Clarisse Hansard

…hy? It’s a lot of work to come into companies that haven’t built inclusion into their DNA first.

These individuals are forced to be more than competent at their jobs, constantly disprove colleagues’ beliefs that they were hired because of their difference and not their skills, and make the overrepresented feel comfortable with their difference. Plus, they must represent their entire identity groups, bring more people from those identity groups into the organization, and often spearhead initiatives around diversity by default.

Blackness is not a monolith, it spans a wide and vibrant breadth of color and culture and creativity. There is no one way to be Black. No one has exclusive rights to claim ownership over Black.

Acknowledging unimportance liberates us from the grips of the self-centered voice in our head that’s chiefly responsible for many of life’s difficulties.