and physically you. Don’t let them dim your light.

WHEW. Just needed to get that out of my system.

Back to mindin’ my Black business and resting as the ancestors would want me to rest.

Take care of yourselves and each other.

This Week's Opening Thought: December 16, 2024

This week's opening thought for HR "professionals": Real talk? When done as intended, human resources is henchmen's work—goon sh-- if you will.

This goonery was the original purpose of HR as a field, and it continues to be the way HR is taught and operationalized. The language has changed in some areas, but the mission is the same: defend companies at the behest of the people's rights and needs. If you consider yourself an HR "professional," at some point in your career, you have to be willing to recognize and digest what the industry and field represent.

Then, you must recognize and digest that this doesn't mean you have to conform to the “industry standard.”

You can evolve, you know. You can do better, be better, than your predecessors.

Just because something has “always been done a certain way” doesn’t mean it is the “right way” or isn’t doing generational harm.

You don't HAVE to be a henchperson or perpetuate goon sh--.

You don't have to choose to be a passive, active participant in the oppression and harm of others in the workplace. No one's forcing you to be a goon.

You're making an active choice to be this way.

You're making an active choice to uphold everything people loathe about HR, so you shouldn't be surprised when you're disliked and not trusted by those you claim to serve.

Just a lil' something to keep in the back of your head next time you're having one of those HR "professional" commiseration sessions about how people don't like HR.

This Week's Opening Thought: August 26, 2024

This week's opening thought: I've worked in various industries and professions. This kind of experience comes with being in the workforce since age 13. But in my almost 30 years of work experience, human resources is the only profession I've ever worked in that seems to constantly be trying to rebrand itself. It's at the point of being ridiculous.

People and Culture. People Operations. Organizational Culture and Belonging. Human Support.

Who wants to tell them?

Yeah...it's still HR, y'all. People still know it's HR. New name, same actions.

Suppose your industry and profession must constantly rebrand because of people's longstanding issues with how your profession handles things in the workplace. Wouldn't addressing their problems and reimagining how people view your industry make sense? Wouldn't rebuilding, not rebranding, be the human approach?

However, that would encompass a level of accountability we have yet to see steadily reflected and implemented in human resources as a field and industry.

Y'all ready for that, HR Folx?

Why are y'all so quiet?

Damnit.

So...that's a no, isn't it?

SIGH.

People and Culture it is!

On HR, Calls for Accountability, and the "If You Don't Like It, Then Leave" Mentality

I talk about the field of Human Resources a lot. Most people would say that I'm draggin' HR as a profession. Because of that, over the years, many HR "professionals" have sent me private messages telling me to leave the field if I can't respect the hard work that HR "professionals" have on their plates. Some have even gone as far as to tell me to leave the field publicly on my platforms. And let me say that the diehard HR "professionals" who get so up in arms about how I talk about Human Resources and aim to check me always give me a nice hearty chuckle.

An absolute side-splitter.

Y'all are hilarious. You mean to tell me you look at the field of Human Resources and its practices and transactional mindsets and approaches masquerading as empathy, and you're OK with it? You don't think there's anything to call out? You don't see things that "seasoned" HR "professionals" are doing that continue to harm people in workplaces that need to be addressed? Don't you see anything happening in the workforce that HR negatively contributes to, which gives you pause? Don't you see the decades-long patterns of behavior that have created the deep distrust that folx have of Human Resources at play?

What are you, that dog sitting in the flaming cafe or something?

But somehow, my calling these things out, proposing solutions, and holding HR folx accountable makes me the person who needs to leave HR.

If you're in a field that you can't hold a mirror to, criticize, and call to task, then you need to find a new line of work.

And if you can't be called to task to do better and to evolve yourself and the field you're in, then you need to wake up and realize that I'm not the problem and thou doth protest too much.

HR as a field, industry, and profession are not fine. You're just too comfortable with everything around you being on fire while being the right hand of the king.