Break Concrete: Black Women At Work

Erika Stallings is no stranger to uncomfortable conversations. In fact, she invites them as she fearlessly confronts workplace and healthcare inequities and leads the dialogue around hereditary breast cancer for Black women. Erika is a writer, health advocate, and attorney. She has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, O Magazine, and NPR. Her most recent article appears in The Cut, Racism at My Job Literally Gave Me PTSD. We chat about Erika’s advocacy on behalf of Black women both in the workspace and in healthcare, and her article, When Black Women Go From Office Pet to Office Threat.

Find links and show notes at https://breakconcrete.com/bc021

Topics Covered:

• Why Erika began writing about race and the workplace
• Erika’s article in ZORA, When Black Women Go From Office Pet to Office Threat
• Erika’s experience of the office pet to office threat phenomenon in her own career and how she handled it
• The importance of having a personal board of directors and the value of peer mentorship
• How Erika balances speaking out against workplace injustices and workplace retaliation
• Erika’s efforts to increase awareness of hereditary breast cancer among women of color
• BRCA2 gene mutation and its risks for developing cancer
• Options available for individuals with BRCA gene mutation
• Erika’s decision to get a preventative mastectomy
• Erika’s courage in talking openly about inheriting BRCA2 gene mutation

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Far too often, we operate in workplaces where women of color leaders are lacking. However, that’s not because women of color lack leadership skills. Nor is it because of a lack of interest. Break Concrete is kicking off Season 4 with Dr. Marlette Jackson, a scholar, diversity and inclusion consultant, and co-author of the Harvard Business Review article, Does Your Definition of Leadership Exclude Women of Color? Dr. Jackson interrogates common leadership values and norms and how they exclude women of color. We talk about how organizations can expand their definition of leadership and assign value to qualities often overlooked or criticized when held by women of color.

Find links and show notes at https://breakconcrete.com/bc045.

Topics Covered:

• Barriers women of color face in career advancement
• Understanding invisible labor and how it impacts women’s careers
• Common leadership values and why companies should reexamine attributes of leadership they value
• Who is left out of common definitions of leadership
• Expanding our definition of leadership
• Defining cultural capital, resistance capital, and navigational capital
• Reimagining the workplace through a communal vs. individualistic lens
• Challenging problematic norms around leadership and getting buy in
• Questions organizations should ask when seeking leaders in the workplace
• Why we should look for unconventional leadership skills when hiring
• Problems with seeking company “fit”
• How to measure success when diversifying leaders in the workplace
• Retaining diverse leaders in the workplace

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Anxious about next steps in your career? Treading water financially? Can’t seem to achieve the right balance between personal and professional success? Frustrated over student loans accrued for that degree that was supposed to prepare you for life and everything else? Life can be unpredictable. Jobs can evaporate. After we’ve reached one pinnacle, there seems to be yet another challenge ahead. Break Concrete is kicking off Season 3 with the brilliant Dr. Natalia Peart, who is also the author of the powerful book, Future Proofed: The New Rules of Success in Work & Life for our Modern World. Dr. Peart presents a roadmap to gain clarity and thrive in a fast paced world. Leave that “I will be happy when ___” thinking behind and start living a life of true happiness, fulfillment, and self-defined success today. Listen to the episode to learn how you can schedule one complimentary session to get "future-proofed" with Dr. Peart today.

Find links and show notes at https://breakconcrete.com/bc032.

Topics Covered:

• What it means to be future proofed
• Understanding the old blueprint for success, why it failed us, and Dr. Peart’s new blueprint for success
• How women and people of color are disproportionately impacted by changes in the professional landscape
• How we can adapt to a rapidly changing world to become more autonomous
• Important skills to cultivate in a rapidly changing world
• Understanding the “I’ll be happy when. . . .” syndrome and finding happiness in the now
• Embracing success as a lifestyle
• Integrating professional and personal success
• How to develop an agile mindset
• Understanding both/and thinking - seeing the challenges and the opportunities
• How the stories we tell ourselves shape our success
• Defying limiting beliefs

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Are you gatekeeping white supremacy and patriarchy without even realizing it? In this episode, Danielle Slaughter identifies three ways in which most people unintentionally serve as gatekeepers. Danielle is a doctoral student (on hiatus) in the Rhetoric and Composition program at Georgia State University, the founder of Mamademics, a blog sharing Danielle’s experiences navigating motherhood and academia, and the creator of Raising an Advocate, a social justice advocacy resource website. We discuss harmful impulses to access power, privilege, and resources, which in turn uphold systems of oppression.

Find links and show notes at https://breakconcrete.com/bc030

Topics Covered:

• Reasons Danielle started her blog, Mamademics, and how her colleagues in academia received it
• How protecting your child’s innocence gives white supremacists a head start
• When and how to talk to children about race and racism
• Resources for teaching and learning about diversity, race, and racism
• Identifying how we gatekeep for white supremacy and patriarchy and how we can stop doing so
• Defining and defying respectability politics
• Defining tone policing

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From as early as childhood, we have been taught to be generous with our time and energy. Any hint of selfishness is frowned upon. Even with our careers, we learn that being a team player is critical to our success. Today, Dr. Marcuetta Sims, a licensed psychologist specializing in helping Black women and people from marginalized identities heal from trauma, develop a healthier sense of Self, and enhance their overall wellness, discusses the costs of this generosity. Dr. Sims has created an online platform empowering Black women to care for themselves, The Art of Being Self-ish. She is also the founder of the The Worth, Wisdom, and Wellness Center. We chat about setting boundaries in personal and professional settings, addressing violations of those boundaries, and reframing underlying beliefs that cause us to deprioritize ourselves.

Find links and show notes at https://breakconcrete.com/bc038.

Topics Covered:

• Defining selfishness
• How selfishness may serve the collective good and help us to develop a healthy sense of Self
• Why Dr. Sims started the online platform, The Art of Being Selfish
• Understanding and setting boundaries
• Consequences of failing to set boundaries
• Communicating your boundaries to others
• Counteracting feelings of guilt when putting yourself first
• How to say “No” and prioritize your interests
• Recognizing your limitations and asking for help
• Addressing violations of your boundaries in the workplace
• How remote work can challenge our boundaries
• Being selfish about salary negotiations
• Reframing inhibiting underlying beliefs

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If you like this episode, please leave a review and rating.