White violence

Adam Toledo, 13. Travon Chadwell, 18. Anthony Alvarez, 22. Iremamber Kykap, 16. Daunte Wright, 20.

All Black and brown boys killed by police in the last two weeks or so.

This is America, getting "back to normal." This is America, working exactly as designed.

I think we need to be talking not just about white privilege, white fragility, white supremacy or even police brutality but about white violence. It’s embedded in the history, the culture and all of our systems that impact our every day reality.

Hyper-visibility

It has been a strange time of hyper-visibility for violence against Asian Americans. Both before and since the shootings in Atlanta last month, there have been a number of incidents of violence against Asian Americans have been getting a lot of coverage. It is easy to feel more afraid, and hard to know if Asian Americans are actually less safe or if it just feels that way.

Collaborating to confront Anti-Blackness and Anti-Asian hate

It's been a strange week. I've never had people check on me because I'm Asian, and never in my lifetime has there been such a spotlight on anti-Asian violence and hate, or on the experiences of Asian or Asian American women at the hands of white supremacy.

Contrary to my socialization, which was to blend in and be as white as possible to be safe, I have become used to speaking up as a British born Asian American woman of color. I have marveled at and appreciated being handed the mic and given a platform and the support to be heard.

This current "woke wave" though is not something I had anticipated.

How the old factory model of education and the workplace is alive and well

Something I've been thinking about is how I managed to go through my entire education and graduate from college without any real idea of my true talents and strengths. I only knew the things I was good at that other people and systems wanted me to be good at - in other words, being a good student. You don't have to have any real self-knowledge to be a "good student" in the traditional sense. In fact, all too often, passion and curiosity get in the way.

Results speak louder than actions

We have talked on this blog about lip service as the gap between intention and action. As the old adage says, actions speak louder than words.

However, there's another gap we also need to talk about, which is the gap between actions and results.

Inclusive LeadershipAlethea FitzpatrickFebruary 28, 2021#results, #lipservice, #bridgingdivides, #values, #DEIstrategicplanningComment

Building capacity

I've been thinking a lot about capacity lately.

After all, it's February, which is usually my hardest month anyway, and we are almost a year into the pandemic here in the US.

I'm hitting a wall, and I know many others are too.

Capacity to me is different to productivity. Productivity is doing more. Capacity can be about doing the same amount of work, but at a lower cost, without expending as much energy.

Inclusive LeadershipAlethea FitzpatrickFebruary 21, 2021#capacity, #selfcare, #DEIinapandemicComment

No one gets to tell you who you are

A friend shared a link to Gabrielle Union-Wade's Instagram post of an interview with Venus Williams at age 14.

Says Gabrielle:

Speaking up for yourself, for a cause you believe in, for your co-workers, for what's fair and just, or even for your children can be scary. The fear of backlash, the fear of being labeled "difficult" or "aggressive" or being othered is ever present and real.

Inclusive LeadershipAlethea FitzpatrickFebruary 15, 2021#fearofbacklash, #speakingupforyourself, #whitesupremacycultureComment

Demoralization isn't the same as burnout

I read a very helpful article this morning: Teacher Demoralization Isn't the Same as Teacher Burnout.

Says the article: "It is worth distinguishing teacher demoralization from burnout. Teachers' ongoing value conflicts with the work (demoralization) cannot be solved by the more familiar refrain for teachers to practice self-care in order to avoid exhaustion (burnout). Demoralization occurs when teachers cannot reap the moral rewards that they previously were able to access in their work. It happens when teachers are consistently thwarted in their ability to enact the values that brought them to the profession." (my emphasis)

Inclusive LeadershipAlethea FitzpatrickFebruary 7, 2021#demoralization, #burnout, #inclusiveleadershipComment

Lip service

I'll admit that, up until recently, I had thought more of lip service as saying something when you don't actually mean it.

What we're seeing is a kind of lip service where the organization or person may actually genuinely mean what they say, or think that they do, but when it comes to taking action, especially actions that come with some sort of cost, they balk.

It's the gap between intention and action that we have long seen, recognized, identified, and named, but only recently have I started to connect that to lip service.

The past we step into and how we repair it

Calls for unity and healing land as violence at worst, and spiritual bypassing at best, to those most impacted by the last four years and the last four centuries of oppression if there isn't first radical truth telling, acknowledgement, and justice.

The double bind of white supremacy

White supremacy (not far-right extremist groups but the mainstream system embedded in every aspect of our systems and culture here in the US and across the globe) deeply entrenched in people and organizations that are supposed to be there to help, that are the "well-intentioned" ones - I've come to expect it, yet it still cuts deep, so maybe I'm not as prepared as I tell myself I am.

Or maybe the day it doesn't cut deep is the day I lose touch with my own humanity - I don't know. It's a fine line.

Equity without inclusion is still oppression

One of the things we've seen at some of our client organizations as well as the communities we are part of, well-intentioned progress towards making decisions that are grounded in equity fall short when there is a continued reliance on top-down hierarchies, paternalism and lack of transparency that still doesn't include those most impacted.

