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Lisa
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432
Nurse, Technology Writer, Healthcare Executive
06/08/20 at 3:50PM UTC
in
Diversity & Inclusion

The Role of Black Women Professionals - A Debate with My Mom

I come from a long line of Black women professionals: my great grandmother was a nurse, my grandmother was a doctor, my mom is a doctor, and I am a nurse. In the past, simply being a Black professional and a woman was revolutionary. My great grandmother had stories about her patients in Harlem not allowing her in their homes at first because they believed ‘there are no Black nurses up here.’ My mom had to put on a louder and bolder professional persona at work to be believed as a capable physician. She would come home and curl up on the couch with takeout because it was so the opposite of her natural introverted nature. Simply existing was what the women in my family did to advance the cause of equality. They also voted, and my mother donates to the ACLU. But joining marches, being mentors, leading diversity and inclusion activities - these are not things the women in my family did. Another thing about my mother: her father was dean of an Historically Black College and University (HBCU). When she was offered the role as head of Diversity and Inclusion at a university, his advice to her was to turn it down. “You don’t want to be pigeon-hold as the Black doctor.” He wanted his daughter to be considered for all types of leadership roles, not the ones predesignated for minorities. Here is the disappointing part: He was right. My mother saw throughout her career people of color who went into these roles only being offered these sorts of roles. Her career, on the other hand, broadened. This is not unusual - I had Black professors in college who did not want to mentor minority students for fear of being seen as the end-all-be-all for minority student issues. They also felt their White colleagues should do an equitable amount of minority mentorship. Looking back, it makes sense for my mother to listen to this advice because the goal was to get as high as she could. Any glass ceiling she could break would open the way for others to follow. The question I have been asking myself lately is whether simply existing is enough. It does not feel revolutionary that I am a Black woman and a nurse. It feels like I have to do more than be an insurance company executive and a consistent voter. Yesterday my mom and I were debating if her father’s advice is still true, and, if not, what role should Black women professionals now play. I would love to hear what others think about this.

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Clydene Horrigan
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774
Process improvement is my game
06/15/20 at 6:44PM UTC
This has been a great conversation. I know the topic was originally about how you can make an impact, but it has also been enlightening to those if us who are not in your shoes. The dialogue has been respectful, thoughtful, and deeply raw. Coming from a community where we don't have many black people, it us helpful to hear that side of things. If inly the world could have conversations like this with actionable outcomes, we would be in a much different place.
S. Teachey
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145
06/10/20 at 1PM UTC
Thanks for sharing your story. Now more than ever, I believe many of us are contemplating... the impact we have on our families, society, community, history, future generations, etc. Its a lot decipher... I could be wrong, but it sounds like you’re exploring how to be more impactful (which is not necessarily revolutionary, but just as valuable and meaningful). There are ways to do this outside of your career, but you can still leverage the skills, experience, lessons, insight that you’ve learned over the course of your career and personal life. How about mentoring or volunteering ? What can you do to reach back or help your community or help young African American girls or women? What can you do to help build a pipeline of the next Black health care professionals? Or maybe help drive health and wellness programs/services in disadvantaged communities? Can you help drive funding for health initiatives/research that disproportionately affect minorities? Can you teach/tutor? Or have you considered advocacy or involvement in local health agencies, associations or local govt? Maybe join an organization/group that champions a cause you support? I don’t have answer, but happy to help bounce a few ideas.. You would probably be more impactful outside of the D&I seat(Less bureaucracy and shareholders to please first) There are lots of organizations with D&I officers and they are usually black.... unfortunately sometimes that’s more about optics and less about the company’s commitment to true inclusion. I know plenty of Black women and men professionals giving their time, skills, energy and hearts to our society and their communities outside of their full time jobs. My advice...think about what you want to do... and the causes that matter to you & your community... then focus your energies there. Hoping for the best.
Patricia Osborne Randolph
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240
MFT looking to assist with uplifting others
06/10/20 at 11:01AM UTC
Hey Lisa! I enjoyed reading your thoughts and I want to applaud your female family members and you for your professional contributions to the healthcare field! I am pondering if there is a "pigeon-hold" in African-American professional positions or is it a door of opportunity to build, connect, grow, and move forward for oneself and others?
