Everyday Conversations on Race

This week on Everyday Conversations on Race, Simma is joined by Barbara Williams Hardy, former head of Global Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging for a large tech firm, and LeRon Barton a well respected journalist and speaker on the experiences of being a Black man in America. The main theme is Culture Fit Hiring and it's impact on diversity, equity and inclusion.

They offer their perspectives and answer the questions:

• Does hiring for "culture fit" promote racism and discrimination?
• Is it only the responsibility of white people to promote diversity, equity and inclusion?
• What is the role of Black people and other people of color in culture change and inclusion?

Topics covered include:

• Culture Fit hiring- friend or foe of diversity, equity and inclusion
• How we're all capable or making wrong assumptions
• Breaking up status-quo hiring and with inclusion
• Where to find Black computer engineers
• Asking the right questions to determine whether a statement has racist intent or meaning, and opportunities to educate
• What recruiters and leaders need to do ensure inclusive hiring, making people feel welcome across difference and supporting their success
• LeRon, Barb and Simma share songs that represent thoughts about race, racism and bringing people together

Barb Williams Hardy and LeRon Barton

Barbara Williams Hardy is a visionary, innovator, connector, catalyst for change and global citizen of the world. She is an award-winning thought leader with a global mindset and is known as a "Go To" leader who develops high-level relationship alliances that foster inclusion, belonging, collaboration and commitment to align diversity strategies with business objectives to accelerate employee engagement, experience, innovation and organizational success.

Barb grows leaders. She is the former Global Head of Global Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at NetApp, Leadership speaker and the creator of the Barb List, Principles for Achieving Success and Living an Amazing Life.

Barb's mission is to unlock the untapped brilliance in all of us.

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LeRon L. Barton is a writer from Kansas City, Mo that currently resides in San Francisco, Ca. He has been writing poetry, screenplays, and short stories since he was way young. LeRon's essays have appeared in Salon, The Good Men Project, Eastbay Express, Those People, AlterNet, SF Bay view, Buzzfeed, Gorilla Convict, and Elephant Journal. His first book, "Straight Dope: A 360 degree look into American drug culture" was released in Feb 2013. LeRon's new book, "All We Really Need Is Love

Vincent Garrett joins Simma on Everyday Conversations on Race to talk about race, mass incarceration and creating a "prison to school pipeline."

A former addict and incarcerated felon, Vince has been clean from drugs for over twenty years. He shares his experience of being released from prison, finding a mentor, getting his BA from UC Berkeley and being part of Underground Scholars, a program for the formerly incarcerated.

We talk about race, racism and mass incarceration and the unequal way Black and Brown people and White people are sentenced for the same crimes.

Vincent and his whole family were caught up in the crack epidemic in Oakland. He saw people around him being arrested and sent to prison for a few rocks of crack, while white people and upper income people in the Oakland Hills using powdered cocaine were ignored by law enforcement.

He is now working towards a master's degree and is the program outreach and retention specialist for Restoring Our Communities (ROC), at Laney College.

Vincent and ROC are working to advance the "Prison to School Pipeline," to ensure that formerly incarcerated people get what they need excel in college and in life.

Additional topics are:

• Racial disparities and inequality in our society today
• Images of Black and other people of color in the media and how that contributes to mass incarceration
• Internalizing racism from outside messages
• Repairing the damage of mass incarceration and race

Zachariah Moreno

Co-Founder & CEO of SquadCast

Zachariah Moreno is a technologist, author, and co-founder of SquadCast. He and his team are on a mission to amplify collaboration, seeking to empower creatives to engage in meaningful conversations without barriers.

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All privilege is not the same, nor does all privilege provide equitable access to luxury. There is the economic privilege that comes from having financial resources, wealth and position, and then there is the privilege that comes from being white in America. Racism can negate every other privilege when you're a person of color in the US. It doesn't matter how much money you have, what you own or how many employees work for you.

Luis Martin, a brown-skinned Mexican American man and his Dominican husband have enjoyed a lifestyle of economic privilege that few can afford. Luis is a well-known artist in New York whose work has been displayed in galleries across the world.

However, when you're a person of color, economic privilege has its limits to where you can go. When you're out in the world, you can still be targeted for your race and experience the inhumanity and hate of racism.

When Luis and his husband bought first-class airline tickets on Delta airlines, they assumed they could access all the benefits that came with those first-class tickets. However, when they tried to enter the first-class lounge like every other first-class passenger, they were barred from entering, and told that people going to Mexico were not allowed.

In this episode, Luis Martin shares his experiences as an artist, a brown skinned Mexican-American and the role that art and culture plays in building consciousness around conversations on race, racism, and justice and equality for everyone

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Are Millennials less racist than other generations?

What do people from Africa have in common with African-Americans?

What generation is most in denial about racism?

What's it like to be the only Black person in your class?

These questions and more are answered on Every Day Conversations on Race. My guests are Mary-Lou Milabu, a millennial black Christian woman, whose family is from Congo, and Sara Bierman a millennial white Jewish woman from California who is also a lesbian. Both women share their experience and views on race, racism and perspectives on white privilege.

Mary-Lou shares what it was like to be one of the few Black people in her school and constantly being asked to be the spokesperson for African-Americans. While learning about Black history, a white teacher kept asking her about her family's history going back to slavery. When Mary-Lou said that was not her family's history since she was second generation Congolese the teacher kept insisting. She had to school the teacher.

Sara shares what it was like for her growing up on a street where she was the only white kid and learning about racism towards people of color. She shares stories of talking to other white people about race and racism.

This exciting conversation on race with two millennial women, one white and one black will open your eyes to stereotypes, white privilege and racism.

