Working While Black - Episode 11 - Cheryl Wade
Police killings of Black Americans impose a real mental health toll on the Black community at large.
And we still have to show up for work and do our jobs.
This burden is particularly heavy for Black professionals for whom diversity advocacy is their job, as DEI professional Cheryl Wade shares in her interview.
Also, take note of Cheryl’s North Carolina A&T pin. Cheryl is a proud Aggie.
Working While Black is hosted by Erica Roberts, a proud graduate of Florida A&M University (FAMU).
Working While Black is produced by me, Lenzy Ruffin, a proud graduate of Florida A&M University.
For decades, FAMU has been the near-perennial number one producer of Black baccalaureates.
The only years when FAMU isn’t the number one producer of Black baccalaureates, North Carolina A&T is the number one producer.
Both FAMU and A&T each have robust career development offices, as well as national alumni associations.
Just a couple of convenient places where anyone who cares to look can find an abundance of talented Black professionals.
Here We Are Again
This Working While Black series was born out of the pain of watching George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the police.
And here we are again enduring the same trauma in the wake of Breonna Taylor’s murder, again at the hands of the police.
I wrote an article titled How Do I Keep On Keepin’ On? just days after George Floyd’s murder as a way to process the horror of what I saw in an effort to maintain my own mental health.
From the article:
“You’ll notice that no one is wearing masks in any of these images.
That’s because these photos are from a protest march in 2014.
And here we are again, in 2020, marching under a dying black man’s last words at the hands of the police: “I can’t breathe.”
How many is too many?
How many will it take for you to decide to do something every day to actively be a part of the solution?
Working While Black is an interview series designed to advance the dialogue on diversity, equity, and inclusion in corporate America.
Through Working While Black, Black executives have an opportunity to share their experiences in the workplace and use them as a teaching tool for companies that truly want to create environments where everyone has an equal opportunity to advance to the highest levels of the company.
New episode every Wednesday!
[RELATED: The State of Black Women In Corporate America]
Working While Black is hosted by X Is Possible and produced by Park Road Studios.
