164 | The Path to an Anti-racist Society with Birungi Ives
Our guest on the pod for this episode is Birungi Ives. Birungi is a consultant, strategist, author and the founder of ALIGNE Consulting. She has over 20 years experience in media, marketing and communications. She has developed a transformative anti-racist workshop called The Path to an Anti-racist Society.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
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Birungi Ives Awarepreneurs Interview
SPEAKERS
Paul Zelizer, Birungi Ives
Paul Zelizer 00:01
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer, and welcome to another episode of the Awarepreneurs podcast. This podcast is all about the intersection of three things, conscious business, social impact, and awareness practices. Each episode, I do a deep dive interview with a thought leader in this intersection, someone who has market tested experience, and is already transforming many lives. Before I introduce today's guests and our topic, I have one request. If you could go over to iTunes or whatever app you're listening to the show on and do a rating and review it helps tremendously. Today, I'm really excited to introduce you to Berlin, J. Ives, and our topic today is a path to an anti racist society. Linda is a consultant, strategist, and author and the founder of aligned consulting. She has over 20 years of experience in media marketing and global communications. Linda, welcome to the show. Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm so grateful to be here. There's some things to talk about on this topic on it there.
Birungi Ives 01:03
Yes, definitely. It definitely is.
Paul Zelizer 01:07
Before we get into the topic, and your background, and the work you're doing, were called where printers Belinda. And, and one of the ways we like to get to know somebody is to ask you about a wellness or an awareness practice that you personally use to bring your most resilient your best self to this work, day after day, week after week.
Birungi Ives 01:27
Well, I do MIT daily meditations, I do an eight mile walk Monday through Friday in nature, that really helps to send to me for my day. And then I feed my spiritual fellowship with a group called al anon, which supports friends and families of alcoholics. And with that, the spiritual side of my existence is, is fed and supported. And I feel like all components that I contribute to, for my spiritual well being are necessary for my professional success.
Paul Zelizer 02:09
meditation, nature and spiritual community. Boy, I don't know if it gets any better than that. I don't like to judge practices. But boy, those are some good ones. You got there. Yeah. Thank you so much. So this work that you do around you know, there's there's this personal growth component, and there's working in corporate and there's doing this really, like transformational anti racist work, both on the personal level and on the corporate level? How did you start getting interested in the intersection of those things? To be perfectly honest, I think I was always interested. My parents are activists and have been fighting for democracy in Uganda since the 70s. And I was always around my father, either writing preparing speeches, she would give a lot of talks and seminars on how to bring democracy to Uganda. And that was my first opportunity to witness activism firsthand. And when I went to college, I thought I was going to do something very kind of expected, like either become a doctor or lawyer, you know, African parents promote the necessity of education at its highest. But when I started at Mount Holyoke College, and a women's college in western Massachusetts, the first women's college in the United States, I found myself starting to take courses revolving around intersecting African and African American history. And one of the major things that came to my awareness was how much of that information was missing from our history books,
Birungi Ives 03:59
that a lot of the content, the resources, the information about how people of color black people have contributed to our global community was omitted. And it wasn't until I went to college that came to understand how much we've contributed. And it actually learning that it built mice, it continued to build my sense of self worth. But then, I was at college, also at the time when oj was on trial. And there was a lot of racial tension on campus. So it was a very prominent discussion. And I ended up graduating with a degree in both African and African American Studies. And I think that was the educational premise of the work I was yet to do when I graduated. There was no real use of the internet or social media. And as we're on this podcast right now, how time is have changed since 1996. So I don't think I could afford foreseen what I would be doing at this present moment. Because not anyone had actually thought of it yet. But I would definitely say, through my family and my education, it really lit, you know, built the premise of the work I do today, and anti racism work. And I have to say, throughout my career, you know, I started my first professional position was, as a community, a community liaison, where I communicated between the afro Caribbean community and Nottingham, England, and Nottingham City Council. I don't think I understood in my early 20s, how profound that position was to be basically a social and communications advocate for the afro Caribbean community, and then also relaying any policies or policy reforms that impacted that community. I feel like when I look back at that, it's so incredibly relevant to where we are today, being a community liaison for the African American community, the black community. And to think that that was my first professional position. You know, I lived in England for four years. And I think it started to plant C's on what I was capable of achieving, in terms of social and community reform, but there was going to be a long road ahead to follow that job. Especially when I returned back to the United States with my husband. I knew there were some intersections of our story, potentially fatal. I was first got trained to be an activist in Amherst, Massachusetts, right off the street from Malmo.
