The Start to Dismantling Something You Thought You Never Had
I acknowledge I have been quiet over the last week. It doesn’t mean I haven’t been here. I have been listening and learning about what’s happening in the outside world that kicked off with the brutal George Floyd murder. I’ve been tuning in to different perspectives of racism and anti-racism and digging deep into my own thought process.
I am a person of colour (POC) but not a black indigenous person of colour (BIPOC) and I live in the UK. I have committed to my own personal growth and to be a leader and contributor to the industry of self discovery and personal transformation. There is no way I can swiftly move past this topic even though it feels deeply saddening, emotional, complex and uncomfortable all at the same time.
I know this is going to be an imperfect post, I will still probably say something wrong but I know I’m taking action where I can and I will learn from it.
Firstly, I’m sorry if any of you reading this are directly impacted by what’s happening. I want to say that I appreciate the time and emotional energy you’ve spent in helping educate the rest of us as well as dealing with your own pain. I hope you can forgive me if anything seems hurtful in here.
Your life absolutely matters, my business is built on my core belief that you have a beautiful unique gift to share with the world that no-one else has. The world needs you. Please keep going with what your heart feels called to do.
I have felt extremely sickened by what happened to George Floyd, most people have. This all also started in my husband’s home town in Minneapolis.
After attempting to process the murder itself, I started to have thoughts like ‘why is the answer violence and arson?’, ‘why do people who are not black get shot down for saying ‘all lives matter?’, ‘why is it that we will never understand?’. Nothing we could say was right. I couldn’t understand why comments with a pure intention of compassion were being pushed back and claimed as white fragility.
I read and read and was glued to social media and a particular entrepreneur group I’m a part of amongst 30,000 other diverse entrepreneurs to try and understand it. I slowly realised how wrong I was.
I realised that feeling the pain wasn’t enough.
I realised that sharing compassion wasn’t enough.
I realised that I would never understand how it felt.
I realised why peaceful protest in the passed hadn’t been enough.
I realised why this is not just about the US.
I realised that the fully fledged uprising has to happen and realised how the feeling of uncomfort was a massive sign that I needed to take a look at myself and my own surroundings first.
I had to stop, listen and learn and be ready to be a voice on this topic. I was originally too scared to say anything thinking my comments would be shot down too.
My hope is that if you have been feeling the same and you are not directly impacted, this inspires you to take action if not already and become a voice too, even if it’s not perfect. We need to educate ourselves so we can understand our own biases and then help others around us learn and in turn be allies to the black community and the uprising.
This is not just about posting on social media and we also don’t have to be in a march or protest if you don’t feel comfortable whilst in a pandemic.
I’ve worked almost 60 hours in my corporate job this week (meh) but that’s where the majority of my time has been- so that is where I started to use my voice.
WE CAN TAKE ACTION ANYWHERE WHEN WE LOOK AROUND US.
This isn’t to boast to you about my actions, it’s written in the hope that it will inspire you to see what you can do around you - pick the actions that really fire you up.
Here are the actions I have taken:
- The corporate company i work for is primarily Europe based and in construction. I noticed no-one was talking about these events and leadership had not posted any acknowledgement or guidance on the topic. I also noticed out of a meeting of 86 people, there was not one black person and I can count on one hand the number of BIPOC employees i have seen in the company.
- STEP 1 - Notice.
- STEP 2 - I work closely with the Chief of Human Resources, I asked what we were doing to address the topic. He hasn’t answered, I have time with him next week.
- STEP 3 - I spoke to our communication team and they posted a response from our private owners in the US to the whole European subsidiary.
- STEP 4 - I started to talk about the topic in meetings and at our virtual drinks. Many people had said they hadn’t thought about it and thanked me for making them think. 1 person has said they have since called their friends out for racist comments on social media.
- STEP 5 - I scheduled time with someone who’s leading the diversity agenda in our company. She welcomed the chat and asked if I could write something for our newsletter.
- I have raised the topic with my siblings
- I have signed the petition at change.org
- I have signed up for a charity DJ event next weekend for a charity supporting protestors (will share the link when it's ready)
- I have started the book 'Me and White Supremacy' by Layla F Saad. If anyone’s interested in a book club on it let me know!
- I have offered a place on my 8 week program 'The Life Purpose Blueprint' for free to anyone in the black community who is committed to making change.
- I am looking to feature black people in my new project on loving what you do and the journey to get there - stay tuned!
- I’ve started following influencers (see below) to keep educating myself.
The journey doesn’t stop here, we must keep the momentum not just until it passes the top stories on all media.
And I'm happy for you to hold me accountable.
Here is a great list of other resources for you to choose from to review.
I also really like the following instagram accounts:
One last note - if you have found yourself really fired up by this uprising, please please notice and use that fire to lead you to your calling. Sometimes our deepest fulfilment comes from pain and what we feel that fire for. Don’t be afraid to follow what your heart is telling you to do even if it feels damn scary.
If anyone is interested in chatting about this topic in more detail, I’m here to talk and would welcome the discussion.
Please share what you are doing to take action too.
