Systemic Racism

There is no question that we have a massive, systemic racism problem within our country. It's disappointing that it took so long for the true depth and breadth to get mainstream media coverage, but the spark has been ignited, and there's no turning back. It's up to us to ensure that the work doesn't stop when the headlines do. We need to become more aware, conscious, thoughtful, proactive, and intentional in our personal and professional lives. We need to truly understand the conscious and unconscious racism happening in our country in order to drive real, lasting change. 

This month’s session featured Fatima Dicko. Fatima is an incredible entrepreneur and businesswoman who is Founder & CEO of venture-backed consumer tech company, Jetpack. Graduating Columbia undergrad and Stanford MBA, Fatima spent 4 years on the innovation team at P&G before jumping into the entrepreneurial world to pursue her own ventures. Her current venture, Jetpack, is a peer-to-peer hyper-local marketplace for last-minute items on college campuses across the country.

Though her resume shows back to back accomplishments, her journey has been far from easy. As an African American female entrepreneur, the systemic bias in our country made even the simplest tasks nearly impossible. Fatima shared her story, discussed the challenges she faced along the way, and lead a conversation around how we can all help to create more inclusive and diverse communities.  

From awareness to understanding, empathy, and action, we're all at various parts of the journey and that's okay. What matters is that we're all on the journey and playing our part in the short and long term solutions. 

Data gets people to believe. Stories get people to care. - Fatima Dicko

GLOW NOTES

In regards to communication and how to effectively educate your networks, here are some helpful rebuttals for racist talking points: 

• Helpful rebuttals for racist talking points

• Instagram graphics

How to write inclusive job descriptions: 

• 5 Must-Do’s for Writing Inclusive Job Descriptions

• How To Write More Inclusive Job Descriptions

• 70 Inclusive Language Principles That Will Make You A More Successful Recruiter

Implicit bias test: 

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/selectatouchtest.html

Discussion topics:

• Close your eyes and imagine an entrepreneur. Was it a white male? This is the problem. Investors are pattern matching and looking for the next Mark Zuckerberg 

• White people have always been the center (toys, movies, business success stories). It's time to center blackness

• Pity doesn't help. Discussions around how we can use our privilege to help do.

• Until the people who have privilege are just as frustrated as the people marginalized, real change won't happen

• How do we acknowledge and address implicit bias?

  • If you don't have a direct relationship with a certain group of people, the media fills the gap with who you think they are

  • Implicit is the split-second judgment, not the long-term belief 

  • Get to know people outside the concept of race

• How do we as leaders create more opportunities 

  • LinkedIn core values: diversity, inclusion, and belonging

  • Broaden top of funnel & eliminate steps that lead to bias

  • Hiring

    • Vocabulary in the job description 

    • Focus on what you actually need and don't put random numbers or else women and POC won't apply if they don't meet the criteria exactly 

    • Leave the posting up for longer to get more diversity in applicants. Men typically reply fast but women and POC take time

• How do we support black-owned businesses 

  • Equity crowdfunding will change the way underprivileged people get access to capital

  • LA black-owned restaurant list here

  • Black millennials guide to LA here

  • Donate time to mentor black youth here

Watch the full session recording here