Shoot Promos on Race, Class, Gender, Etc

 "life is a balance between what we can control and what we cannot. I am learning to live between effort and surrender." - Danielle Orner When you attend a business meeting in the Korean community, one of the first things you do is exchange business cards. There's a whole etiquette that I had to learn through trial & error, and many apologies for being American born. It's respectful to present cards with both hands, pass and receive it with your right hand, never with the left hand because it's a sign of disrespect. You go around the room and exchange them one-by-one, never take one and pass them down. Once you receive it, it's rude to immediately place it in your pocket or wallet; you're supposed to study it carefully and place it on the table in front of you.  Why the importance? Koreans use business cards to learn the name, position, and status of the person they're speaking with. While there are venerable titles we generally use for elders, bus...

  "Having grown up so familiar with creating a pleasing facade, I now end up compelled to reveal things inside and say, 'Okay, now you really see me. Do you still love me?' And then it's never enough; it always has to be total self-revelation." - Kathryn Harrison One of my earliest coping mechanisms were to create facades, not because I'm a sociopath who lacks empathy. Quite the opposite; I created facades because I have empathy and inherited the people pleasing trait from my parents. I became whatever version of myself that I felt people wanted, in order for them to feel safe and valued. While I may have used a different toolbox than a sociopath, my facades were still a form of manipulation to get people to like me more.  Why do we create facades? If you're a person of color, woman, LGBTQ+, or non-Protestant, something we're all familiar with is  code switching,  a survival tool we adopt to assimilate in predominantly WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon, Prote...

  "I stepped into the shadows, telling myself not to be afraid. Yet I knew I would either find something worth living for or I would stay dead". - Zachary Kouko For much of my adult life I have been a supporting character in my own story. Working for and under accomplished, powerful women. Working in non-profit, first in multi-cultural education and now in domestic violence. The wingman to female friends who lit up every room they walked into with their beauty, style, grace, and larger than life personalities. I felt comfortable in their shadows, this was their show and it didn't have to be about me.  That's not to say that I've been silent. Often times I was hiding front and center. I was a Managing Director and MC for professional development workshops. I emerged as a Site Administrator at my current job and often serve as a mouthpiece for my boss. I use my platform and intersectional privilege to amplify marginalized voices, whether it's anti-racism, women...