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.

This Week's Opening Thought: March 4, 2024

This week's opening thought: What a quiet “corporate” Black History Month! I swear it was 30% less messaging and branding than usual. Where were all the virtue signals, photo ops, overdone ad campaigns, and licensed apparel, with 10% of the proceeds going to a notable Black charity?

Oh, that’s right! Silly me! All the DEI departments no longer exist or are ignored and running on fumes, Pharoah!

I guess they realized they didn't have to front if they decided to openly and publicly embrace that they never cared about diversity, equity, inclusion, and Black lives in the first place.

I guess there’s no Nike shirt with a kente cloth swoosh in my future.

Woe is me.

This Week's Opening Thought: February 26, 2024

This week's (late) opening thought: I wish I could tell you that the world we live in is inherently kind, loving, and affirming, but it's not. We live in a world where countless genocides are happening. We live in a world where trans bathroom bills are killing our Indigenous youth. We live in a world that is constantly seeking out new ways to harm, silence, and dehumanize those with melanin in their skin. If you even have a modicum of empathy and humanity in your soul, I'm sure your body and brain are heavy right now.

I get it because I feel it, too.

It currently feels like a massive undertaking to live, love, and hope. To hope for a better today. To believe in a better tomorrow.

So, I wish I could tell you that our world is inherently kind, loving, and affirming, but it's not.

But that doesn't mean we can't continue striving for it to be so.

There's still love and joy in the world. There's still kindness and humanity. There's still wonder and beauty. It's still there even if it feels like we've got to dig for it, like loose change between seat cushions. No matter what, no matter how daunting it all feels, we must keep diggin' between those seat cushions. We owe it to ourselves, future generations, and our ancestors to embrace love, joy, and hope. We can't be energized and ready to continue fighting without allowing our brains and bodies to live, love, breathe, and hope. So, keep diggin' between those couch cushions and hit the corner store with that loose change.

You deserve some Cheetos and a quarter water before hoppin' back into the fray.

We all do.

On Write-Ups, "Performance Improvement Plans," "Managers," and "Leaders"

Write-ups and "performance improvement plans" exist because most "managers" don't know how to have adult, human, centered conversations with their team members to address issues in real-time and view being vulnerable and connected to their team members and colleagues as weaknesses.

Most write-ups and "performance improvement plans" address things that should've been, and still could be, addressed in a one-on-one, actively engaged conversation and regularly scheduled 1:1s.

If most "managers" and "leaders" used write-ups and "performance improvement plans" as human-centered support tools after exhausting all means of straightforward communication instead of weapons to force compliance, we'd be having different conversations about work.

If most "managers" and "leaders" used write-ups and "performance improvement plans" as a means to remove toxic, oppressive, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, ableist people from the workplace, we'd be having VERY different conversations about work.

Don't @ me. Tell me when I'm tellin' lies.