Monday's Opening Thought: September 13, 2021

TW: nazi-ism, hate, oppression, genocide, Holocaust.

This week's opening thought: If at any time in the last decade you've said out loud or had the thought pop into your head that what you're dealing with or being asked to do for the public good as a white person with privilege and power or even a person of color with privilege and power is akin to "nazi Germany" you officially forfeit your opportunity to speak and share your thoughts.

No debate. No explanations can explain your callous and hateful views away. I know what you mean when you say these things. All of us know what you mean when you say these things.

There are literally maybe a couple of handfuls of moments in WORLD history and a handful in U.S. history that are even CLOSE to the machinations, genocide, and generational trauma that transpired in Germany under nazi rule. And if you are white you overwhelmingly were not heavily impacted and harmed by those moments. Not you, not your ancestors. To compare wearing a mask, getting a vaccination, or being asked to care for others and stay socially and physically distanced to the Holocaust, to nazi Germany, is a symbol of how much ignorance, hate, and reluctance to learn from history you have in your heart and soul.

You are not a victim. You are not in captivity, in an internment camp, watching your family and friends be harmed by oppressors.

You're just a cold, self-centered human being.

Own who you are and don't put your baggage and hatred on the shoulders of others.

Monday's Opening Thought: September 6, 2021

This week’s opening thought: you can have intersectional identities or struggle with the weights of intersectionality and still be an oppressor.

Let me say that again, just in case anyone thinks they read that wrong.

You can have intersectional identities or struggle with the weights of intersectionality and still be an oppressor.

You can be a gay white male and subscribe to classist ideologies while reaping the benefits of white supremacy and racism.

You can be a Black affluent lesbian and be openly anti-Asian.

You can be a straight Korean cis male and be openly anti-Black.

You can be a white woman who identifies as a feminist who does not practice intersectional feminism.

You can be a non-binary Indigenous person and be an ableist.

You can be a Black cis-hetero male and be loudly homophobic and transphobic.

You can be a Jewish man and be openly xenophobic.

You can be a Chinese trans woman with a disability and be anti-Semitic.

Just because you are facing oppression due to your identities being linked to one or more oppressive states does not mean that you can’t be an oppressor too and contribute to the oppressive states of others. Your personal oppressions do not exempt you from levying out oppression and hate.

Monday's Opening Thought: August 30, 2021

Monday’s opening thought, a pro tip for white people and people of color with power, privilege, and positionality in companies: Y’all do realize that you can hire global majority folx, Black and Brown folx, marginalized folx for positions in your companies that aren’t related to EDI work, right? Just making sure y’all knew that we have a myriad of skills and career aspirations that aren’t connected to “making your company less racist.” Take note that all of us aren’t looking to be or even want to be an “EDI expert.” You can hire us for any other job openings y’all might have. We do other things, you know. We OFFER other things. We should be more to your company than what you think you can “learn” through our pain and generational trauma.

Besides, y’all be out here looking for a Pegasus in a world full of horses. Y’all be out here looking for a mythical negro, person of color, queer-identifying person, or person with a disability who somehow has 10 years of experience in a field that didn’t really exist 10 years ago who’s doing palatable and watered-down “EDI work” that won’t offend white people that work for your company that is happily willing to accept 50K a year, if that, because that’s what your company thinks their labor is worth.

Quit looking for something that doesn’t exist.

If we’re talking about racism, white supremacy, and oppression white people and people of color with privilege and power in your company aren’t supposed to be comfortable. Accept that. And pay global majority folx and marginalized folx real equitable salaries for the mental, physical, and emotional energy we have to expend while doing this work with y’all. Better yet, pay us real equitable salaries even if it ain’t EDI work just for having to exist and try to thrive in white workplaces with little to no support.

Monday's Opening Thought: August 16, 2021

This week’s opening thought: I don’t know who needs to hear this but trust is earned. People having and maintaining their faith in you and your intentions is earned. Trust is not a given. Faith is not a given. And when you deliver a blow to that trust and faith? It’s your job to atone and do the hard work to repair and rebuild that eroded trust and faith. And it is not the job of those you’ve harmed by thinking you’re owed someone’s trust and faith in you to just magically trust you or have faith in you again with no atonement or repairs initiated on your part.

Whoever needed to hear that (even if they didn’t want to)? I hope you caught all of that.

Sounds like you’ve got some work to do.

Monday's Opening Thought: August 9, 2021

This week’s opening thought, specifically for white people but also for people of color with power and privilege in white workplaces: I don’t owe you a smile.

No person of color, no Black person, no Brown person, no Black woman or femme, no marginalized person owes you a smile every day at work.

I don’t smile all the time, many of us don’t smile all the time, because frankly, we have to sit at white work all day long with faux white liberals and toxic white folx doing and saying hateful things that we know we can’t call out without incurring penalties. We watch people of color who have a thimble-full of power perpetuate and participate in hate and white supremacy. So I, we, try to roll with it, grit through it as much as we possibly can. But often by mid-week, I’m tired of y’all. WE are tired of y’all. And we can’t stop our faces from showing our exhaustion with you. That’s the point in time where y’all say things to us like, “You should smile more,” or “I like you when you’re happy.” That’s also the point in time where we have to stop ourselves from snapping on y’all because once again we know we can’t call y’all out without incurring penalties.

Y’all are exhausting; draining. Your systems, your “we’re a family” work cultures, are exhausting and draining. I don’t smile at or about things that exhaust and drain my soul and stomp on my ability to seek joy and thrive in my work. Smiles aren’t a given. Whiteness is still on some chattel slavery sh— when it comes to people of color and work, pushing that smiling and nodding and agreeing with being oppressed are unspoken rules for working while Black and I am not here for it. And I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.

I don’t owe you a smile. WE don’t owe you a smile. But you damn sure owe us a way less toxic and hateful work experience. You also owe us way less white fragility and white violence, especially when y’all claim to be “allies” while upholding oppressive work cultures.

Time to pay what you owe.