Paul Zelizer 06:59
And yes, my first activist position was of the men's Resource Center in western Massachusetts, we were doing intervention and creating diverse circles of men, I first watched an anti racist, my first kind of really significant training around anti racism work was in that context, where we watched and wow, the color of fear was about how to bring anti racist conversations into men's work. And yeah, oh my gosh, and then I did community mental health and community work out here in New Mexico and was was, you could basically it was a community worker, social worker is my title, but was was sort of brokering conversations between the indigenous communities out here, the pueblos and the small communities of northern New Mexico, which were mostly Hispanic Latinx, and interfacing with school. So anyway, wow, I'm already seeing a lot of intersections I have, I have a sense of what you know, different communities, different trainings are from different backgrounds. But I'm like, Oh, I think I have some idea of that role, and how, when you're talking about how much you learned, and how profoundly it shaped your education, I'm like, Oh, my God, we're really different. But there's a lot of similarities there.
Birungi Ives 08:12
Exactly. And I love that we're able to bear witness to that, because the whole premise of my anti racism workshop, and we can dive into more of that later. But the premise is about building connection, that it's harder to hate someone that you know, and you understand who they are, on a more intimate level, in the sense that they feel free to be able to express their vulnerabilities, their struggles and their challenges with you. And you're able to learn from that. And I think, you know, that type of deep communication, those deep connections from people with from different gender groups, or racial groups, ethnic groups, that's where racism can really be dismantled. In those connections. And I think racism, the foundation of racism, the few for racism is ignorance. Those deeper connections, like we're making today, right now, and how our paths have entered, you know, intersected in ways we were not even aware of, and we hadn't, we've had some other conversations and it's amazing that in this instance, we are basically mirror marrying that reality. That truth that connections are what binds us. And I think ultimately snuffs out, hey,
Paul Zelizer 09:44
I don't know any other way to sustainably and like really transform some of these really sticky and messy and intergenerational like, there has to be some element to that otherwise, we're just kind of reading The books and looking at the models and looking at the frameworks and using the vocabulary, but it doesn't change. We just dress it up a new clothes in the oppression in the unconscious bias and racism goes on and on and on and on. So yeah, I couldn't agree with you more.
Birungi Ives 10:16
Yeah, I mean, you hit the nail on the head that it. You you in your statement, you you understand that anti racism and diversity trainings have been in existence for decades. A long time.
Paul Zelizer 10:29
Yeah. And I'm not down, right.
Birungi Ives 10:34
But some elements must have been missing, that they haven't takes root socially and expand it in ways to create actionable change, visible change. They're some of the same condition conditions within corporate America that exists today that exists decades ago. Why hasn't that shift been made with all of these trainings, with all of these seminars with all of these books with all of this information? Because we haven't gone deep enough.
Paul Zelizer 11:07
And we're going to talk exactly about that your work before we do that Belinda? See went from doing this community work. And all this learning in this liaison to a more corporate expression of your career where you were thinking about things like marketing and leadership and global education. That's like, before we get to this transformational piece, I want to make sure people understand you're kind of street crowd like you did your time. Right, you're still working in some of those environments. Talk to us about your corporate experience, and what was it like to go from, you know, community liaison in this really profound way between the black community in the government and policy to thinking about leadership and marketing and communication in a corporate setting?
