I Went to Lake Oswego. I'm Not Gonna Go Back to Lake Oswego.

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So folx who follow my work and exploits via this website or social media know that I spent the bulk of the afternoon of Saturday, June 22, 2019, in Lake Oswego, Oregon, at the 2019 Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts. I was invited by Andréa Gilroy and Katie Pryde, the awesome exhibit and content curators of this year’s event, to take part in a panel with five other comic creators and geek culture curators of color to discuss how our personal experiences and views align with the comic work that we create. The folx I sat in community with on that panel - Ben Passmore, Clara Emiliana, Nichole Robinson, Brian Parker, and Sean Wynn - are all incredible folx doing impactful work that I have considered friends and associates for some time now (make that a new friend and associate in Ben Passmore). In my humble opinion the panel itself was phenomenal (you can watch it in its entirety here); we all shared the space we were given with no hang-ups and had a robust discussion that touched on a myriad of topics while pulling no punches. I would like to thank Andréa and Katie for having me as a panelist, for putting together this panel, and allowing us the space to roll with it as we wanted. But I walked away from my afternoon in Lake Oswego with one firm understanding:

I ain’t never going back to Lake Oswego ever again.

You couldn’t pay me to go back to Lake Oswego.

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It's often intriguing to me that in my personal and professional lives I have talked about and shared information like this and graphics like this way more than I feel I should have to. The normalization and casual integration of racism, White supremacy, and White privilege affect me personally as a person of color but also professionally as an HR professional who works very hard to make sure hiring practices, management practices, and work cultures are devoid of this pyramid and its building blocks. You cannot imagine how many interactions with directors and hiring managers are rife with indifference and minimization or how integrated veiled racism is in the work culture and fabric of higher ed. It's daunting...but I've never been one to lay down. I'll keep sharing this info and educating and checking people and their supremacy personally and professionally because without challenge there is no change.