WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE BLOND CHICK REVEALS SHE’S BLACK? And why does this matter for your company, colleagues, and customers?

As Joy D. Calloway dined at an NAACP banquet back in 2008, she glanced across the crowd of 500 and bristled.

“Who is that white woman on the dais?” she asked her then-husband.

“She’s the keynote speaker,” he said.

“Oh, that is not right!” she exclaimed. As a CEO with an MBA who is an inspiring speaker and author, she later recalled, "I was livid!"

Joy, who is African American, believed that a person of color should have the honor of speaking at the annual Northern Oakland County Branch NAACP Dinner in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan. 

In the ballroom, Joy fumed as the speaker, Elizabeth Ann Atkins, proceeded to the podium and began her keynote by saying:

“Don’t be fooled by the vanilla hue of my skin, it doesn’t even hint of the chocolate shades of my kin.”

“Alright!” people praised, along with laughter and affirmation, as Elizabeth recited her autobiographical poem, White Chocolate. This four-minute rhyme relayed a bittersweet message about being a white-looking, multiracial woman who writes books, speaks, and uses her unique perspective to cultivate harmony.

Then Elizabeth delivered a rousing speech about America’s racial history and the progress that could—in a few months—lead to the election of Senator Barack Obama for his first term as President and as the first Black man in the White House.

Elizabeth’s speech inspired a standing ovation.

“I was blown away,” Joy later recalled. “I went from, ‘Who is the white girl on the NAACP stage?’ to ‘I’m in love with this sister because she is bringing all of that!’”

***

That speaker was me. And I had no idea that Joy was experiencing this transformation of perspective until many years later, when I met her at a luncheon.

“That was a defining moment for me,” said Joy, a powerful keynote speaker who will release her poignant memoir, One Crisis From Crazy: Finding Myself Without Losing My Mind, in 2021.

“I made a judgement based on how you looked,” she added. “As you spoke, it wasn’t just the recognition that, ‘This is a Black woman.’ It’s what you were saying that got me. I was impressed that what you said was powerful and knowledgeable about history, along with your confidence and sense of self—being so secure in the totality of who you are. You proved that you definitely can’t judge a book by its cover. You are a case in point.”

I cherish this story, because it illustrates the power to transform thinking based on visual perceptions.

Racial assumptions based on appearance are the essence of hate, racism, white supremacy, discrimination, and the long list of things that people around the world are now working aggressively to stop, resolve, heal, and replace with thinking, behavior, and systems that guarantee the as-of-yet unmet promise of the Pledge of Allegiance: "with liberty and justice for all."

The power to change all begins with a mind-shift. And that can happen in one conversation, with one book, with one poignant experience.

Back in 2003 when I was a guest as the author/expert on The Montel Williams Show, he said the “shock value” of my appearance is a powerful tool that can help people think about race and identity in a new way.

And that’s exactly my mission when I speak on Diversity & Inclusion at companies, corporations, colleges, universities, and organizations. If you and your employees make assumptions about your colleagues, customers, students, staff, and members--and those assumptions are wrong--major problems, even lawsuits, could result. That's why it's my mission to help you see through a new perspective of kaleidoscopic possibilities about people that only enhance workplace culture, education, an organization's impact, and your company's success.

This mission is the story behind Two Sisters Writing & Publishing. Over the past four years, my business partner and sister, Catherine M. Greenspan, and I have written and published 24 books by authors whose diverse voices add powerful elements to today’s crucial conversations about race, ethnicity, equality, and justice.

Today their voices need to be heard more than ever, so we created The Two Sisters Writing & Publishing Virtual Speakers Agency, enabling our authors to share solid action steps to implement and sustain lasting change that guarantees equality and justice for everyone.

Each of our authors challenge you to never judge a book by its cover. Together, we’re serving as catalysts for transformational thinking that improves corporate culture, education, organizations, and society at large.

As such, I love to share Joy’s story. In fact, I mentioned it in my memoir, and will talk more about it in my upcoming book about race, identity, and unity—White Chocolate is BitterSweet.

Stay tuned for my next post, when I explore about how a similar experience with a white man also led to transformational thinking about race.

I believe this is how change happens, one conversation at a time, with personal interaction that challenges assumptions and provides empathy, compassion, and honesty to cultivate new perspectives.

Thank you for considering this one, today.

#diversity #inclusion #diversityandinclusion #race #blacklivesmatter #workplaceculture #antiracism #racism #prejudice #wellness #speaker #author #books @joydcalloway