Birungi Ives 11:51
Well, that transition can be summed up in few words, basically, community development wasn't sexy enough for me, in the sense that I wanted, I wanted to be in the center of entertainment, and retail and, and just, you know, with all of these global brands, I knew I wanted to create a shift socially, yes. But I wanted to talk and connect with the global influencers and all different types of backgrounds, whether that be in retail, automotive, fashion, lifestyle, in general, I wanted to see and connect with brands and individuals that the world listen to. I saw that as a more powerful means to making change by connecting with organizations, corporations, brands, and influential individuals that the world look to, because if they were speaking about change, the world would listen. So my shift from community development into the world of global communications and marketing corporations, really happened when I started an online platform called the Global eco online forum. And the first person I interviewed was Christy Turlington, burns. She is a famous model, but even more famous, in respects to her activism work with her organization, every mother counts, they advocate for maternal health needs for women and children around the world. And when she agreed via Twitter, the beauty of social media giving you access to people of influence. To do an interview with me, I was ecstatic. Because I felt as though I had upped the game in who was in within reach, in respects to my network, my professional network, and I knew in interviewing Christie and all the amazing work that she was doing in this space, and it was personally important to me in the fact that my cousin, Linda, she died at 29 with the birth of her first child. So it was so important for me to interview a woman like Christie, who, within the world of fashion, was a global influencer and the world of fashion, knew her and still does. She still is working modeling campaigns for cosmetic companies. And major, high end fashion labels. But that's where the intersection came. It was still community social development work. But I was intersection intersecting that with global influencers, from various, you know, aspects of our lives. And that's what made it exciting for me. And I remember in 2012, my online platform, the global eco online forum was covering the environmental media wars we have made as a family made our way out to living in Malibu, California, very glamorous, where I had the opportunity to build connections with community development platforms and organizations in the LA area, and got to cover the environmental Media Awards. So had a team of photographers and interviewers for my magazine, online magazine, to you know, interview people celebrities on the red carpet. But one of the major people I wanted to meet was Elan musk. He was being honored at these awards. And I said, if there was anyone who's creating social change, environmental change, community impact Elan Musk was back in 2012, he had come out in 2009 with his Tesla Roadster, and he had just announced the Model S. And I knew he was going to be there. And I knew I had to meet him. And I did. And that's how I built my relationship with Tesla, and SpaceX, by meeting Ilan Musk, at this event where he was being honored. And after that, once I had once, you know, it's kind of like you have to build trust with people, you know, you can't always just cold call, you know, the CEO, Walmart. So I had to kind of build up my network, my professional network with people of global influence. And the more I did that, the more people trusted me. And I was able to expand into all types of areas and working with like General Motors, specifically with a lot of their electric and hybrid cars, and executive leadership there. But it was so amazing how things started to unfold, the more I was able to build that network, build those connections. And that's really one of the most important themes of my professional career. connections were always key strategic partnership, strategic relations, strategic connections, critical. So that's how I was able to really kind of make that jump from community development never left community development. It was just within a different platform and forum, a global platform, working with these types of organizations and individuals. And brands.