What often ends up happening is that you end up with even more people not feeling heard.

Those who are aligned with power and privilege feel confused and threatened because a different kind of decision making is taking place that doesn't center them, but has not been explained - this often weaponizes equity as the reason no one gets what they need.

And those whose needs are supposedly being prioritized don't experience it that way either, because they weren't given a voice in the process, and they have no reason to trust that their needs are being considered at all.

What happens after radical truth telling and acknowledgement?

One of the things that often happens when you open up the space for difficult conversations about racism and other form of systemic oppression that might be underlying the challenges and harm experienced by the most impacted in a community or organization is that it gets messy. It feels uncomfortable. It is often intensely painful.

The violence of unity

When you come to learn the truth about this country, even just a little bit more than what we are typically taught or lead to believe, when you come to understand how systemic racism and white supremacy were a founding principle of this country, built into every aspect of its systems and institutions in ways that are still very much alive, present, yet invisible to so many of us today, Trump no longer is an aberration. It's the system working exactly as designed in ways that we all can't help but be complicit with, whether with our intention or consent or not.

Dismantling oppressionAlethea FitzpatrickNovember 8, 2020#election2020, #unity, #violence, #jamesbaldwin, #paolofriereComment

Burnout burnout burnout burnout...

Emotional exhaustion and burnout is real and has a disproportionate impact on women, BIPOC and others who face systemic challenges.

Honestly, I don't think I've ever felt more emotionally exhausted, and getting more sleep doesn't help.

So it was that Brene Brown's podcast interview with authors of the book "Burnout: the secret to unlocking the stress cycle" resonated deeply and also provided insights and practical strategies for dealing with stress, even when we have no control over the stressors.

Read more about my takeaways, then go listen to the podcast episode, then go read the book!

Co-creating inclusionAlethea FitzpatrickOctober 18, 2020#stress, #burnout, #brenebrown, #pandemiclife, #selfcareComment

More on the dilemma of fall school reopening decisions (why aren't we listening to those most impacted?)

The data shows that low-income, Black and Latinx families are the least in favor of re-opening schools. They place a higher priority on not dying (ie containing the virus) than on restarting the economy or getting their kids out of their hair so they can get work done more peacefully at home (which is the priority for many white and more privileged parents who are otherwise shielded from the worst effects of the virus).

As Jen Roesch argues in her article "If Opening Schools Is About Equity, Why Aren’t We Listening to Those Most Impacted?", instead of forcing students back to school, we should support them and their families to learn at home.

How are you approaching fall school reopening decisions for your family, if you have school age kids? What is your company or organization doing to support working parents? How can you advocate for working parents, especially those who face the most systemic challenges?

Co-creating inclusionAlethea FitzpatrickAugust 9, 2020#onlineschool, #schools, #DEIinapandemic, #DEIforthelonghaulComment

How can we meet community needs? Thoughts on in-person, hybrid or remote learning during a global pandemic

As many families grapple between choices of in-person, hybrid, or remote learning, I wanted to share some different articles that have helped me clarify my thinking.

Even if you are not a parent or caregiver, this is an important conversation to be aware of and part of - not only do you likely have friends, family and colleagues who are grappling with these issues, but these are community and systemic issues that impact us all.

Employers have a role too because they have the ability to mitigate the impossible math of working from home full time while your kids are at home full time trying to get an education, and that, as always, disproportionately impacts those already most impacted including BIPOC, low income, and essential worker families and especially the women in those families.

For those who hastily proclaimed that Black Lives Matter these past couple of months, it's time to act like they do.

Creating space for our own humanity

One of the things I've been thinking about is how we can create space to show up in our full humanity.

Sometimes what this means is being able to take off our hat as whatever role we are playing - professional or personal - and allow more of ourselves and our humanness in.

In other words, letting ourselves, and each other, just BE can actually be quite revolutionary.

Inclusive LeadershipAlethea FitzpatrickJuly 19, 2020#inclusion, #inclusiveleadership, #truth, #healing, #humanityComment

Diversity, equity and inclusion on social media (Savvy Social podcast interview)

One of the things we've all had the chance to both watch and experience lately is how to practice diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on social media. Some companies have been doing it well... others, not so much.

I recently got the chance to speak with social media strategist Andréa Jones about how to share on social media with transparency and accountability so as to lower the cost of speaking up and create safety within our communities. Although Andréa's podcast speaks mostly to digital business owners, the conversation we had can be applied to any business or organization.

Stop saying you didn't mean to cause harm

We need white people to stop asking for "respect" and "kindness", and for "judgement free" space, and to be assumed to have "good intentions."

We need white people to stop saying they didn't mean to cause harm.

Because you may not have intended it, but the harm you cause is not an accident.

Dismantling oppressionAlethea FitzpatrickJune 28, 2020#amycooper, #seeingwhite, #equity, #whiteviolence, #rubybridges, #truthComment

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