Monday's Opening Thought: March 1, 2021

This week’s opening thought: Today is the first day of Womxn’s History Month. Before many of y’all open up your Rolodex of the usual white homogenized suspects for womanhood, or decide you’re gonna be “woke” and make this Social Media Black History Month 2.0, I would like you to pump the brakes for a minute and do a few things for me.

Take the time this month to begin learning why I spelled “Womxn” the way that I did.

Take the time this month to begin learning about or expand your knowledge of intersectionality and critical race theory.

Take the time to do some deep dives into the history of “well-meaning” white womxn upholding white supremacy and cutting womxn of color out of the fight for equity and equality while taking ownership of their hard work.

And take the time to recognize how you’re not celebrating and supporting womxn if you’re not celebrating and supporting every womxn.

And don’t just take the time - make the time. Make sure this endeavor is given the energy and humility it deserves, not just for the next 31 days but in perpetuity.

Now is as good a time as any to begin the lifelong work of celebrating and elevating womxnhood. Make this effort more than just a month of social media posts.

Monday's Opening Thought: February 22, 2021

This week’s opening thought: If you’re reaching out to equity consultants and anti-racism advocates/speakers and you’re not offering them financial compensation you are aiding and abetting white supremacy in the guise of “doing better.”

Even if you “only want 15 minutes of their time” you not even considering offering them financial compensation for their emotional and mental labor is you openly using people of color for free labor. That is the opposite of “doing better.”

Take the time to find out a person of color’s rates. Don’t lowball them with subpar counters. Hell, don’t counter them at all. If their rates are “too high” for you, that’s not their problem. They deserve to not have to barter with you when you’re the one who contacted them for their services.

And before you ask no, an offer of coffee or lunch isn’t financial compensation. That’s a cheap offer that shows you’re not willing to offer your full attention. That’s also asking someone to try and ingest food and drink while having to be emotionally present and cater to you. How do you think that food is gonna settle in their body?

Pay people for their labor.

Monday's Opening Thought: February 8, 2021

This week’s opening thought, for HR folx, recruiters, and hiring managers: If you’re interviewing candidates for any position in any organization, at some point in your interview process your interview questions must ask the candidate to share their personal understanding of anti-racism. You also need to ask questions to get an understanding of their personal work around dismantling their connections to white supremacy, as well as their views on being a part of an equitable and inclusive workplace that is a safer and braver space for more than just white cishet staff. And if your white applicants or non-white applicants with privilege give answers to these questions that are toxic or show an unwillingness to unpack their white supremacy?

They do not deserve to move on to the next round of your recruitment, qualifications be damned.

There’s enough racist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, ableist white people and non-white people with privilege who harm others daily in our workplaces. We don’t need to hire any more. None of us do. We all need to normalize making being a hateful uncaring person an automatic exclusion from being in the running for a job. Qualified or not, skills do not trump hate, intolerance, and a lack of interest in being a better person. Recruit and hire like you actually want decent people to work for you.

Oh - and while I have your attention, take some time real soon to address the fact that those who can do something about it haven’t done anything about the racist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, ableist white people and non-white people with privilege who harm others daily in our workplaces. Get on that.

Monday's Opening Thought: February 1, 2021

Monday's opening thought, for Black folx only: It's Black History Month. Take each of this month's 28 days to be proud of who you are and where we're going. I know, this being Black in the United States thing ain't easy. It's often downright exhausting and it always has an element of danger to it. Blackness can sometimes feel like a pendulum. But I want y'all to look at the photos below. Yes, these are all pictures of struggle. But they are also pictures of pride, of a willingness to fight for freedom even when we're denied it. These are pictures of an unwillingness to let hate dim our internal lights.

No matter what, Black folx, we are a proud people. We will always fight for those that come after us and for those we walk alongside every day. We will fight even when we don't directly benefit because we know that equity and equality ain't the same thing. That is what being Black is. And that is something to be proud of every day, not just during the shortest month of the year.

Take the energy of our ancestors in this struggle and keep on pushing for better from your country, your neighbors, your workplaces. But make that push happen while you take care of yourself and your families and communities. Center your self-care, whatever that may be. Live for joy and hope and dreams. Make this Black History Month your new launchpad for taking care of yourself so you can take care of others. Our ancestors, our elders, would want that.

We all we got. Let's make sure we got each other and ourselves.

Monday's Opening Thought: January 25, 2021

This week’s opening thought: Education does not make you “less racist,” white people. You can read books, watch documentaries, and attend seminars and trainings around anti-racism and white supremacy, and still think that Black and Brown folx are “taking your jobs” and decreasing your neighborhood’s property value. You’ll still clutch your purse or your kid’s hands when I walk by.

You see, education only goes so far. You have to actually believe what you’re reading, watching, and attending. You have to believe it without trepidation, without caveats, without “Yeah, but...” popping into your brain and tumbling out of your mouth.

You cannot intellectualize hate. This is and will always be a dangerous practice. Intellectualizing how you grapple with hate and your connection to and perpetuation of white supremacy does nothing but reinforce hate and white supremacy. At some point you have to get beyond clinging to numbers and data and taking in information in a surface way and actually feel what you’re seeing and hearing. Until then, you will basically be just another white person who knows a whole lot of things about stuff but actually knows nothing that pushes you to actively help your neighborhoods, workplaces, family, and society be better.