Paul Zelizer 18:21
Couldn't agree more with what you're saying? What my vocabulary polenta is, after I had done my community, you know, work I did for a long time. And I was really grateful. But I was always feeling like the horsepower was over there and business and those of us doing community work, which was really important. felt like we were like fighting for the scraps to just like help families and communities with really important decisions and business was all the horsepower. And I was like, I'm tired of fighting for scraps. You know, I'm going to go where the horsepower is, but bring that community development or social worker or activist mindset with me and I didn't even have vocabulary for social entrepreneur back then. But now I know this thing. It's one of the fastest growing majors on college campuses worldwide because young people are saying, we want to work towards positive change. We have to we understand some of the issues we're facing here on planet earth and you guys kind of passing on earth that's not in great shape people we need to do something about it but but they're they're wanting to leverage that horsepower. Some of these really significant drivers of what's happening here on planet Earth. I loved your description in particular, I like to talk about sometimes I joke about my spiritual highlighter and when you were talking about your strategic connections and how important developing your network is, I just wanted to pull out my spiritual highlighter and just circle that it's so important if we have any next gen up and coming impact leaders or social entrepreneurs, the people who listen to this podcast what you just said. about, you know, really intentionally cultivating relationship can be with Elon Musk, that's awesome. And it's awesome. You're doing fashion brands, you know, it might not be right out of the gate, but but getting to know the leaders in your space and people who've developed something that has, we would call it social capital, when you have relationships like that, you don't have to work so hard. And you can really find ways of having both more impact. And also, just as a business, your ventures will bring in more income, when Don't you think that's fair to say,
Birungi Ives 20:38
all incredibly, I think, and I, you know, to circle back to the spiritual component, that also is a necessary component to feed. Because as you're breaking into the space of global influencers, you have to have a sense, a strong sense of self, and self awareness, because it can be incredibly frightening to break outside of your comfort zone. And I was, for many years, I actually forever, constantly outside my comfort zone. And I think that's what holds a lot of people back about, you know, building that network and reaching out to people of influence, because they're fearful about, who are they and what do they actually have to bring to the table, I think on a spiritual level, you need to be to build that awareness. Because these social influencers, these global influencers, usually have a very strong sense of self. I think it's something it's a component, I think, is almost necessary in order to achieve the level of success they have. And they can suss out people who are not being fully transparent, and standing strong in their own space. Sometimes with these people, or corporations or organizations of influence, you might have five minutes of time with them. And it's not enough to just pitch yourself and your idea and why you want to collaborate a partner. It's about getting to know the people you're trying to connect with, what do they value? What is it their, what are their motivations, and connect with that, and see how that resonates with your own values and motivations. And that's something if you can bring that to to the to the table, sometimes within five minutes. with people who literally have no time. You can you can build an initial connection, that when you reach out to them again, they will respond. And that's exactly what I did with Elon Musk. I remember asking him if he had a business card and he said no. I said, Okay, what's your email? This was a Saturday night with these environmental media words. I said, What, what's your email? And he told me his email, and I said, Okay, I'll memorize that. And I'm going to email you tomorrow morning, that would have been Sunday morning. And I expect a response. I said this to you on Monday. I'm serious, because I show up, folks you got with these players, you have to show up fully, you know, and that's where the spiritual work comes in. Because you can't if you have a spiritual deficit, fully show up. And he I emailed him Sunday morning, and he emailed me immediately back
Paul Zelizer 23:40
Awarepreneurs, notice the first question we asked in every interview, including this one, what's an awareness practice that you use to resource yourself, right? Got to build a spiritual muscle. So literally, I built it into this podcast, you're not coming on in this podcast without me asking that question. You're not listening to an episode unless you skip that question. Because it's so freakin important. So it's critical. Yeah, yeah, I couldn't agree more. So, you know, 20 years of like, you know, going from community work, and suddenly you're on the red carpet and fashion brands, and you're talking to Elon Musk, and you're doing work with General Motors and like, yeah, big, big change. And that's the corporate work it. I want to get into your anti racism work, in particular, this incredible workshop and transformational work. Before we do that anything else that feels important to say about your corporate work, or this kind of building one's presence to be ready for it for our next generation leaders who are listening?
