MY BLOG
No matter your position in life or career, we all have the ability to mentor someone. To expand our influence and build our community, it’s critical we take every opportunity we can to share our experiences to potentially elevate those around us. Mentorship stands as a cornerstone of personal and professional growth, offering a transformative journey guided by experience and wisdom. The importance of mentorship lies in its capacity to bridge knowledge gaps, provide invaluable insights, and nurture skills that go beyond textbooks or formal education. A mentor's guidance, gained through years of trial, error, and success, empowers mentees to navigate challenges with more confidence and efficacy. Through mentorship, individuals gain access to a wealth of practical knowledge, unlocking a deeper understanding of industry nuances and unwritten rules. Moreover, mentorship fosters a sense of belonging and camaraderie, creating a support system that encourages ambition and resilience. As mentors share their stories of both triumphs and failures, mentees are inspired to dream big while learning from the lessons of their mentors' past. Ultimately, mentorship serves as a two-way street, where mentors find fulfillment in giving back, while mentees embark on a transformative journey toward realizing their full potential, magnifying their presence to become more visible to opportunities.
I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for my mentors. When founding the Utah Black Chamber, the Utah Hispanic Chamber’s leadership was instrumental in guiding me through the process of setting up the organization, how to get members and sponsors, and the responsibility of amplifying the voice of a diverse community. I followed their advice, attended their events and took notes of how they put them on. I started my network with their network, as they were happy to make introductions to essential influencers and organizations to get the Black Chamber growing in the right direction. From the Hispanic chamber to the Calvary Baptist Church congregation, I have had a consistent village around me to to help find my passion and my purpose.
Allies are just as important as mentors. They play a pivotal role in driving positive change, fostering inclusivity, and amplifying voices that might otherwise go unheard. The importance of allies lies in their ability to use their privilege, influence, and resources to advocate for marginalized individuals or groups. Allies actively challenge systemic biases and work towards creating environments where everyone can thrive. Their support not only helps dismantle barriers but also creates a sense of safety and belonging for those facing discrimination. By standing alongside those in need, allies contribute to a more diverse and equitable society, promoting collaboration and understanding across different backgrounds. Their actions serve as a catalyst for progress, reminding us that we are all interconnected in the journey towards a fairer and more just world. After the murder of George Floyd, the Utah Black Chamber had a member joining everyday for nearly the entire summer of 2020. The majority of the new members were not Black small businesses, however. They were individuals and organizations who wanted to better support the Black community. These allies were offering their resources, skills and abilities and their network to support the chamber’s mission. The chamber was already experiencing exponential growth and the social injustice movement of 2020 further accelerated the growth of the chamber. It grew not only in membership and revenue, but the chamber has since been serving as one of the strongest voices of the diverse community.
Mentors magnify and allies amplify. To achieve your purpose, these people are critical to your village.
I am a Black man that is a step-father to three white children. They are not full white. Their mom is half Vietnamese. Both of our extended families represent several different races. During the social unrest in 2020, they saw me in my most vulnerable state. At random times, I would just break down crying overwhelmed by it all. It stemmed from the news, social media, conversations in the community, or just me reflecting on our back patio or at the peak of a hike. Life was hard that year. They really didn’t know what to do, but to console me and just be there for me. Growing up Black in Utah has always been hard. People have been nice for the most part, but there is a lot of ignorance. Since there is not a lot of diversity, many are not exposed much to different cultures and experiences. Offensive comments are often made, but not intentionally to offend. They just don’t understand. I wasn’t the best one to educate them, as I grew up a little shy and not one to engage in any drama or confrontation. But I felt forced to do so, otherwise a similar encounter with others may not go as peaceful. So, today, when my kids see me emotional about it all, they want to learn. They want to understand. They want to know how to be there for me. But they have little understanding of why it’s harder for me. If they don’t have as much understanding, how many other Americans are in a similar position? I believe we have a good idea, because that’s why we remain in this state of civil unrest today. We only have an understanding of one culture in a land of many cultures.
I didn’t learn much Black history in school. All I remember was slavery and the Civil Rights movement. It was probably one chapter of the history book. Most of the time when it was taught, it was uncomfortable for me, because it was a white teacher trying to teach it to a class of mostly white children and me. I was often one or one of the very few Black students in the class. They tried videos and movies, but they didn’t have enough material to teach it effectively. Even during Black History Month, I learned more about history at my church than I did at school. Even then, it was just highlights of accomplishments of Black individuals, but not enough to really provide me an understanding of my history. It took several years of my own journey to learn about where I came from and the experiences of the Black community. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I had a greater understanding of why we are still encountering the challenges Black Americans are experiencing today. I learned from church, music, like R&B, Jazz, Gospel and even hip-hop and movies and television series. When I became an adult, I read books to learn more. But how many of us, Black or white, or even of different ethnicities and races really take the time to learn about ourselves or even one another? If we do, it’s mostly from a reactive state rather than proactive. I felt that more than ever in 2020, and here we are in 2023 back to the ‘status quo.’
