Stories from within | amplifying Black voices
As we celebrate Black History this month, PDXWIT would like to create space to celebrate Black Futures. In this follow up piece to our June post, Black women in the PDXWIT community share their outlook of their futures while reflecting on the highs and lows of 2020. Black voices are the future of tech.
At the end we have included information about local organizations that PDXWIT is partnering with, and we hope you will join us.
Chloe Elliott, PDXWIT Volunteer
There is no one I would rather be than who I am right now. Being who I am has given me the grit and fortitude to persevere and surpass even my own expectations. This doesn’t mean that I am infallible or unbreakable or invulnerable, because I have surely proven that I am. It means that I will take in these situations, allow myself to feel, and then evaluate the next path forward. I have been so many things in this life, and I know that the next iteration is just around the corner. If I can shine bright, I am no longer going to get in my own way. I have thanked the younger me; thanked her for taking on all of these blows to the psyche. I have also thanked future me; she will need it for the journey we will venture on next. Time to make the Lemonade.
Dijana A. Steward, PDXWIT Community Member
Joy is a form of resistance
It’s only February and 2021 has already been exhausting. But if I’m being honest, so was the February in 2020, 2019, 2018 and so many years before that. I’ve been chatting with some of my friends that also happen to be POCs and the collective feeling is that we are in a perpetual state of outrage, activism, resistance, and change leadership. Lately with each conversation after a few minutes of commiserating I ask, “So what type of fun have you been having lately?” There is always a hard pause, followed by “Well, I went to this great virtual seminar on (insert something DEI, educational equity related).”
These conversations and my own feelings of burnout lately have led me to ask a question: in the midst of the fight, don’t POCs deserve joy too?
So I’ve been exploring the idea of empowering allies to step further into the fight, allowing POCs to make room for things that feed their souls. In 2020 I discovered that I enjoy gardening. I remember helping my grandmother with her garden and the fruit trees around her house and always geeking out whenever I got to take biology in school, but between working and motherhood and now every other waking moment trying to move the progression of basic human rights forward, I have very little time to sit in dirt and talk to my green friends.
The idea that while I have great non-POC allies that stand 10 toes down with me but still find time to ski, canoe, make pottery, take a college course here and there and have family dinners served promptly at 6 most evenings really started to piss me off. Even more so as I looked out from the windows in my home office and saw my precious little garden slowly wilt and die. It was almost like the dying of those plants were representative of my joy.
This whole revelation made me so anxious and mad that it would keep me up at night. And after night four, I decided that it was time to do something. I have decided to step out and away from almost all of my outward facing DEI work for the next year beginning in June. I instead am empowering less-exhausted POCs and allies to pick up the work and run with it. And in a year, once I have invested in my joy, I will re-engage. The planning for this transition feels like packing for vacation! I’m excited to write more about my intentional injection of joy into my life and what may come from trusting other people to challenge themselves in DEI work. Afterall, this is everyone’s work. Not just ours, right?
Coretta Knight, PDXWIT Volunteer
2020 is over, and while I would like to think the old year took the racially charged climate with it, I am at heart a realist. I still feel tension when I see the police. I still worry about my son. I still worry about the world my children have inherited. I still hear that people of color need to “get over” the inhumane treatment that they have suffered in the past while ignoring the fact that many people who suffered those atrocities are still living.
But I am hopeful. This country came together to support the cause of those whose voices are usually silenced. I watched people cheer for states that turned the tide in key elections. I was proud to watch a young black woman recite a poem that inspires hope and resilience. I have seen kindness. I have experienced compassion. As I look around my community, both physical and digital, I see people contributing to progress. I see both BIPoC and non BIPoC fighting for peace and justice in ways both big and small. I am humbled by those who — instead of staying safely unaffected — have jumped directly into the fray to defend another person’s right to exist.
Fred Rogers credits his mother with saying “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” I feel blessed to have seen the helpers without having to search for them, and I am profoundly grateful to all of them.
Symone Sparrow, PDXWIT Board Member
While I was totally looking for the world to reset from all the mayhem that was 2020 on January 1st, we were not so lucky. Still dealing with the aftermath of an overwhelming year – and an exhausting January 2021 — February came with promises to acknowledge black history (which is American history), celebrate black contributors, and make space for black voices. As we approach the end of the month, I have noticed a revolving door of facts, faces, and the similar points as reflected in history books. And then a light emerged...I actually saw articles on Facebook appear on historic communities, leaders, events, etc. that featured black people! People sharing recounts of the black business community that occupied Central Park in New York before it was Central Park, our local heroes such as Matt Dishman, and so much more. History that I was never taught in school. Portland was once home to an all Black Baseball team owned by Jesse Owens!
Even though we can’t change my schooling, we can change how and what our next generations are taught, how they collaborate and accept each other, and how they grow and change the world together. This, however, can only happen if we work together, but we don’t have to wait. We can start today! Start by amplifying the black voices within your friend group, workplace, neighborhood, religious institution, etc. As the old saying goes, if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.
Recognizing and celebrating Black Futures and Black History doesn’t end when February ends. PDXWIT will continue to amplify and center Black voices and experiences all year long, as well as supporting and partnering with local organizations like Black Resilience Fund, Simple X and PDX Blacks in Tech. We encourage you to do the same.