Birungi Ives 24:46
Well, I want to stress you know, my experience in corporate work and how that led to this anti racism workshop. To be completely transparent. I became an entrepreneur because as a black Female, there were so many barriers to entry into this into this world that I was navigating along. Traditional lines like applying for a job, we have to take into consideration as a black female in my experience in the corporate world, going the traditional route presented so many challenges and obstacles that I felt it was necessary for me to become an entrepreneur to do the type of work. And you'd think that was actually counterintuitive in the sense that, okay, say, if I want to break into the entertainment industry, or do some type of work within that space, you would think, okay, I would apply to CAA or a marketing position within one of the major agencies in LA. The thing is, everybody in their mother's doing that. And then when you take in consideration unconscious bias, the fact that it is a world of for white men to succeed, I knew I would have to go out on my own. But I took those frustrations with me in the sense that I did not want to leave people like myself behind. And when I had the ear of people within corporations such as Walmart, I said my piece. So to give you an example, in 2019, I tend I attended the Bentonville Film Festival. Bentonville, Arkansas is the headquarters for Walmart Incorporated. And they find quarters, yes, and they sponsor the Bentonville Film Festival. And during this week, I didn't actually have any tickets. But I said, you know what I'm meant to be at this event. I had no idea how I was going to get there. That is a common theme throughout my entire life. But I'm professionalized, like, I don't know how this is going to happen. But I know I need to be there. I said that many times in my professional life. So by way of someone in my allanon group, she said, Oh, I have some tickets to some events at the bendable Film Festival, I can't attend, you can go in my stead. And I will leave tickets at where you can pick them up at the ticket kiosk. And you know, it'll be in an envelope with your name on it, just like that, you know, I was just like, the week prior, I'm like, I need to go to this thing, but I have no idea how to get in. And then through, you know, my spiritual fellowship with Al anon, that's when she said, Oh, by the way, I have these tickets. And that led me on a path. There was a panelists forum that was being led by Doug mcmillon, who is the CEO of Walmart Incorporated. And it was featuring a documentary on African American heroes in American history. And I something about that, obviously, you know, you know, what I majored in, you know, my, my story up until now, definitely resonated with me. And I knew that I had to be at this event. So I talked to the woman who had offered me tickets and not to this event, but I knew I needed to be there. So I reached out to her and one of her point people with the Bentonville Film Festival, and basically, she said, Hold on, I'll send you an email invite to be able to attend this event. And the panelists basically consisted of Doug mcmillon, two producers of this documentary short, the director, and I'm trying to find the name for you, because my mind has just gone blank, but I know how to access that quite easily. And then, within the documentary short, there were five high school students. And this is a huge full circle moment that I really did not understand was going to transpire. So there amongst the panelists, there were four out of the five high school students that participated in this documentary short, and basically, these four children around 1516 years of age He shared about these African Americans that had contributed to American history that they had not known because they did not exist in their history books. And some of feeling just rushed over me that these children that were the same age as my son, were he was they were having the same experience I had had, over 20 years ago, when I got to Mount Holyoke, they will come in to understand how much black people have contributed to society, and had been left out of their education. And I have to say, I was incredibly nervous, but I knew I had to speak up, they were having a q&a session to follow the screening of the documentary short. And I knew I had to say something. Because I was going to have the opportunity to speak to Doug mcmillon, the CEO of Walmart Incorporated. And those types of opportunities do not come along, often, if at all. And I had to take advantage of that. So basically, and this is where my, my years of working in corporate America and marketing come into play. I had done some research because I am in the middle of writing a book, Paul called crown and glory, the powerful stories of our hair, celebrating women sharing stories, black women, women of color, sharing stories about their hair, in a personal or professional in a social capacity. And in that research for that book, I came to find out that the African American consumer demographic, spends nine times more than any other demographic in the hair and beauty market. However, if you go into a store, like Walmart, why when you go into the hair and beauty section, is it heavily catering to people with white features or white hair? Even though we spend more than any more any other demographic, you would think just being fiscally smart? You would market and merchandise to where the largest consumer spenders? Doesn't that make sense? totally makes sense. It totally makes sense. But it wasn't being done. And I stood up in front of the whole audience. And this was the most the, the most diverse group I've ever seen in in Bentonville my whole time there. And I came to find that Oh, so the name of the documentary, its dreams, unsung heroes of African American History. So that's the title and is directed by Sheldon Canvas, who was present on the panel. But basically, I said to Doug mcmillon, why is this happening online? And in your stores? And Doug mcmillon, right then and there, I said, and this was filmed, so someone has it on video somewhere. But um, who and said, Do you consult companies on these types of issues when it comes to marketing and merchandising in this space? And I said, That's exactly what I do.
