Inclusion Revolution

7Tune into the Whispers and the Screams (and Everything in Between)

“Death by a thousand and one papercuts” is a term that comes from an ancient form of Chinese torture known as lingchi, where a person is subjected to hundreds of small cuts until the end. It's a dark but accurate metaphor for what happens in workplaces across America: the accumulation of seemingly small indignities. It's shutting up and shutting down to survive.

The truth about the lived experiences of people at your company often lies right beneath the surface. It floats in whispers and in knowing looks, and more recently, in raised voices demanding change through social media and within your companies. But the weighted feeling of having your power taken away from you over and over again remains. Over the course of my career, I've had to fight to be invited into leadership rooms by silencing my feelings, making myself smaller, and tiptoeing around dismissive behavior. I've had to make myself seem less threatening. It felt like carrying a five-ton weight. And I have not been alone. Our collective silence is deafening.

To build an inclusive and equitable workforce and get ahead of murmurs and exposés, tune into the whispers and assess what's happening in your workplace. Pay attention to what's happening behind closed doors and in the open in conference rooms or video meetings. To do that with a racial equity lens, you need to recognize that while racial inequity affects all people of color somewhat comparably, ...