What Do White Leaders Owe BIPOC?
It’s a question I ask myself a lot.
What do I owe? What can I do?
I mean I’m just one white dude. I don’t run a huge company. I have so much on my plate, with clients, and deadlines, and deliverables, and culture. It’s too much already.
So what do I owe BIPOC people?
I know I owe more, but this is what I came up with…
1. I owe them remembering -
Being white means I have the privilege of forgetting. About slavery, discrimination, hate speech, micro-aggressions, and all the trappings of systemic racism.
It’s so easy for me to forget, to let it fade in my mind, to let it be someone else’s problem, and to pay it “lip service” and nothing else.
At the very least I owe remembering that the system I live in, make money in, pay taxes in, and maybe someday raise children in is a system that benefits few and harms others. I didn’t choose or design this system, but I have benefitted from it and it has harmed good people.
I can start by simply remembering that truth instead of letting it fade away.
2. I owe them anti-racism -
I grew up in the era of being color blind, race not mattering and being a taboo subject, and for a long time I thought…