Birungi Ives 34:05
And he connected me with one of his point people, his head of digital brands, Andy Dunn, who was present at this panelists, this event for this documentary. And I was like, people were coming up to me out of the audience saying, Oh, my God, this is the beginning of change. I'm so glad you spoke on this issue. And, you know, people were cheering me along, saying, Wow, this is amazing. You're actually going to make a social disk difference with the way retail is executed globally. You know, I mean, this is huge. I mean, Walmart is the number one retailer in the world. This is I you know, that's why I said you know, if you got to go for the players you want to go to, to the heavy hitters, because that's where you can make the most change and that's where I Experience the biggest disappointment of my life.
Birungi Ives 35:05
But well, basically they weren't, they weren't. When it came to communications, they were incredibly poor, I had to hunt them down. And it came, it became a reality that he was just saying that for the audience. And I don't know if he had any intention to, to effectively execute that. But I'm a very persistent woman. So I ended up having meetings with their executive leadership in this space. But there was a lot of resistance and a lot of pushback. And it left me frustrated and mad. And sad, ultimately, you know, you know, so, but I, this leads us to the anti racism workshop. So I'll leave it on that note for right now.
Paul Zelizer 35:55
Come on, only imagine what that was, like. I wanted to know, just like morally and ethically it's the right thing to do. But also just the business case, hello, Walmart. Right. Let me show you what you're missing here. And for them to say, Oh, yeah, your guy can only imagine what that felt like. And I believe you, and I'm sorry.
36:15
Oh, thank you so much.
Paul Zelizer 36:17
And I also want to say, I'll put a link, there's a lot of research, your experience about what you were saying, but then Jay, about being a black woman and trying to navigate the corporate space and how frustrating and difficult and challenging that was the fastest growing segment of entrepreneurs, at least in the US, I know for sure, I don't know, outside of but I think it's pretty similar is women of color, particularly black women entrepreneurs, which I'm thrilled about, but it's also because of these, you know, the intersections of racism and sexism, and all these other things. There's so many barriers that, you know, so many women of color, just saying corporate isn't built for me, and I don't like that. And that's frustrating. But I'm gonna go in, there's this incredible research, even with structural barriers there in terms of who gets access to funding, you know, just just really incredible women, bootstrapping incredible companies with all these structural barriers, and it's one of the biggest engines of our economy that nobody talks about. And I thank you for what you're doing. And I, I want to at least try to make it visible. So we'll put a link in the show notes about some of the research about that.
Birungi Ives 37:32
That's great. Yeah, I actually have an article that really details a lot about that, and includes this experience with Walmart. So it has a lot of nuggets.
Paul Zelizer 37:43
Let's get that send that to me and the link, and we'll put that in the show notes. So people can take a look at that article.
Birungi Ives 37:49
I definitely will.
Paul Zelizer 37:50
So let's do this, I want to take a quick break for our sponsors. And we come back on here about this incredible transformative work that you're doing now. So wherever there's isn't like most podcasts, we don't have like a website delivery service or a meal delivery plan. That is our sponsors. We're a community supported podcast and the community is called the aware printers community. And what we do is try to work on putting support in place both on the inside the, you know, emotional intelligence and spiritual support, checking in how are you doing in these really hard times? What do you need on an internal level, how you doing with self care, opportunities to connect and share both in calls, like zoom calls, as well as online in a regular basis. And then just really concrete resources for these kinds of businesses who can build a website for a social impact brand? I need somebody to help with Facebook ads. I want to learn how to use LinkedIn. How do I do a podcast guest strategy like Belinda is being a guest on this podcast to help get the word out really granular tools to help grow these kind of businesses over 300 members strong. If you could use some support for this kind of business, go check out the web printers community at aware printers.com forward slash community and thank you to everybody who supports this podcast. So after this incredible what a what a background you have behind you, whatever What a great set of experiences to lead to this work that you're doing now are the some of the work you're doing now that you're really excited about, which is this really transformative approach to doing anti racist work. Talk to us a little bit about that.
