Monday's Opening Thought: April 12, 2021

This week’s opening thought: I don’t think I’ve ever had a manager or supervisor in my entire working career - not just my HR career but my entire work history - that hasn’t at some point told me that they feel “threatened” by me or that I am “trouble.”

I usually begin hearing these comments and statements as I begin voicing my opinion, pushing for operational and organizational changes, pointing out white supremacy and oppression, and letting it be known that I will not be a scapegoat or accomplice in the harming of others.

So...basically around the two-month mark.

I kid...?

I know that being who I am, bringing as much of my whole self to my work as possible, is a dangerous proposition every day I go to work. As an outspoken Black person, I know that I have no job security in this world. I know that by not going with the status quo of white supremacist workplace culture that I am always a few steps away from being unemployed. I know that I have to go out of my way to avoid situations and interactions that will place me in the villain role with white employees. I know that I need to have almost everything in writing and take notes in most situations to try to protect myself.

This is my existence in the workplace. This is how I survive Monday through Friday, from 8:00a to 5:00p. And I know I’m not alone. I see Black women and femmes grappling with everything I described multiplied by 100. I see Brown folx, Indigenous folx, and people of color having similar struggles. And I can’t help but wonder:

How many white folx spend 40+ hours of their week hoping they did enough of the aforementioned to still have a job on Monday while being true to themselves and not feeling judged or vilified while doing so?

I know the answer. Doesn’t stop me from wondering though.

Monday's Opening Thought: April 5, 2021

This week’s opening thought: We can’t lead and facilitate any conversations or facilitation around dismantling anti-racism, anti-Blackness, anti-Asian hate, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, ableism, or fat-shaming/body-shaming without being in a constant state of learning, growth, and reflection ourselves. If you are out here leading equity work or conversations and you don’t think you have any more deep learning and evolving to do around your connections to and perpetuation of white supremacy, hate, and oppression?

You’re more of a danger to the people you claim to be supporting than you likely realize or are comfortable with hearing.

Monday's Opening Thought: March 29, 2021

TW: Anti-Blackness. Hate crime. Police Brutality.

Monday’s opening thought: So... I’m not watching the trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer who murdered George Floyd. It's honestly something I don't need in my life.

I do not need reminders of Black mortality in the face of white supremacy.

I do not need to sit and watch as the legal system tries to convince a jury that George Floyd, regardless of anything he did in his past, somehow deserved to be murdered by a police officer kneeling on his neck for over eight minutes, driving his throat and head into the concrete.

I do not need to watch every news network play the complete footage of George Floyd's life being taken. I do not need to see "melanated people pain porn for white consumption" and relive the horror of a Black body being harmed for the whole world to watch while non-Black folx with privilege and white folx offer their "unbiased" [read: racist] opinion across every social media platform on whether Derek Chauvin should pay for his hate crime.

I do not need to watch a trial to know that Derek Chauvin will likely get a slap on the wrist and possibly not even serve any real time in prison for his actions, if at all.

What I do need is to take care of myself, because I already know deep in my soul that this trial will more than likely not end with justice for George Floyd and his family.

I do not need to hear "not guilty." Believe me when I say It is honestly something I do not need in my life.

But I'm getting myself ready to hear it...and to mourn a Black life lost all over again.

If you are Black and decide that you want or need to watch this trial, please take care of yourselves. Take care of yourselves despite the white supremacy all around us and the white supremacist workplace cultures we work in. Prepare for the possibility that you'll be in some form of mourning. Do those things however you like to do them in your own way but please do them.

I don’t want to see y’all lose your lives, mentally or physically.

Your trauma matters. Your life matters. Even if our society is about to likely show us again that we should think and feel otherwise.

Let's Talk About Monday's Opening Thought: March 22, 2021

So...my opening thought of the week that I posted yesterday around Black folx not spouting anti-Asian sentiments and perpetuating white supremacy got me a few messages from Black folx on multiple social media platforms. And, well, some of y'all wasn't all that pleased with me. Some of y'all felt that your experience with AAPI communities aiming racist rhetoric and actions toward Black U.S. Americans negated standing with them. Some of y'all felt that white supremacy will only be addressed when some AAPI communities stop perpetuating white supremacist class dynamics in their hate toward other races. I wanted to address all of that because real talk?

Now is not the time for that debate.

I’ve had that debate in times when hate crimes weren’t on the rise, and I will go back to discussing the intersections of class and race and social pecking orders...but now just ain't the time.

Racism and white supremacy between the Black community and AAPI communities is legit and something that needs to be addressed. It's a topic I have addressed in the past. I've been on the receiving end of anti-Blackness from AAPI communities. I have spent time learning about and understanding how AAPI communities have been weaponized by whiteness against not only Black and Brown communities but against one another. But I’m not going to go on the offensive toward any communities that have lost their friends and family mere days after a hate-based mass shooting. I'm not going to kick people while they are struggling to feel heard in the face of a wave of white nationalist hate. Now just ain’t the time. This ain't about me. And it damn sure ain't about y'all, Black folx who slid into my DMs. Not right now, at least.

I feel like we can and should stand with people while they’re hurting and healing. We can resume the debates we need to resume later and resume them from a realm of building mutual support and understanding. We definitely have work to do. But I’m not willing to center myself in someone else’s pain, even if I have faced racist words and actions from them in the past. Now is the time for solidarity. I'll get back to the unpacking later.

#stopasianhate

____________________________________________

Soon Chung Park, age 74

Hyun Jung Grant, age 51

Suncha Kim, age 69

Yong Yue, age 63

Delaina Ashley Yaun, age 33

Paul Andre Michels, age 54

Xiaojie Tan, age 49

Daoyou Feng, age 44

These are the names of the people whose lives were taken by white supremacy in Atlanta, Georgia, in a terrorist-level anti-Asian hate crime. Say their names. Do not let their deaths, and the hate that led to their deaths, be another footnote in the history of U.S. white supremacy. Make your self-work, your own dismantling of your connections to and perpetuation of white supremacy, be not about you but about the many melanated lives taken at the hands of white violence. 

Monday's Opening Thought: March 22, 2021

This week’s opening thought, for my Black folx: I’ve seen some anti-Asian sentiments and a lack of support for the AAPI community from a contingent of Black folx I wish were smaller in size. There’s been a lot of “Where were y’all while police were killing us? Why should we stand with you now?” Let me just say to the Black folx who are saying these things and taking this anti-Asian stance:

1) You’re being racist and perpetuating white supremacy. That’s not a good look. Don’t feed into the white supremacy and white violence of the “culture” we live and work in. Racism is a machine that intersects with class and hierarchy. You’re playing into the whims of that machine.

2)You’re engaging in oppression Olympics and making this an “us vs. them” situation. It’s not “us vs. them”. It’s “us vs. white supremacy.” White supremacy has been harming and killing Black and AAPI U.S. Americans for well over a century. Yes, anti-Blackness is one of this country’s original sins. But please continue your learning and understand the history of internment as well as the concept of the “model minority” and stop making declarations over who is the most mistreated and oppressed. No one wins at the oppression Olympics.

Let’s not be cogs in the hate machine, Black folx. We’ve got to be better than that.