Imagine you’re in an episode of the Twilight Zone. When you wake up, everything is normal at your house. Your parents or spouse is/are the same, sibling banter is the same, food is the same. But, when you get to work, people are acting differently than at home. You have to change how you act or you get reprimanded or worse—lose your job. So you do it, you act different than your authentic self just to get by. Knowing if you stayed your authentic self you’d be a bigger asset if the powers that be could see it, hear it, respect it. You see your culture being used to make companies money, but still your perspective is not valued at work. How long would it take you to get frustrated? How long would it take you to get angry? How long would it take you until you freaked out?
This is the reality of Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) everyday in this county. It is called code switching. BIPOC must “act white” to navigate various environments. The term for white culture having tension with BIPOC is called cultural mismatch (I’ll write more about that later). We know Black culture isn’t bad. Obviously, white people have leveraged it for our own wealth and enjoyment for many years.
The root issue is white people are disproportionately in positions of power and wealth due to centuries of legislation and economic tactics to keep BIPOC in poverty. This gives gatekeepers (e.g. human resource departments, home loan officers, advanced placement selection committees, etc.) the power to say, “This person doesn’t act like a ____... so I think we should go with (insert white person).” Now, are these gatekeepers members of the KKK, no—at least I hope not. Most are decent, nice, people that hold implicit bias that coaxes them to their cultural comfort zone. Which is incredibly detrimental to BIPOC.
One of my favorite words I learned, at least to a higher degree, during my doctoral coursework was elasticity. It’s just like you think, how far something is able to change shape or volume and maintain integrity. America is not a white county. It never was, never will be, and never should be. The thing about our American elasticity, is the more we stretch and grow the stronger we become. Diversity is strength. Keeping a status quo is dangerous and weakens us. Polarizing oneself so that all you hear is “the party’s talk” is dangerous and weakens us. Be independent, be elastic, grow, stretch, experience, and become stronger for it.
Help BIPOC get out of their 400+ year twilight zone episode, where it’s not a game or entertainment. People die.
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