Phyliss Williams co-host of Living the Principles podcast joins Simma to talk about the importance of the principles of Kwanzaa, and how her time in the Marines impacts the good work she does today.

Phyliss shares stories and experiences as an African American woman growing up in the south dealing with racism, and what it's like to see the racism today across the USA

We talk about the importance of involving family and friends in the race conversation, and having an impact on them.

Topics covered:

• Why it's essential that people vote
• Selfish reasons why people don't vote and not voting is a vote against equal rights
• Tactics used today to repress voting particularly in Black neighborhoods
• Parallels between the past and the present in preventing people from voting
• During her time attending a Christian College, she experienced racist dog whistles from other students and racism goes against all the principles of Christianity
• How the Trump administration continues to dehumanize Black people and other people of color, Jewish people, LGBT People and immigrants

What we can do to have the conversation about race, eliminate hate and fear of differences and spread love

• Be mindful of our energy, share resources and support each other
• Remember that the holocaust happened because "nice" people said nothing
• Speak out against gerrymandering which will impact the results of our voting
• Speak up when people are told "go back to your country"
• Listen to the stories of Black people and their experiences with racism, police brutality
• Check assumptions and generalizations
• Think about how different forms of privilege or automatic advantages impact us
• Dismantle stereotypes

In this conversation on race, LeRon talks to Simma about why it's often draining for him to talk to a lot of white people about race. Simma and LeRon agree that allies are important and that it's more effective for a white person to talk to another white person about race and racism in order to educate them, and raise their level of understanding.

LeRon and Simma both believe that you have to go where people are at and not assume they know more than they do. However people need to be called on racist, homophobic, etc. statements. Being an ally and intervening can mean losing friends and even family members who want to hold on to hate. LeRon says he won't sit with certain family members who insist on making homophobic remarks.

It's usually more effective for someone to hear about race issues, racism and bias from someone who is more like them in some way. That's true for LGBTQ and homophobia. A straight person will be less defensive and more open to listen to another straight person.

Other topics are the challenges of talking about race and racism, race and d vegetarianism and whether Chicago pizza is better than New York pizza.

Joel Brown talks about the need to allow people to grow, and the problems that arise when they are not given a chance to change. Racism doesn't get eliminated by attacking people who want to stop racism but may say the wrong thing. That's different than someone who is a racist, supports racism and takes actions to perpetuate racism.

Everyone is going to make mistakes. What is the point of having conversations if we can't do that? Joel says it's making him tired. While some of these issues are valid, they don't call for canceling people out. We need to be savvier.

When do we allow benevolence to be a good thing? When the billionaire keynote speaker at Morehouse said he would pay off everyone's school loans, someone asked on social media "why didn't they do that for Spelman?"

People are angry, not being heard, and want to be heard. Other people are cosigning because they don't want the other person to be in pain.

There is a hypersensitivity to issues that have not been addressed. At the same time, there needs to be room for conversation.

The USA has not dealt with its history of racism and slavery. We need to figure it out, or nothing will change. By calling out every single thing someone says, and putting so much energy in shutting people down, we end up not dealing with systemic racism.

It's easier to deflect from our own issues by making someone else "the enemy" when they are on our side. If we want to eliminate racism, we need more dialogue, conversation and education.

Conversations on race can only happen when people are open to listening, learning and talking.

If we want change, we have to look at manifestations of racism. Ex. At a high school white kids had "thug day," and dressed up as their stereotype of Black rappers. The white woman who exposed it was getting death threats. More attention needs to be on those issues and why this is going on.

Different issues need to have different consequences. We need to address how egregious is it? What were the intentions? How willing is the person to listen, learn and change?

Joel also says that it's essential for people of color to learn about each other, that Black people need to learn about Asian people, Asian people need to learn about LatinX people, etc. Just because people consider themselves a person of color doesn't mean they understand or have any contact with people from other groups and may have biases about other groups.

There is too much conversation and too many people saying that Democratic candidates for president are not "gay enough" "Black enough" or made a comment 20 years ago. If we want to defeat Trump, we will need to get behind whoever is running. Change and progress don't happen under repression. Racism, loss of rights, gender inequality only gets worse. Hate crimes go up.

People can create change under a liberal government. It's up to the people to take power together. Even under Obama, changes like gay marriage happened as a result of people putting pressure.

Increase in tribalism makes it easier for people to be co-opted, particularly white people who are alienated, many of whom are being targeted and recruited by white supremacists.

Solutions

Look at ourselves

What part do we play, what do we need to change about ourselves?

How do I heal myself?

Hold politicians accountable, even those that look like us

Everyone needs to vote- think of the most vulnerable

Have the conversation

Have more conversations on race, real conversations beyond social media

We need to be in the same spaces and think about things differently

See the "other side." We need to listen and hear the basis for other people's thinking

People who are privileged have to look at what part they play and look at imbalance

We all have privilege and power in some level and need to share

Recognize when someone is making a good faith effort and be patient and educate

This is different than someone who is an active racist?

Elmer Dixon was born in Chicago and moved to Seattle at age 7 when his father took a job at Boeing. Dixon grew up in Seattle's Central District, attending Garfield High School. While at Garfield High, Dixon helped organize the school's Black Student Union in 1968. That same year, with his older brother Aaron Dixon, he co-founded the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party. He served the Chapter as its Field Marshall as well as the Breakfast Program Coordinator. When the Seattle Chapter closed its office and some of its core members moved to Oakland in 1972, Elmer, under parole and unable to move to Oakland, stayed in Seattle and reorganized the Chapter. He worked to sustain the Party's breakfast program and health clinic, maintaining the Panther organization until 1976 and some programs into the 1980s. Elmer Dixon now works as a diversity consultant.