The Equity Gap

Navigating being an only - the first, the only woman of colour in leadership, is exhausting, isolating and almost forces you to confront the things that make you uncomfortable about your lived experience, but you’re not alone and you deserve to have those experiences seen and heard and for spaces to be created where you can thrive in spite of the things that have systematically held you back.

In this episode join me as I speak to my own experiences being an "only" in senior leadership and the work I did and do to this day to actively practise moving past the feelings of isolation  to navigate the experience in leadership and beyond.

The incredible research cited by Dr. Kecia Thomas in this episode can be found here:

https://gender-summit.com/images/GS3NA_ppts/Thomas.pdf

Some women of colour who I follow and find solace and community in through their lived experiences and their storytelling include:

https://www.instagram.com/itsviviankaye/
https://www.instagram.com/iamjamgamble/
https://www.instagram.com/_anishinaabekwe/
https://www.instagram.com/thetransplanter/
https://www.instagram.com/adi.barreto/
https://www.instagram.com/celly_speaks/
https://www.instagram.com/sunshineblackbird/
https://www.instagram.com/statuesse/
https://www.instagram.com/latesha_byrd/
https://www.instagram.com/michellekimkim/

Some communities that serve to connect and engage BIWOC:

Accelerate her Future
Canadian Women of Colour Leadership Network 

Licensed intro music from NoMo

How many of us have had that experience of knowing our otherness through our names? It’s interesting to think of all the ways we quiet ourselves to make it comfortable for other people in our lives. We laugh off jokes about our names, we sit in silence as some make zero attempts to ask or clarify pronunciation and we even go as far as to remove any semblance of ethnicity from our identities to avoid the inevitable awkwardness....

When you really break it down, it’s more than a name and in this episode I break down why you should correct them, every single time.

The mentorship program mentioned in this episode is Accelerate her Future - an early career accelerator program for self-identifying Black, Indigenous, Women of Colour and applications are now open for the Summer 2021 cohort for both mentee's and fellows. Check out the details of this incredible, life changing program here to see if you qualify:

https://accelerateherfuture.com/fellowship-circle/become-a-fellow/

Licensed intro music from NoMo

“There is a difference in being nice and being kind.” Niceness is rooted in pleasing other people and kindness, though baked in thoughtfulness, has boundaries and allows you to put yourself first. 

Now that is a novel concept for me and dare I say, probably a number of other racialized women. How many of us are taught to live our lives on autopilot operating out of a desire to please, to never ruffle feathers and always say yes despite any core desires to listen to ourselves, our gut feelings and our instincts?

Join Shahzia Noorally in this intimate conversation on boundaries, learning about the roots of our "niceness" as women of colour and what we can do to move beyond our natural, conditioned state to ask for what we deserve, say no to things that don't serve us and stand fully in our worth.

The incredible therapists I mentioned in the beginning of this episode include:

Dr. Saira Sabzaali - Transpersonal Psychotherapist, http://talktosaira.com/

and

Nashina Mirani Miranda - https://harbourcw.com/

The quote was from Taylor Poindexter who can be followed on Twitter @engineering_bae

Licensed intro music from NoMo

“Your playing small does not serve the world.” - Marianne Williamson, a Return to Love

Our journeys as WOC look and feel different, but that does not mean that our worthiness is any less. Imagine the possibilities for your life if you stopped playing small. 

I believe in the core of my being that if you’re struggling to come across work that fulfills you, if you’ve found yourself chasing career paths that paid you a lot of money but left you feeling empty or fulfilled your parents expectations of what you should do, but failed to give you that feeling of being lit up at the thought of going to work each day, that there is inner work to be done. 

I truly believe that if something doesn’t come easy for you - be it love, relationships, career fulfillment, financial freedom, health, that it means you have to embark on a journey that requires you to do the inner work, and that’s why it’s important for me to start our time together on this journey to career fulfillment in a place of reflection and connection to something beyond that which you can immediately control.

The conversation in this episode lays the foundation for what's to come on this podcast and our journey together. Listen on to discover the connection between spirituality and your path to finding fulfilling work. 

If you haven’t taken a moment, I would love for you to be a part of the conversation with me for the long term. Hit subscribe on your favourite podcast player and tune in every 2 weeks for new episodes and conversations. If you’re so inclined, I would love for you to leave a review or for you to connect with me to tell me how I can be of further service to you (follow me on Instagram @thecolourgap or connect with me through e-mail at [email protected]). 

Licensed intro music from NoMo

Today is a bittersweet day as we announce the departure of our dear Susy Ko from the Colour Gap podcast. 2020 certainly did a number on all of our lives, but brought Susy closer to a focus on her priorities which include her family first and foremost. 

