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Hi {CEO's NAME},
I apologize in advance for the length of this email, but this is what is on my mind and my heart. While I do not speak for any other {COMPANY} employees, my experiences as a Black man in America are shared by almost every Black person that I know, whether friends, family or acquaintances, and across age, geography, educational level, income and vocation.
Typically, I begin each day, drinking a cup of coffee, reading emails, and logging into {CHAT SOFTWARE}. Before asking anything work related, I always ask my peers and teammates, “How are you doing today?” I’ve done this even more so in this time of Covid-19 lockdowns, mindful of different conditions my coworkers face, whether they be in {LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION or LOCATION}. They ask, in turn, how I’m doing. Today, my answer was, “I am not okay.”
On Monday, I took a PTO day. For the past week, like many people I know, I have been processing the events transpiring across the US. I really do not like Facebook, and rarely ever post anything there, especially anything personal. But one of the things I’ve felt compelled to do during these times was to relay my personal experiences because, while people have been almost universally and rightfully outraged about the murder of George Floyd, it seems that they have not understood the degree to which almost all African Americans are affected by racism, and the profound degree to which our lives are impacted by discriminatory police practices.
An excerpt:
“To this day, at 52 years of age, I STILL get a reflexive, inescapable tightness in my chest when I see a police car in my rear view mirror, despite abiding by all the rules.
I remember years ago, when I worked at {FORMER EMPLOYER}, I went to one of those Diversity Day meetings for leaders and prospective managers. Everyone was asked to share their 'Diversity Moment' with the group, by the young, white workshop facilitator, in her cheerleadery voice.
I sat, quietly, while people shared various comments about someone saying something that made them feel uncomfortable, or something that made them aware that they were different, or perceived differently. When it was my turn (as the only Black male in the room), I said, "Hmm, I've had a couple of diversity moments. One was when I was riding bikes at night with some friends, in my hometown in NJ. I was around 16 or 17. That one ended with my being ordered face down on the asphalt by the police. Another one happened a few years later in college, at night, when I and some other friends were ordered face down on the asphalt in the night with a police officer's 9mm service weapon drawn and aimed at my head. In neither instance were we doing anything wrong, and we were eventually let go, with no apology or explanation, other than that we ‘fit a description’.
Oh, there was also the time when I was walking across campus, mid-day, and campus police demanded I show my ID (like some kind of South African passport law) while on my lunch break from my work study at the English office. I asked why, and he said I fit a description. I asked, "What's the description?" He answered, "A black man, around your height, with facial hair". I replied that that described a couple million people in the MD / DC metropolitan area. And several hundred on the University of Maryland's campus…”
Those and other incidents I shared from my own past and present are not simply anecdotes and are far from representing all of my run ins. I shared stories from my wife, as well as related some of many situations that have occurred with my children. A former colleague, an IT Executive who travels continuously, consulting with C-level leaders from large corporations, indicated that she has received so much harassment and profiling that she eats in her hotel room while on her frequent business travel.
The responses I’ve received from white friends and acquaintances have almost unanimously combined expressions of sympathy and some variation of them having “no idea” of the severity or pervasiveness of what we endure. Responses from Black friends were different, but equally illuminating, revealing that we have been generally reluctant to share any but the most egregious incidents with even each other. The background, ‘every day’ type of incidents, we’ve tended to bottle up and keep to ourselves. In a lengthy direct message chat with a white neighbor who, after reading my post, asked advice on explaining these things to his young sons, it occurred to me that all of these episodes are causing us to relive trauma and revisit episodes of violation.
The proliferation, acceleration and increasing normalization of pretextual stops by police (and support of same by the Supreme Court in the absence of clarifying national legislation) means that at ANY time, I or my children can (and have been) stopped by law enforcement, regardless of whether we have broken a law or committed a violation. Although my wife and I have had “The Talk” (actually, the multiyear, running dialogue) with our six children, as so many other Black parents have, the truth of life for us in America is evidenced in each new national tragedy or publicized near miss.
The trauma stems from the fact that these are things over which we have no control. For ourselves, nor for our children. There is no such thing as being nice enough, polite enough, educated enough, wealthy enough, or anything (except non-Black) enough to avoid encounters with police. And when those encounters occur, the most minor encounter can be escalated to levels that are both absurd and tragic.**
If you are Black in a predominantly Black area that is a reason for you to be targeted. If you are Black in a predominantly white area that is a reason to be targeted. If you drive too fast, you can of course, be stopped. If you drive too slowly you can be stopped. If you look ‘nervous’ you can be stopped. If you look ‘too calm’, that is also considered probable cause. If you are in your own house (Breonna Taylor, the EMT worker killed by police on an errant no knock warrant) you can be shot and killed.
