Tell your story

Everyone of colour has a story about their colour.

I believe that we need to be open to hearing stories of experiences from people of all backgrounds.

We should hear them to stop and reflect and find strength and unity in what is right.

There is blindness in all of us that comes from our biases, we don't even know they are there but they are busy driving our thoughts and actions.

Here is one of my stories, quite a simple story from a usual work setting:
I sat in a meeting, the only non-white, but hey, that was almost always the case. The person at the front of the room, leading the session was a woman, happened to be white, with a strong presence and stature, very articulate and professional. She ran a brainstorm session and went around the table collecting comments from around the room and writing them down. I made my comments and reflections, I made them a few times and not one of them was written down. I kept trying to engage her in dialogue but it didn’t work. I thought at first I am being silly, my manager was in the room at the time and didn't notice, but I looked around the room to see if anyone else noticed this obvious dismissal. ! I raised this with my manager later. She didn't even notice but showed a real concern that it was not right. That is all it takes!

I feel sad that the woman leading the session had maybe never realised the automatic and unconscious bias she had and that it happened in a split second.

There are so many people who have backgrounds and experiences that are limited, my own included.

We can’t walk in everyone’s shoes but we can show curiosity for the experiences of people who look different to us. Our experiences are narrowed to people who come from similar backgrounds and look like us. But what is narrow?

Our brains are wired to look for only information that confirms the things we believe to be true and the rest we are blind to. The broader the experiences we have the more information we have to form our belief and assumptions on.

If you have stories, tell them so others can become less blind.
When you hear stories use them to shine a light on the biases, assumptions and that we all harbour.

Please do not judge someone for their biases, we all have them. Help them to see your experience with kindness and compassion.
Love don't hate❤️