A few days ago, Ms. Sylvia K. Alston posted this on LinkedIn. She says, “We TOO are America.”
I responded (admittedly harshly).
I stated, “See this shit is ridiculous. I am an Inupiaq, Yupik Eskimo woman in America. I do not appreciate the ‘victim’ message of you suddenly being America. You are perpetuating a victim way of being. Instead, you could be saying, “I am the American Dream that Martin Luther King died for. I am a recipient of his inheritance.” Do better. Do not perpetuate hate to appear as a stand out.”
The ‘4 replies’ link under my comment above are no longer available for some reason…but I stand by my mantra of “Do Better”. And I have lived my life by seeking to “Do Better” and as such, I hold myself very accountable to do better.
So in the spirit of “Do Better” coupled with my curiosity, I came across this podcast that interviewed her on the topic of How to Encourage a New Generations of Leaders.
“…having great conversations like this, meeting new people, networking, just challenging my mind to think more critically, more deeply about the human experience as a whole. And I think, that is what’s going to continue to hopefully help me evolve and grow.”
Sylvia K. Alston, Knowledge Center Podcast Interview on “How to encourage a new generation of leaders” December 2020
“..But one of the things that I think about often is how under-resourced and how under-represented black and brown people are in the industry, all across the spectrum.”
SYLVIA K. ALSTON, KNOWLEDGE CENTER PODCAST INTERVIEW ON “HOW TO ENCOURAGE A NEW GENERATION OF LEADERS” DECEMBER 2020
Less than two weeks after her podcast interview, she instead says this to me:
“…Again, I do not care. No one and certainly not me asked for your background, or your experience or your cultural history….I did not ask what you teach your children, what you learned in your culture or what power you gained. Your attempt to distract from same is deflecting, rude and privileged. Goodbye”
Slyvia K. Alston, Linkedin, January 2021
Here is the moral of my story. It is easy to say the new-sexy things that check the boxes of marketing power. And of course, it is easy to achieve those empty statements in an environment where you are “speaking to the choir”.
However, that is not where growth takes place. Growth takes place when your world view is being challenged. Growth takes place only if you are willing to shut up and open your mind to accept another point of view.
This is life, the human experience.
We all have our worldviews and none of those views are inaccurate.
But if we are putting ourselves out there as a speaker on the new generation of leaders; then you better be prepared to accept the responsibility and not just an advertising tagline.