Susy will be dearly missed, but her voice and impact carries on so much. At the heart of what we set out to do with the Colour Gap was bringing stories to the surface and shed light on the unique experiences of women of colour, and we hope you were able to always feel her heart and energy in everything she brought to the table the last 2 years and the past 2.5 seasons.

Today I'm also excited to announce the pivot I'm taking with the Colour Gap - a career strategy podcast for women of colour by women of colour....

As women of colour, our career paths and roadmaps to success look a little different than everyone else, so why should our career advice look and sound the same? We have unique challenges, identities and experiences that make our pathways to finding fulfilling and engaging work unlike that which traditional career advice can solve for. 

We deserve to have career advice tailored to us and I sincerely hope this is the place you’ll find advice that speaks to your unique experiences as a woman of colour.

As a person of colour, my entire existence has been defined in some way by the white people in my life. White leaders, white politicians, white beauty standards and white voices have been at the forefront of my important influences, and as I’ve come to find value in my own voice, presence, identity and worth as a woman of colour, what I struggle with now is reconciling the depth of that influence and its impact on me, both the good and the bad...

Join Shahzia Noorally on a journey of personal reflection to reconcile the influence of white privilege in her own life and career, a timely conversation to explore. With all the race related and political atrocities in the US at the hands of white supremacists that have turned 2020 and 2021 upside down, the inner conflict as a person to colour to not "go low" and to not pit ourselves against those in the majority is difficult, but the conversation focuses on challenging ourselves to turn to inner reflection and the opportunity to "go high," changing the narrative to focus on humanity, empathy and compassion. 

We shouldn’t have to be extraordinary to be recognized and acknowledged, yet despite countless examples of impact and influence, so many of the stories of racialized people in Canada’s history have been omitted in our education curriculum. Cinde Adegbesan, Nicole Dodd and Pam Tzeng are working to change that for current and future generations of our province's children by calling on the Minister of Education to alter the curriculum and address racism in schools across Alberta through their work on the Alberta Antiracism Education Advocacy Initiative.  And we’re excited to dig into the conversation and their cause for so many reasons. For us it’s the story of:

• How three passionate, informed, everyday citizens have been able to enact meaningful conversations and change around the real history of our country
• How three racialized women, through the bonds of their otherness, have demonstrated what the power of friendship and purpose look like in action
• How easy it can be to enact change and start conversations in a political system that can often feel overwhelming and inaccessible 

More on their work and how you can get involved:

https://linktr.ee/abantiracismedu/

Follow the Alberta Antiracism Education Advocacy Initiative on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/abantiracismedu/

As referenced in the conversation, : The "Problem" Women of Colour in the Workplace (https://coco-net.org/)

https://coco-net.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/WoC-in-Organizations-Tool-FINAL-EN.pdf

6 months and counting into the global pandemic and our new normal and yet nothing seems normal. When you have the President of the United States tweeting about Covid-19 calling it the "China virus" - that kind of validation of hate only further perpetuates divide, is highly irresponsible, racist, hate based and normalizes the othering of racialized minorities. What isn’t new is the blame game that often comes from universally crippling experiences  and the "othering" of minorities to place blame and find a scapegoat to relieve anger and fear.

In this episode (recorded in September 2020), we dig in on the impacts of Covid on the Asian community, the concept of Xenophobia and what we can all do to better educate ourselves on the language we use and the critical thinking required to push through rhetoric that only further divides and pushes us further apart from the lessons we all need to learn through this global pandemic. 

UN Human Rights - Office of the High Commissioner: 

https://www.standup4humanrights.org/en/covid19.html

"The best things in life are on the other side of a difficult conversation." - Kwame Christian

2020 has given us a lot to talk about. We’ve got a global pandemic, quarantine and isolation, we even had a potential for killer bees at one point and most importantly and most hopeful - we’ve got a real moment of pause in history for race relations with the black lives matter movement that is finally getting a collective uprising - all from the incredibly inhumane and vile murder of George Floyd, may he rest in peace, and so many more Black and Indigenous people across North America. Something that we can’t ignore or pass by in Canada yet something that us polite Canadian’s get so very uncomfortable talking about. 

We spend this episode dissecting why race is so difficult to talk about - it's not political, it never has been. It's about human rights, yet talking about race still proves to be hard. Let's dig in on Season 3, Episode 1. 

Article mentioned in the episode: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/05/how-to-thoughtfully-talk-about-racial-inequality-with-your-coworkers.html

BIPOC creators we love to learn from (instagram handles):

@shaunking
@mindaharts
@elainewelteroth
@sineadbovell
@_anishinaabekwe
@sunshineblackbird
@cheekbonewarrior
@staceyabrams
@osopepatrisse

Too many women of colour are opting out of vital conversations on the importance of being fully seen, and are ok with the equity and equality conversations not going beyond gender. This is our call to action to the WOC in our lives to start standing fully in their identities and asking for more - to be fully seen and heard and recognized for their differences in ways that will lift them up.