This and That: From 'Almost Heaven'

I've been in the US since mid-June, visiting one of my sisters who lives in the north-east corner of West Virginia. The sun has shone every day since I arrived. This is in sharp contrast to what the Dutch have been experiencing back home.

All this sunshine comes with a price, though. It's been so dry, the leaves are falling from the trees, some leaves are turning color (this doesn't usually start until sometime in September), and many plants in her garden are dying. Her water supply doesn't come from the city but from a well. How deep is the water in that well? No-one knows.

How deep is the well of energy surging in the hearts and minds of many Americans, now that Kamala Harris is running for president? I hope this well is truly deep and can stay the course.

It's been an incredible week, kicked off on Sunday, July 21st by 44,000+ women from the group 'Win With Black Women' (just hours after President Biden handed the nomination to his VP) on one Zoom call. This was followed the next evening by 53,000 Black men coming together in her support. Then a call went out - 'White Women: Answer the Call'. Last Thursday evening, between Zoom and YouTube, more than 200,000 answered that call.

I've just watched the replay of that event, hosted by https://www.answerthecall2024.com/ . Those of us who are White, don't often use that as a descriptor for ourselves. One of the speakers shared: "White women, interesting. I mean, here we are. [ ] Why is it so difficult to acknowledge and address ourselves as White women?"

This comment reminded me of a quote by Professor John A Powell | UCLA Berkeley, which was shared by author Barbara Banda , last year at ECWO's conference in Rotterdam: “The white race is often invisible. Those racialized as white have the luxury not to have to think of their ‘whiteness’. They can think about ‘race’ as something that belongs to someone else. They’re just people. That’s part of being racialized as white.” This quote deeply resonated with me at the time, as I 'held the mirror up' and it wasn't pleasant.

Back in January, I wrote a newsletter that focused on what I had experienced while in the US, during the months of December and January. DEI was taking (and still is) a hit by Republicans, making organizations question their hiring and admittance policies. I was particularly impacted by the vilification I heard in the media and now it's being turned on Kamala Harris. Make no mistake, as Glennon Doyle points out in the event replay, 'DEI hire' is the newest iteration of a racist slur.

You might think I'm an American but I'm not. Born and raised Canadian, and also since 2016, a citizen of the Netherlands. I just spend a lot of time here. With the work I do in the DEI field, thanks to friends and colleagues like Vivian Acquah Rodney Frank Anita Vink-Abaisa and many others, I've become more sensitized to the need for inclusive cultures in all aspects of life.

What hits so hard, is knowing that what's happening now is causing unprecedented levels of stress, based on a strong fear for the future. And not just with those living in the US. On a call last week with a small number of women, whether in the US, Canada or the Netherlands, we all expressed this fear. It's palpable. It's physical. It's not healthy.

But I hope this fear will galvanize action. That has always been what I consider a strength of mine - if I don't like something, then I won't just talk about it but I'll put energy into Creating Waves for the change I want to see. I believe this has stimulated the development of my resilience muscles.

Mary Jane Roy is the owner of Creating Waves . She is committed to sharing knowledge and strategies to support thriving people in workspaces and organizations.

If you'd like more information about workshops, speaking engagements, panels, or consultancy customized to meet your organizational needs, please click here to learn how Mary Jane can support you.

“We Need More Heart! More Compassion, Kindness, Acceptance and Forgiveness - in our families, our workplaces and in the world.”

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