Birungi Ives 39:45
it's been a bit over a year since my experience with Walmart, and as many people know, we are going through a huge period of racial unrest As people like myself are demanding change along with our allies, we recognize what has continued, can continue no more. And it is with the deaths of Ahmad Aubrey and George Floyd. And now Jacob Blake who was shot in the back seven times. in Kenosha, Wisconsin. It's like people like them and so many others, the Briana Taylor's the list is endless, that something awakened in me in the sense that, as I was contending with my frustrations, anger, grief, fear. I told you, you know, to feed my spiritual self, I go on walks every morning, though, after all of this, there were times where I was thinking, am I even safe to do this walk as a black woman walking on the streets?
Birungi Ives 40:58
And I have a brown son, 16 years old, is he safe? I took all of those feelings and asked what can I do? How can I use my experiences? My intelligence, my capabilities, my resources, my network? How can I use what I have learned to create real change. And I had worked with LinkedIn, talking with their executive leadership, their head of diversity, inclusion and belonging, their Global Head of social good. And I've had talks with them about the necessity of diversity within executive leadership. Because because in order to have people of color to speak their truth within their workspaces, they need to see people that look like them that understand where they come from, and what they have experienced, to be in positions of power and influence within organizations. Because that's where the change is made. And I spoke to these executives, Rosana, Dorothy and Meg garlin house, at LinkedIn to say that, you know, I wanted to partner with them about bringing about these types of changes at LinkedIn, and I also received pushback there. And I said to myself, because I had requested to speak to the CEO, you know, that's my thing, Jeff Wiener at the time, and then it Ryan was Lansky took the position very recently. And I was told no, the CEO will not speak to you. And I said, Okay, I need to do something. I'm trying to work within these corporate spaces to try to bring about change. And it was almost like I was being guided Luigi, this is not where you need to be doing your work. Not right now. Anyway.
43:31
So I developed an anti racist workshop, designed for individuals and corporations and organizations to learn how racism has broken down the ability for people to connect human to human.
Birungi Ives 43:52
And it's through that dismantling of racism, and building connections with people different from ourselves, that we can move into a post racist society. So I developed a workshop called the Path to an Anti-racist Society, and then the corporate path to an anti-racist society, out of my experiences, and also my frustrations and also my successes. Because I, as I've said throughout this connection, is what supported my career and building relationships with people of influence. And I did, I did manage to do that. However, my frustrations and challenges within corporate within the corporate setting came a lot when it came to diversity inclusion, belonging equity efforts on the parts of these organizations. I mean, after all these years, why is that The executive leadership at LinkedIn predominantly white, they only just recently hired a woman of color as their chief people officer, but it was a white woman prior. And why would we hire people of color and executive leadership? Are they the chief people officer? Or the diversity inclusion and belonging? specialists? Why are we not the CEOs, the CEOs, the CFOs, the CMOS, although there are a lot of amazing women of color in that space, Bozeman, St. JOHN, is one of them. Who's that, you know, the CMO at Netflix now? So there are headways. Miki is happening. You know, coma Oh, Joe, she's the Chief Marketing Officer at Mac cosmetics. But still, overall, predominantly white male executive leadership across the board. And I knew by being able to offer this workshop to these types of organizations. That real change could be made I
Paul Zelizer 46:20
think this message is gonna so resonate with our audience of Indian and Obama listener. I'm like, I'm a yes to that's why I'm like, Yes, I totally get it and, like, go a little deeper, like what without sharing anything that you're not comfortable sharing, like, what's the path that you would lead somebody through because we're very relational community and and it certainly fits where we're at as we record this. Last night, we're in work class number two, and a three week class that were printers that was literally born in the aware printers community called inclusion and conscious business, it's being led by my di coach Nicole Lee, and Erica Hein to long term members and everything you're saying, like is very consistent with everything that I personally believe in, we believe as a community, we gotta find our way into genuine human connection and make space for all of the messy and beautiful human experiences and not disappear, that they're different experiences and not because of white and sexism, etc, that some people's experiences are the default and some people is there's just a lot of barriers to their experience and their expression and their bodied realities. Right. So so we're with you, like, like, I don't think anybody be listening to this podcast, it's not saying yes, but when I'm feeling into what other our community want, they're gonna want me to say, Birungi take us another level down, like what do you do in the work? How do you how do you actually design for that transformation that you're talking about?
