Hello Diversity Group,
I wanted to introduce myself and add to the discussion. My name is Steve and I am white.
What makes me different is "I have White Privilege." I have never admitted this because I did not know what it meant. It upset me the first time that I was told I had "White Privilege" because I am not racist.
For many years of my career and my life, I have always taken on a personal goal to get everyone to like me and to get everyone I work with to like each other. Sometimes this felt like an impossible task. Then I got a job at a Contact Center aka Call Center in Florida. Then for the next 3.5 years getting everyone to like me and everyone to like each other just got 100 times harder.
While working at the contact center I met more people from all walks of life and of all skin colors. Then I got not only my first work wife by my second work wife. These work wives were incredible hard-working smart black women. I loved the friendship that I had with these amazing, different black women. While I worked with them, they taught me and scolded me every single day for over 3.5 years. They were always real and spoke what was on their mind, which trusts me was a lot on their mind.
Before working with my Work Wives, the work environments I previously worked in. "Do not say or do anything when you saw or heard something." While working at the call center I saw and I heard things I knew were wrong, disrespectful, and possibly illegal the way some black people and other nationalities were treated. I was treated with White privilege. So I learned that hey, maybe I should probably speak up when I hear or see something I do not agree with, which I did a few times and other times I did not.
The recap I want to share is "Do something and then say something in that order." I pledge to myself, to the many black women and men I worked with, for the black woman I worked for and to the many black people I love and respect "I will not stay silent about George Floyd."
I encourage anyone to search to watch this episode.
We Cannot Stay Silent About George Floyd - Patriot Act Digital Exclusive - Netflix
https://youtu.be/i_FE78X-qdY