We read and remember the names and it has become a grim litany, to be recited, names and circumstance, lest anyone forget. Walter Scott (in South Carolina, shot in the back) was stopped, ostensibly, for a broken taillight. George Floyd was arrested, beaten, and ultimately murdered after suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a local store. One of my sons is prone to taking walks at night to pray, meditate and clear his mind. Another of my sons jogs at night, on occasion. Ahmaud Arbery was taking a mid-day jog when he was hunted down and killed.
What can {MY COMPANY} Do?
Seeing the note from you when I logged in on Tuesday morning was a relief, as it signaled that you are aware of the problem and are looking for honest feedback from your employees. It was a brief respite from the weight on my chest that I feel these days after nights of fitful sleep.
While I deeply appreciate corporate and individual displays of sympathy and empathy, a very important thing to keep in mind during this time is that the problems Black people (and other people of color) in this country are facing are not ones of feelings and attitudes. They are problems of bias and malignant intent, deeply embedded into systems and structures that impact every aspect of our lives on a daily basis and perpetuate harm across generations.
In this context, statements of sympathy and empathy ring hollow, if not accompanied by action. The answer is not, "I'm sorry it happened", it is "What can I do to help make it stop?"
As a major corporation, {COMPANY NAME}’s voice is louder, is heard by different people, and is afforded more credence and weight than the voices of hundreds, thousands or even millions of people screaming into the night. What I would like to see is for {COMPANY NAME} to use its voice to lead and advocate for concrete solutions to these problems (for example, calling for a new Civil Rights Act which includes national policing standards, elimination of Qualified Immunity, establishment of independent review boards, outlawing domestic use of tear gas, which is banned internationally as a chemical weapon). That’s an example.
However, if you are asking what I would like to see, I would like to see {COMPANY NAME} use its voice to advocate for the full human and civil rights of its employees and customers with at least the same energy it expends towards lobbying for advantageous tax or regulatory frameworks.
I am coming up on my three-year anniversary with the company. While a vigilant and ever-evolving corporate commitment toward diversity and inclusion is always laudable, I hope to impress upon you that this is not enough. Just as my wife and I having ‘The Talk’ with our kids is not enough, when the problems they are facing are external and pervasive.
The urgency of this problem is why, at a time when more than 1 in every 1,850 African Americans has died of Covid-19 in the last 3 months (!!!), a staggering tragedy in its own right, Americans of all races are persisting in taking to the streets, risking their lives directly and via another wave of infection in order to combat our nation’s undiagnosed, 400 year pre-existing condition.
DISCLAIMERS: These words and thoughts are entirely my own. I’ve cc’d some of my managers out of courtesy. I did not feel the need to run this past anyone before sending as you asked for feedback and I’m providing it. If this ends up as ‘career limiting’ (not that anyone has given me any reason to think it will), so be it. While my privilege does not afford me full equal protection under the law from those sworn to uphold it, it has placed me in a position where I have access to the CEO and senior leadership of a multibillion-dollar corporation with immense resources and social capital. I choose now to exercise that, whatever the cost.
This is the link to the facebook post which I’ve been using to bring awareness to the depths of these problems.
-- REDACTED --
Please read or share with your private networks as you see fit. There is no information about {COMPANY} or even discussing experiences in {COMPANY}. I know that’s not ‘right’, and I don’t maintain or engage with it while working, but this is bigger than {COMPANY}.
Lastly, I am not in crisis. I don’t need to talk to HR. Minus my PTO day on Monday, I’ll continue to work hard and be productive toward our shared goals as I always have. “I am not ok” means that I do so without pretense that the state of things in this nation is remotely acceptable.
** For clarity’s sake, I’m not suggesting above that my demeanor, educational or socio-economic status SHOULD shield me from the effects of racism. It’s more so that it seems that white people assume that that would be the case.
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everything above that line i deadass sent to my ceo and immediate 3 levels of management, plus a few other folks i blind copied. it has low key gone viral, because other folks have seen it, forwarded it or asked me for permission to forward it.
Black folks who've commented have told me they appreciated it. and other folks have reached out asking what they can do to help.
i haven't heard anything back from the CEO or HR SVP that i forwarded it to, later.
might get promoted. might get fired. it's gonna be what it's gonna be.
peace & blessings,
x.
www.twitter.com/poetx
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I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad
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