Birungi Ives 48:00
I create a safe place, a safe space to be vulnerable.
48:08
And I know you're going to share the link of the anti-racist workshop with your listeners. I include a video of testimonials from participants.
Birungi Ives 48:20
And there will be a common theme with those testimonials. Because it's about creating a space where people can really share where they're coming from, and open themselves up be vulnerable enough to open themselves up to real change. It's interesting, I was listening to Britney brown today. And she has she has recently released a podcast called day two. And she mentioned the point of no return and what that means as a society that we are at a point of no return. We can't go back to America as it stood racially.
Birungi Ives 49:14
We've come too far and we cannot go back to that. We must go forward. But we're at a stage like a day two and she explains more in her podcasts. We are at a stage where our journey is asking us to be vulnerable to look our fears and our shame in the eyes, when it comes to race and racism. That's what I asked my participants you this is not easy work. Like what anybody who participates in this workshop Don't you know, don't think this is just your typical diversity inclusion training that you just saw. Kind of like move through the motions, and tick a box when you're done and get a certificate. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
50:08
My anti-racist workshop is about true connection and true connection can only be facilitated, created, maintained through vulnerability, opening yourself up to receiving the resources and information that I share, recognizing the feelings it brings up within you addressing them. Because by stating them, it takes the power of that fear away the power of the fear that keeps us from doing the real work.
Birungi Ives 50:44
How long have we had diversity inclusion efforts being made at the corporate level? Since the 80s, why is this all still happening, then? It's still happening. Because we haven't crossed that barrier of vulnerability to really, truly and receive the information that brings about lasting change, profound change. And that's what I do with my participants. It's over a period of three weeks. They're assigned resources to review within, in preparation for each hour session. And it delves in deep, emotionally deep at the root of racism and its perpetuation. It's the real work, it's about connection, vulnerability, and really cracking yourself open to the truth of being complicit as a society, in the perpetuation of risk.
Birungi Ives 52:05
And how do we change that we first need to know how we got here, how we're doing that, and how to change our behaviors, but even deeper, about shifting our emotional narratives around race, and racism. That's the type of work I do.
Paul Zelizer 52:27
Thank you for doing that really sacred work. So I could hang out and talk to you all day long. But then I love what you're up to. And thank you for doing it. And I don't want to do that to you, or listeners, we'll put a link to the workshop and the other resources we've mentioned, if there is something that you wanted to leave people with either a topic you were hoping we'd get to and we haven't gotten to it yet, or something you just want to emphasize as we're bringing this conversation to a close, what would that be?
Birungi Ives 53:00
The necessity of doing your own deep spiritual work, building that sense of awareness from within understanding that we are all powerful in our own right, that we all have purpose. It may look different, may sound different, may feel different, but we're all here for a reason. And it's about crossing that barrier of fear to truly fulfill our purpose
Birungi Ives 53:33
and that's what I really want to leave. I want to leave on that note. Recognizing, facing and addressing our fears to become who we will always meant to be
Paul Zelizer 53:51
Thank you so much for sharing your work with us today and yourself with us today.
53:55
Thank you so much.
Paul Zelizer 53:58
So we'll put a link to all the resources or if I forget something because there were a bunch please email me and we'll track it down.
Birungi Ives 54:05
I just sent you the link to the articles Awesome.
Paul Zelizer 54:07
Thank you. I want to thank everybody for listening and a quick reminder we now have two episodes a week and a lot of our episodes including this one thank you i on paper connecting off yes somebody a mutual connection. So we love listener suggested topics or guests. Please if you've got an idea for an episode, go to the web printers website and hit our contact form and make a suggestion literally happened here. We met through mutual connection who said this would be a fabulous topic for aware printers. I'm not kidding when I say we listen to our listeners and love our listener suggestion. So if you've got one, please do make that recommendation. I also want to say we drop an episode every Tuesday and Thursday. So you might want to subscribe in your favorite podcast app. And thank you so much for listening please These please take really good care of these are very pointed. And thank you for all the positive impact that you're having in our work