Dear company with or without *robust* diversity & inclusion initiatives,
I am a black woman, an ally of members of marginalized groups, and a well-being and D&I practitioner. I recently relayed on LinkedIn one of my recent *microaggression* experiences and shared an in-the-moment communication about the experience in a good faith effort to provide insight and awareness on the cumulative impact of *microaggressions* on people of color.
Since that time, there has been a tremendous outpouring of public support for which I remain grateful.
Two additional and very important things I wish to share —
- As a consequence for *daring* to speak about my experience, I have been accused publicly on this *professional* platform of being racist and sexist, of playing the race card, having a victim mentality, being full of hate, having a chip on my shoulder, etc. Additionally, my experience has been discounted and dismissed — one characterization going as far as to call *microaggressions* baloney, despite the sheer volume of corroborating evidence.
- What has not been public are the many direct messages to my inbox from those that work at your company who explicitly say that they can not speak up about *microaggressions* that occur at work for fear of retaliatory attack or repercussion to their careers. And of course, the aforementioned reactions to my post reinforce that this fear is not an unfounded one nor does it not have precedent.
I hope this saddens you as much as it saddens me. I hope it spurs you into action to re-evaluate the inclusive culture you’re so passionate about building. What additional work needs to be done on creating safety, building trust, fostering empathy — necessary precursors to an environment of inclusion and belonging? If folks don’t feel safe in just the sharing of their experiences, what might that say about the organization?
Thank you for listening.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6610860385299951616-hAgC
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