Jeri Tuck
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94
Founder of Holistic Family Network
06/09/20 at 8:07PM UTC
Hi Lisa! Thanks for sharing your family experience; it's something I can totally relate to. First - let me say this: you are not "simply existing!" It takes a lot to be a leader. It takes a lot to navigate the workplace as a Black woman. When those roles intersect, it creates a whole new experience - and seemingly, a whole new set of rules. I have experienced that too, and I know how difficult it can be - even in the "nicest" workplaces. But guess what? You're doing it, and I applaud you! I also understand how familial expectations can sometimes pressure us into following paths that will make our family proud, but not necessarily be fulfilling. I am in that boat as we speak! Sometimes we have to do what will make us happy, and not care about what others think/say - even if they mean well. As I listen to what you're saying, I wonder - would you feel like you're doing something more significant by joining the diversity and inclusion team? Deep down, would that make you feel more like an active participant, and not like you're simply existing? You also mentioned how your mother took your grandfather's advice, and her career soared. However, she would come home and seriously have to recover after a long day of acting outside of her character. Do you worry that may happen to you if you follow your grandfather's advice? You don't have to answer out loud. Just some things to think on. In the end, the world, the workplace, and career possibilities have changed so drastically in the last several years. Our greatest accomplishments will come from figuring out our highest personal values, and then aligning our career paths to them. I wish you the best. In everything. You deserve it!
Lisa
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432
Nurse, Technology Writer, Healthcare Executive
06/09/20 at 10:16PM UTC
Thank you! I wish you the best as well, and also hope you find a way to at least balance family expectations and finding fulfillment.
Marla Fields
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148
Semiconductor industry engineer herding the cats
06/09/20 at 7:09PM UTC
Great topic. I have struggled with this idea myself. I have a chemical engineering degree and back in 2012 I had to decide where i wanted to go w my career. I struggled with moving to a less technical role (program managment) and was it my duty to stay strictly technical to continue to prove that black women can do this? Was it my duty to struggle against the biased system to break through where others have failed? Am I dropping out the leaky pipeline and taking the easy way out? I can't answer it for u but I still struggle with this idea.
Lynne Cogan
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858
Career Coach for Realizing Professional Dreams
06/09/20 at 5:59PM UTC
It all comes down to one thing: What do you want to do? Your path isn't the same as your grandmother's or mother's or father's. It's yours. With your interests, talents, experiences, and sensibility. No one can decide what is right for you other than you.
Priya Marsonia
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28
Re-envision and transform organizations.
06/09/20 at 5:48PM UTC
Hi Lisa, I appreciate you sharing this conversation. There is absolutely no question that you drive change just by being present. We need to see and interact with powerful people who are African American on a regular basis. You not only inspire other African American women, and women in general, but you also challenge the unconscious biases that people from privileged classes hold. By being present, you are absolutely aiding the movement. I am American, but of South-Asian descent, and I certainly understand the advice your family gave, as a mechanism you could use to drive your career and place in society forward. From the last few sentences in your post, I infer that you have already achieved academic, professional and corporate success. It sounds as though you are in a place where you want to amplify the values you stand for, and where you want to give back to others. This, perhaps, is a place that not many people achieve, within themselves. It is an internal achievement. People who may have achieved more financially, academically or professionally may never arrive at a place where they feel they need to do more. But you have arrived there. If making a difference, and being a voice for those who need advocacy is what excites you, then I would suggest that your family's advice no longer applies. You are about to embark on the dangerous course of becoming vocal on topics that people have strong emotions about. It may cause people to look at you differently. It may make you less popular in more traditional roles. I believe pigeon-holing might be a technique that is employed to silence leaders. Creating boxes for people and telling them their future will be limited by a particular role is certainly a way to nullify someone who would be most effective at demanding systemic change. I think you should go for it. Like one of the other responders said, I am not black, so I cannot advise you from that perspective. I can only say that you may be a very important, vocal and frequent voice in the very important piece of history that is unfolding in front of us right now. And if you feel that that is something that would make you wake up each morning with a true sense of purpose and making a difference, then you should go for it, because it means you are a very special sort of person.
Lisa
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432
Nurse, Technology Writer, Healthcare Executive
06/09/20 at 10:13PM UTC
Priya - thank you for this. You raise such a good point that 'pigeon-holing' is a technique that can silence leaders. Or at least put them in a box with a warning label on it. It does seem like there is a lot that comes down to where someone is in their career as to whether taking on these roles inside vs outside of work makes sense. I hate to describe it as a 'risk' because it should not be. Thank you also for your words of encouragement.