We want the United States to be a welcoming and diverse country, but we don’t make the intentional effort to make everyone feel like they belong here. It takes nonprofit organizations, activists and even companies to take the initiative to bring change, but it’s not embedded in our government nor culture. We speak of things being equal, but how can things be equal if we are not taking time to fully understand why some of our American citizens are still challenged with barriers to access resources, opportunities so they can strive to obtain the American dream?
The first time I heard about critical race theory was from my brother-in-law. It was his dissertation for his graduate degree. He has always been very educated and an amazing artist and would share his knowledge in his artwork. I recall seeing his art displayed in an art gallery several years ago. He would have the descriptions below the pieces and I rarely understood them. I would ask him to interpret to help me understand what was being displayed because they were so deep. When he mentioned he was studying critical race theory for his degree, I didn’t fully understand it then. He is now currently working on his PhD.
Critical Race Theory left my mind for several years and didn’t hear the term again until President Trump began talking about it in 2020. “Why would the President bring an academic concept into the public eye,” I wondered? It caused a great deal of confusion for people, particularly for most of America who have never heard of this concept before. Critical race theory, or CRT, is a 40-year old study of the systemic barriers that exist in legal systems and policies. An example would be ‘redlining,’ where government officials drew lines around areas deemed only available to a ‘certain composition of inhabitants.’ Banks would refuse to offer mortgages to Black people seeking to live in those areas. While there have been advancements in policy to eliminate redlining, we still see it occurring in certain areas today. The theory also studies links between political power, social organization and language. Fundamentally, CRT studies the outcomes of racial disparities, not on individual beliefs, and calls on those outcomes to be examined and rectified. However, since this concept has been brought out from academia into the public eye, it has evolved as the basis of all diversity and inclusion efforts. Some politicians see critical race theory as discrimination against white people in order to achieve equity. They use CRT as a defense mechanism when people advocate to expand the education of all American cultures in school curriculums. They fear the content will be oppressive to white students and make them feel inferior. However, by the curriculum remaining the same, nonwhite students feel inferior and oppressed, because they are not learning about the contributions and experiences of their race and ethnicities in this country, and struggle to understand why they are being treated and looked at differently and how to navigate their experiences. This often results in deep conversations at home with parents and family, which could either help gain a better understanding and know how to navigate their experiences better or it could hinder them by being resentful and angry about what they have learned, leading to a more negative outcome. While parents strive to raise their children to become successful in this world, we are not educators and we can only share from our own experiences – good, bad and ugly. A foundational support of teaching in a formal environment, like all other history lessons, would be much more effective.
We just celebrated the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. We highlight his impact by sharing the speeches he gave and the marches he led. However, certain areas of the country are now discussing banning any and all curriculum that shares why we celebrate MLK. We can have a holiday, but let’s not talk about all he did for this country? If what I experienced in school was challenging, imagine what it would be like if more information was removed from the curriculum. If my kids are challenged with learning about the struggles of Black Americans, how are all our other future leaders going to be able to work, socialize and connect with others that don’t look like them? We are already in a divisive society and this discussion around critical race theory is just making it worse.
Critical race theory should be used as all other academia theories are used – in the higher institutions to be researched and studied until educators are able to form a strategy or solutions to present with policymakers. Having been brought to the general public with no background of the concept has only brought confusion and misinterpretation. Does this mean I’m asking for a ban on critical race theory in K-12 schools? Well, it was never supposed to be there in the first place and it has never been in the schools. It’s far too advanced. CRT has only been in higher education. What I am hoping we can do is improve the grade school curriculum, especially in history, so students have a better understanding of why diversity, equity and inclusion is an important conversation. Not the concepts of CRT, but a basic understanding that provides a foundation for students to have a better understanding why Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Civil Rights leaders were so important to our society. If we do not do this, students will gather information in their own way, which will only cause more greater issues. We have positioned our country in a very dangerous situation. Rather than dig for concepts to use for division and growing a platform, we should be aiming for understanding and unity. That will make our nation stronger and more powerful. Going the direction we are heading now will only lead our once powerful nation to becoming more and more vulnerable. Let’s remove the conversation about critical race theory and work on how we can better educate our future about each other.
When I speak to a new chamber member, or community leader or partner, and we set an agenda or plan for next steps, I always end with ‘I look forward to growing from here.’ Not going. Growing. It’s an intentional direction moving upward. Going doesn’t determine a direction. Growing does. America needs to grow from this.
We, as a nation, suck at communicating. One of the most important skills in communication is listening. As a man, who has been in a relationship with an amazing woman for over 11 years, I understand how important it is to listen! However, this skill hasn’t been utilized by the nation’s leadership, nor its citizens in several years. . . . .
