My #ConversationsForChange

In celebration of Black History Month, I want to tell you a story. I’m going to be open and vulnerable, and honestly I’m not sure with how it will be perceived, as it comes with some shame on my part. It’s a story of how my eyes were opened to racial inequity. 

To set the stage, something that LinkedIn has had in place for years to highlight diversity and inclusion are its Employee Resource Groups. These are employee-led community groups to help attract talent and assist current employees feel more at ease in the workplace by creating communities of underrepresented and diverse groups. Groups such as Out @ In for LGBTQ+, Women at LinkedIn, and EnableIn for those with disabilities are just a few.

When it came to diversity, I was a pretty blank slate. I grew up in a small farming town in Nebraska where there simply wasn’t a lot of it. Because of that, I’ve chosen to utilize these ERGs to learn from and about the experiences of my colleagues. I’ve been involved with various ERGs in Omaha nearly since their inception over 5 years ago. Back in 2017, I attended my first meeting for our Black Inclusion Group, or BIG, where they had a viewing of the Vice News report on the incidents of Charlottesville in South Carolina. If you haven’t seen it, you can view it here. Please be warned, it’s uncensored and it’s violent. 

Watching this wasn’t as though I was seeing inequality for the first time, but what I was seeing firsthand was the impact that those thoughts, words, and actions have on a person of color. Then a question crept into my head, “I understand and agree that Black Lives Matter, but truthfully shouldn’t it be all lives?” I’ve tried to be the type of man that seeks to understand, and I felt like I was in a safe environment to ask that question. You can imagine what a Black person’s reaction might be to such a potentially ignorant question. However two of my colleagues, Lena Riley and Tersur Orsar, saw it for what it was: an opportunity to educate. They challenged me to watch the Netflix documentary “13th”, and then at the next meeting, the three of us would sit and chat afterward to talk, and gave their time to answer any questions I might have and continue to do so moving forward. They offered up their wisdom, their experiences, and their vulnerabilities to help a person just try to be the best version of himself, and I will never forget that.

I’d been someone who was going through life with the idea that if I just tried to be kind to everybody, that would be enough. I learned that day there is so much more that I can be doing. The wonderful people in that room didn’t judge me or scoff at my question as one of ignorance, but opened their arms in order to open my eyes. There’s a call across the world to be an ally, and I’ll never take away from what that means to anyone, but to me, allyship still implies a sense of being on the outside. What has been so special to me about the Black Inclusion Group, is that I’ve never felt like an outsider. So when anyone ever asks me what my affiliation is with BIG, I will always simply reply: “I’m a member.”  I know that I can and will continue to learn and grow in this community, through listening, self-educating, and asking questions. Because for me, the most genuine support begins with understanding, and is followed up by action.