Anonymous
06/10/20 at 4:39PM UTC
Whatever you decide, I am really impressed with your ability to convey complex ideas and strike a chord with people. As you are avant-garde in your thinking, you may be ahead of where the workplace in America is, currently. Regardless of where you decide to exercise a more active voice on these issues, I am confident you will be successful. Best of luck. Happy wrestling :).
Georgene Huang
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5.22k
CEO & Co-founder of Fairygodboss
06/09/20 at 5:20PM UTC
Lisa, I appreciate you sharing your family history and your own struggles with thinking through balancing what you "should do" and how much your race and gender should shape your behaviors. I am reading Michelle Obama's "Becoming" book right now and in it, she shares a story from childhood where she talks about how her young cousins accuse her of talking like a "white girl" because she uses English grammar different than them (because her parents had encouraged her to do so). She felt boxed in by expectations of others, and referenced the fact that her future husband, Barack Obama also felt boxed in by expectations of others (even though by definition, with his relatively unusual background and upbringing he was harder to box in than others). It takes a lot of experience and personal growth to learn to observe others' boxes and still define your own, in your own way. I am an Asian-American woman and immigrant and have gotten very similar advice as your mother received from her father. My family encouraged me to not focus on my gender and race -- with the subtext being that focusing on these things would not help me advance and that this was the most important thing I could do for not only myself but people who looked like me. Its hard to shake the things you are taught but as I have grown older, my perspective on this has changed. In other words, I don't think its such a binary choice (as A.N. mentions, above). And I think the thing that matters the most is that you find your way being true to who you are at any given point in time. This may simply be "being" (as you describe it) which can be enough OR you may find that one day things change in either the external environment or within yourself and "being" one days involves getting more involved with D&I causes in a different way and than you would have now or earlier in your life. I think the fact that you're being this self-reflective is great...there is a lot of pressure on minorities of all kinds to be "representative" and do more and I certainly understand how that makes life more complicated.
Breanna Fountain
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82
Critical care RN turned clinical sales manager
06/11/20 at 9:57AM UTC
Children may be innocent, but they judge harshly by speaking opinions that their families have instilled in them. If only everyone was unbiased and came to every encounter and decision without any bias. Everyone has bias and as humans, it is important to 'fit in'. I applaude the changemakers and rule breakers who may not fit in with the crowd, but instead find a few key allies and continue on. Not everyone has to be a revolutionary, but everyone needs to open their eyes, recognise their biases, and learn!
Lisa
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432
Nurse, Technology Writer, Healthcare Executive
06/09/20 at 10:03PM UTC
First of all - I absolutely loved 'Becoming.' I identified with so many of Michelle's stories (and now apparently feel close enough to call her 'Michelle'). Secondly, thank you for sharing being able to move beyond your parents' concerns about the limits placed on you, to not seeing this as a binary choice. Because, yes, there is definitely a lot of pressure to 'represent' and also do more. I very much appreciate how this discussion has shown me there are so many more than 2 options.
Tasha Kalafatis
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13
06/09/20 at 1:29PM UTC
I think you're absolutely onto something important here--both feeling like you want to do more and also feeling proud of who you are and what you've already done: "simply existing". Please call me out if this is redundant, but I think you're doing amazing work by both challenging yourself and validating yourself, and the balance of these (which is hard work!) is going to continue fostering your growth. In other words, I think "existing" is totally enough, and that just caring for yourself is both revolutionary and is going to enable you to keep caring about making change, as you already are.
Anonymous
06/09/20 at 1:25PM UTC
I recently read of the appointment of a black woman to a leadership position in a state (NOT HBCU) university... her career path, up to that point, had been in areas of diversity, etc. My thoughts (and I'm sure they will stir the pot a bit) are that there is rarely a way to "fail" as a manager/dean in the "diversity" department because, in my experience, there is never a critical evaluation. In higher ed, these positions are perceived to be essential, but are never evaluated for effectiveness. Too many institutions (speaking only of higher ed here) only permit those who are "diverse" through color, race, ethnicity or gender, etc. to weigh in on the diversity conversation. I find it quite ironic that I am not diverse enough to talk about diversity. Arent we just creating multiple homogenous groups?

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