Someone said to me when I was in my 1st year of HR that I was "going to be trouble" in response to my wondering why we weren't trying to hire anything other than White cis men. The "someone" in question was the White cis female head of HR at the tech startup I was working for.

The head of HR let it be known that she openly viewed me as troublesome because I wanted to address hiring biases and inequity. And she said this to me with a smug smile and disdain in her voice for me even thinking I had the right to question things.

Funny thing is she was right about me.

I am "trouble".

I'm the kind of "trouble" that makes White people with power who like to let me know they "don't see color", "have a Black friend" and "saw The Green Book this past weekend" deal with who they are and what they think.

So here I am five years into my career and I am still, and will always be, "trouble". And the real trouble is not me but anyone with power and privilege who would view me as trouble because I want to make companies better and legitimately equitable and inclusive places to work.

FYI: that tech company went under. And their head of HR doesn't even work in HR anymore.

So I am proudly always going to "be trouble" because one thing I know from experience is that trouble can prompt change.