I’m among the large group of people who like to treat the start of a new year as an opportunity to breathe a fresh wind of newness into my life and work.
But there’s no magic in the change of one calendar year to the next.
If we don’t interrogate our practices and habits and have a willingness to change, the new year (and its results) will largely resemble the old.
I’ve shared some thoughts and resources below that we can use to disrupt a status quo that isn’t working for far too many in our society.
What I’m on my soapbox about this week — Last week, I talked about opening our eyes to the beauty and richness of diversity and to the powerful underrepresented voices all around us. Now, I want to encourage everyone to bring a fresh set of eyes to all of our default ways of doing business. For example, it’s 2022 and organizations are still choosing not to show the salary ranges for job postings! Ify Walker recently posted about this on LinkedIn and her company’s job postings really set the standard for transparency, clarity, and equity in hiring processes. For example, we’re hiring right now at TeenSHARP and we don’t ask for cover letters and we recently decided to share questions in advance with candidates. We’re finding it to be a more equitable, empathetic, and effective approach than the default blindside style of interviewing. I’d love to hear any ways you’re interrogating and upending default practices in 2022!
Best resource I’ve come across recently — Where Is My Land.org helps black families reclaim stolen land through advocacy, research, and technology. Inequity For Sale is a “virtual and physical exploration of homes sold on land sale contracts in Greater Englewood, demonstrating how legalized theft in the past directly contributed to present inequity in Black communities.”
Check out these powerful initiatives, read up on Bruce’s Beach if you haven’t already, read/re-read The Case for Reparations, and think about what justice looks like in the context of all the plunder and theft.
“For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.”
– Audre Lourde
What I’m reading/watching/listening to— The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap – “A deep accounting of how America got to a point where a median white family has 13 times more wealth than the median black family” and 12 New Rules for Virtual Meetings, Since We’re Still In a Pandemic – “We are in an apocalypse….The rules must change to accommodate. We should dispense with many practices rooted in archaic notions of professionalism.”
What’s inspiring me right now— In 2012, as a member of the inaugural class of TeenSHARP students, Amber Gourdine attended an event we organized on “Careers in the Healthcare industry.” At the end of last year, Amber announced on LinkedIn: “I will begin my next chapter of my career as a Registered Nurse at ChristianaCare’s Nursing Residency program.” She shared that “balancing full-time work and getting through Nursing school was a herculean task.” But she persisted and is making a difference during these unprecedented times!
One request for my network— Share this email with someone you think would find it useful! You can forward it using the link below. Let me know if there is any way I can be helpful to you as well!
We have upcoming cohorts of The Proximity Project focused on the education sector, healthcare sector, and business/nonprofit sector. Please join if you’re interested and help us spread the word!
Regards,
Atnre
