What are you doing to celebrate Pride? Here are 3 recommendations for increasing your awareness and becoming a better ally for the LGBTQIA2S+ community.

Today I’m talking about my favorite topic – pay equity. The USWNT have been fighting for better pay and working conditions, just like so many women have been fighting for decades. As of 2020, women make 82 cents to every dollar made by men.

Beyond the physical and mental upheaval of workplace sexual harassment, women must face economic uncertainties, too. These may include job loss, lower earnings, missed opportunities for advancement, and loss of benefits such as health insurance and retirement savings.

Women’s participation in the labor force took a significant dip due to the pandemic, specifically the lack of childcare. However, the issues impacting women were present before this situation and will still be present afterwards.

I’m excited to share a new series called This Woman’s Work, which highlights the different challenges that women face as we are asked to bring our whole selves to work. Women are not monoliths, and we bring a deep and varied experience to every role. We also bring intersectional identities that enhance our perspectives.

When the bank leader came out in our retreat, I thought that was the only time that she needed to come out. Little did I know that coming out is series of decisions made over a lifetime. “Coming out” is just one term within a new vocabulary I had to learn.

So often, we get trapped in deficit-based thinking, which is rooted in colonialism. We focus on what’s wrong and get frozen by the overwhelming evidence of the problem. I call this the “white people frozen effect,” where white people learn about the wide and deep systems of inequities and don’t know how to move forward because they don’t want to make another mistake.

What do thinking systems of the brain have to do with breaking down white supremacy culture? Much more than we realize. System 1 thinking frequently leads to fast and faulty judgement because judgement takes less brain power. If we tap into System 2 thinking, we take time to reflect on times when we have been suspicious and acted differently based on racial markers.

Dominant culture defines who's in and who's out. And dominant cultures create problems when they place boundaries on full participation. These boundaries may be seen and unseen. As I've learned about being part of a dominant culture, I continue to learn how these boundaries impede full participation by everyone in society.

It’s easy to wallow in my disappointment and feelings of discomfort. I can certainly find plenty of people locally and online who identify with my feelings. I can see myself slipping into a judgmental headspace. I’m learning that my judgmental tendencies are more about my own issues than others.

I fear that the world will go back to sleep once the media coverage decreases about inequality. My bigger fear is that I will follow the world. That’s why I present this Learn Up, Show Up, Act Up model as an infinity loop. I’m committed to staying on the infinity loop. Are you?

I An apology is reaching out in relationship and offering vulnerability. As I read and listen to more and more stories by people of color, I am learning that my white guilt is shallow when I use thoughtless words and no actions of reparation.

An easy trap for us white people to fall into would be only building a head knowledge about racial justice. We could read all the books, listen to all the interviews, and write about all the learnings. Yet, head knowledge does not equate to heart connection.

As Southern white people, we have erased the history of black people, indigenous groups, and other people of color with our hubris. It’s time to reassess the story we are telling and look at our part in the narrative.

Wrongs have been and are being continuously committed by white people toward people of color at the individual, group, organization, and community level. Change for white people involves admitting our conscious and unconscious racist behaviors.

Will things ever change? God, I hope so. I ask that we white people fight racism every day in every way. Here are some tangible ways to act today with resources for you to use in educating yourself.