For many Black professionals, it's an unspoken rule never to discuss race or politics at work. But the murder of George Floyd has opened the floodgates. Suddenly, race is dominating conversations. Black people are being bombarded with questions. They're publicly sharing their pain at company town halls and team meetings, leading to more exhaustion.

Race is an uncomfortable topic to discuss, especially in "mixed company." That's why my market research team at Driven to Succeed sponsored two closed-door, tell-all Community Dialogues via Zoom to talk about race—one with Black professionals and the other with white professionals, from Director to C-Suite plus a few entrepreneurs. Our goal was to build more empathy and understanding and to take steps toward healing to help end institutional racism. There were no right or wrong answers. Just an honest dialogue and diversity of opinions.

Therefore, help, assistance, and support are insufficient to eradicate "400 years of being traumatized and terrorized" by systemic racism.

We pride ourselves on providing clients with actionable insights. Often, the most profound takeaways are tucked in the nuances of language, and this research was no different. We asked Black professionals what they thought about the term "ally," and here are some of their responses:

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Merriam-Webster defines ally as "one that is associated with another as a helper: a person or group that provides assistance and support in an ongoing effort, activity, or struggle." No wonder why Black professionals bristled at the term, especially when they concluded that "racism was not created by Black people, and we can't fix it." Therefore, help, assistance, and support are insufficient to eradicate "400 years of being traumatized and terrorized" by systemic racism.

Creating a level playing field for Black professionals requires the same type of intentional, persistent effort, advocacy, and most importantly, action.

As one of our respondents shared, "I shouldn't have to have an ally. I'm a human being just like anyone else. I'm a human being, I have the same rights as everyone else. I shouldn't need an ID to vote. I shouldn't need a pass to be allowed to go to the swimming pool." Yet the United States has sanctioned discrimination against African Americans through laws and policies including, but not limited to, kidnapping and 300 years of enslavement, torture, rape and brutality, mandatory segregation, lynching, bans on interracial marriage, redlining, mass incarceration, and more, as Robin DiAngelo, PhD shares in her best-selling book, White Fragility.

Many hard-working immigrants who have pulled themselves up by their proverbial bootstraps don't understand why Black people can't do the same. This preceding list merely scratched the surface about why Black people don't have the same starting point in life or work.

Black professionals don't want allies, they want advocates. They told us that "advocate" is active. It requires intentional action to right wrongs and change the course. Advocacy means "moving from the sidelines to the frontlines," because Black people alone cannot eradicate racism. As another respondent shared, "Historically, Black people have had to work hard for everything we've achieved. That being said, we can't achieve and accomplish everything we want to alone. We're not always in the rooms making the policy changes, or hiring decisions, and if we are, there's usually only one of us. And that one person has to always be thoughtful about what we say, and how we say it, so as not to offend others." Some white professionals admitted they've been passive and really like the new advocate language.

We pride ourselves on providing clients with actionable insights. Often, the most profound takeaways are tucked in the nuances of language, and this research was no different.

Based on our whitepaper 50 Ways to Be a More Inclusive Leader, here are 5 steps leaders can take to advocate for African American professionals:

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The 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment is a reminder that transformational change is anything but passive. Women's suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, organized, marched, petitioned, lobbied, picketed, and practiced civil disobedience. Ultimately, this led to policy change guaranteeing and protecting women's constitutional right to vote. Creating a level playing field for Black professionals requires the same type of intentional, persistent effort, advocacy, and most importantly, action.

WRITTEN BY

Kristin Harper