Oh, Hey, It’s Black History Month….Every year about a week before Black History Month starts people begin to reach out to me. They would like for me to participate in conversations, in some cases work on projects and facilitating or supporting diversity and equity related conversations. Here’s what I need for people to consider.
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- Reaching out to me a week before the month arrives communicates to me that this isn’t a priority. I plan my content out pretty far ahead
- I’m Black but I am not a diversity and equity facilitator. They’re expensive (rightfully so) and have a specific set of skills that they should be paid for to facilitate the kinds of conversations that we’re trying to have-especially in professional settings.
- At the end of the day, I care about the following:
- Do you support policy that empowers
- Americans
- Keeps US citizens from falling into poverty
- Are you having ongoing and transparent conversations about hiring, negotiating tactics and who are allies?
- Are you connecting people with opportunities that will help them grow their professional lives and their wallets.
- Are you open to having uncomfortable conversations when they come up? And listen without judgement
- Do you support policy that empowers
I’m going to share something about me that may surprise you. When I was in high school I helped found the school’s first ever Black Student’s Union. I also competed in a Black history trivial bowl with a few of my friends and we won it. In fact, we won scholarship money to use towards some of our college expenses. Yes, I even wore those Africa medallions on occassion-GenX life am I right? So, when I say that I’ve never completely loved Black History Month this may surprise you. But, at that point in my life I didn’t have the life experience to articulate what I could now. I was grappling with the idea of performative allyship vs. authentic allyship. It was wonderful to spend a solid month truly shining a light and showing the contributions that African-Americans have made both in the United States and beyond. But, I always felt annoyed that February was a short a$$ month. That African-Americans made contributions to the US all year long, that I felt like we were being told to be happy with this performative process. In 2020, I felt like we FINALLY had some substantive and solid conversations about what we wanted. We wanted more. Why in the hell wouldn’t we? In this episode I’m going to talk about how we need to extend Black History Month to Black History Year and how to do it.
Listen to the Show
Show Notes
- In the past week we’ve watched Reddit’s SubReddit “WallStreetBets” beat Hedge Funds and rich people at their own game. It has been a fascinating drama to watch and every time I read a Twitter thread, Facebook post, or watch a Instagram or TikTok story about the situation I love how these group of people banded together and blew the door off the system.
- Now, before I continue to the show please note I’m referencing African-Americans/Black People but that you should also note that comments also imply that other POC and Women are included in many of my observations about access.
- I need everyone to be clear about the following:
- Respectfully I don’t care about having Lift Every Voice and Sing at events Representative Clyburn by people who don’t understand the song and could care less.
- While it’s an interesting development to have Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill I’m neutral on this development. Faces on money change on currency and it’s surprising that it has taken so long to change the faces on our currency. Be prepared to see more changes moving forward.
- I’m paying attention to what people say that they’re going to do and I’m going to call them out when they don’t do what they say. For example: When I said that Ice Cube made a mistake when he worked with the previous president who made lots of empty promises. I am also remembering what President Biden promised on the campaign trail. I took notes.
What I Want
- I want money. I want substantive policy. I want paid leave for both singles and families. I want a government that functions on a human level.
- Americans will always love Capitalism. All of the crazy Socialism talk tells me that people aren’t aware of how their favorite countries are run in humane ways and people still make money. What’s interesting is that Americans have accidentally discovered that they have a new love: Time flexibility. They may not want to work full-time from home because they have kids. But, having more flexibility in their life is a genie that has been let out of the bottle.
- I want subsidized childcare. COVID has decimated women’s ability to pursue their professions and make money. I don’t even have kids and understand that this makes sense.
- I want America to have a minimum paid vacation duration instead of the implied 2 weeks.
- Affordable education-why is it so expensive? The model was just disrupted during COVID-we shouldn’t accept how expensive it has become.
365 Days of Conversations
- The things that I want require 365 Days of conversation and focus. For me Black History is a continuous history. Just like everyone else’s. It’s how we treat Black people on a daily basis. And, the same should for all of the other months we celebrate.
- Black history is the past, present, and future. It is a constantly lived experience.
- Having one month designated to having the tough conversations does everyone a disservice.
Some Questions
- Where’s my Stimi? And, this one time check is bullsh$t. Why are we Hunger Gaming our way through this? Is it any surprise that the WallStreetBets Reddit rose up?
- Countries doing monthly checks or variations of significant financial support through unemployment systems, etc.
- The Netherlands
- Germany-Freelancers, in particular, have been served well
- Canada
- Denmark
- The United Kingdom
- France
- Countries doing monthly checks or variations of significant financial support through unemployment systems, etc.
- Student loan relief-It’s my view that Congress will end up forgiving around $15,000-$20,000 in student loan debt by the end of spring. $50,000 is too much and $10,000 is not enough.
- And I also have to ask myself the SAME TYPE OF QUESTIONS
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