LIFT YOUR HEAD UP

Dear Dr. Gregory Beaver, oh, how you did a phenomenal job teaching me about Managing across differences. I can distinctly recall our lectures on how to spot; Microaggressions, understanding stereotypes, and unpacking our implicit and explicit biases. You did warn us and let me tell, you were right, it left me lost for words.

Someone once suggested that my success is actually due to the systemic advantages; I have because I am black. For many years, I have heard as a black man to keep your head up, pick my battles, bounce back, or simply, let it go. Here is the dilemma that I find myself, best expressed in an article by an award-winning serial social entrepreneur, investor, author, and public speaker Nicole Cardoza.  

Nicole Cardoza deposits, "Not only do we have to reckon with the emotional impact of the microaggression itself, but we also have to choose how to respond– knowing our disadvantaged position in these scenarios. We have to consider how responding could further enforce false stereotypes about our race. We have to gauge whether we could be provoking more racial aggressions, even bodily harm. We also have to consider how staying silent will enforce this behavior in the future and cause further suffering.”

I think the purpose of microaggressions is to slowly cause you to lose your power and ultimately, your voice. I can hear you, Dr. Beaver, your lectures are coming to me like scripture verses. You would elucidate that when we come face to face with a micro-aggression, remember that intent does not supersede impact and that there is nothing micro about microaggressions. 

I am where I am because of the bridges that I crossed and because of bridges that were constructed to help me reach my destination. All my brothers and sisters are bridges, Dee-ann Kentish Rogers is a bridge; Cori Bush is a bridge; Tamika D. Mallory is a bridge; Marcus Garvey was a bridge; Martin Luther King was a bridge; Malcolm X was a bridge. We are bridging the gap and empowering others to be a bridge.

I will leave you with the words from a bridge-builder, "Be as proud of your race today as our fathers were in days of yore. We have a beautiful history, and we shall create another in the future that will astonish the world. Rise Black Men, and take your stand. Reach up black men and women and pull all nature’s knowledge to you. Turn ye around and make a conquest of everything North and South, East and West. And then we have wrought well, you will have merited God's blessing, you will become God's chosen people and naturally, you'll become leaders of the world."-- Marcus Garvey

To my bridges, thank you for keeping my head up!