Yesterday I attended an unfiltered DEI fireside chat on the BIPOC Leadership Experience from ThinkHuman, Divinely Powered and PowerToFly.
While I am not in the HR/People Teams industry, as a Latina in tech, I strongly resonated with the speakers and topics we covered. First of all, the meeting started with music and a spoken poem by Chris Williams and I am duly taking notes to start large meetings this way! Everyone was chatting on how exciting and vibrant the energy was.
While this may be a "hot" topic that many companies are sticking to their company profiles, the reality is that they are still not doing enough to a) Implement appropriate DEI initiatives for their BIPOC employees and b) Those that are, are likely just "checking a box" and not doing the actual work it takes to truly support their BIPOC employees and tools needed for allies.
Unfortunately, I've experienced in most of my roles a lack of diversity and inclusion in the people that are hired into the company as well as a lack of events and resources for the few that are already in. In every single role in my career, I've been the only Latina in the tech team and sometimes the only woman. Rather than feeling this overwhelming sense of loneliness, I find ways to contribute and fill those gaps. Its....exhausting and I know it's led me to burnout because I feel compelled to do SOMETHING for the BIPOC folks in the company. It's a FULL time job and a necessity to continue bringing more BIPOC employees into a more diverse workforce.
And as always, here are some resources I can share for those that want to learn more:
ThinkHuman, Divinely Powered and PowerToFly
