I’ve been experiencing a huge wave of grief lately.
Some of it is personal, some of it is systemic.
It’s painful, this deep and abiding grief.
Read More
I won’t lie - I’m tired, although it comes in waves, and it’s hard to know if its from covid or just... all this. Burnout is coming up with some of our clients too, especially those on the frontlines of putting DEI to practice in their organizations. The work is tiring, and it can be hard to pinpoint what exactly is exhausting us the most.
I think, to some extent, it doesn’t really matter, or if you need an answer but can’t figure it out, it is probably all of the above. Figuring out the source can be helpful, but only to a degree, because what if we can’t change the source?
Read More
Just when some of us were starting to exhale, albeit tentatively and uneasily, with regards to the pandemic, the information coming out about the Delta variant over the past few weeks has been concerning and disheartening to many.
Speaking for myself, my anxiety is way up. I'm back to where a trip to the grocery store feels like a direct channel into all of humanity's hopes and fears, and I'm spending more time than I'd care to admit, or is healthy or helpful, "doom scrolling" on social media.
Read More
I'm still in a space where I am thinking a lot about grief and trauma, and not just thinking about it but feeling it myself at a variety of different levels
Maybe the grief of the pandemic is making all the other grief feel closer to the surface and easier to access, but I'm seeing so many layers to my own grief and to the grief of others. In many ways, the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion is the work of holding space for the hurt and harm of white supremacy and other systems of oppression while also figuring out how to create space for healing, recovery, and growth.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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?
Read More
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.
Read More
How I’m finding breathing space, and my podcast interview on Second Breaks with Lou Blaser: How Our Values and Natural Preferences Help Us in Times of Disruption
Read More
I won't lie, it's been a rough week for me. I suspect it has been for many of us. I went to a dark place but today I had an aha moment that is helping me to feel better than I have all week.
Read More
What if we could shift the ways in which we have been socialized to think and behave, and adjust to having our kids around not as a disruption but as a re-integration?
An article on "Traditional Indigenous Kinship Practices at Home: Being Child-Centered During the Pandemic" gave me a completely new perspective.
Read More
Not only is it INHUMANE during a crisis of this scale, but it is going to hurt the organizations that do this in the long run.
Read More
We’ve been having frank and open conversations with leaders and HR folks at our client organizations about what equitable and inclusive leadership looks like at this time.
Based on these and various other conversations across multiple sectors and communities, here are some of our takeaways.
Read More
What a week. Here in the US, I feel like we knew it was coming, but we weren't quite prepared for how fast, and things that seemed unthinkable just a week ago are now the "new normal." I know we are all adjusting as best we can.
I wanted to quickly reflect on and share some of the things that have been working for me during this time.
Read More
Getting adjusted to the "new normal" and posing some questions.
What does anti-oppression and anti-racism work look like in a pandemic or other crisis?
How can we hold a growth mindset, create realistic plans, and promote transparency and open decision-making? How can we share rather than hoard power? How can we hold space for complexity? How can we collaborate?
Read More