Living Corporate

198 : Decolonization and D&I (w/ Brittany J. Harris)

Episode Notes

Zach chats with Brittany J. Harris, the Vice President of Learning & Innovation at The Winters Group, and they take a deep dive into the concept of decolonization. In her role, Brittany is responsible for curating and facilitating learning experiences that shift perspectives, change hearts, and empower action in service of equity, justice, and inclusion. She talks about the role that power plays in how it impacts black and brown people being afraid to speak up for themselves, shares with us what it looks like to pursue justice in a capitalistic context, and discusses some of the challenges she's faced throughout her career journey in the diversity and inclusion space.

Connect with Brittany on LinkedIn and Twitter, and find out more about her by clicking here. Check out TWG's website and connect with them on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Read the piece by Dafina-Lazarus Stewart mentioned in the show by clicking here. Interested in Pamela Newkirk's books? Click here to check out her Amazon page! Visit our website.

EXCERPT

Brittany: A lot of times we're developing experiences and modules that focus on the cultural self, right? Understanding identity, understanding dominant and subordinate group memberships, and so getting into conversations around power and privilege, which is something that corporate environments have strayed away from, right? And so, like, the silent P in D&I work has been, you know, power and privilege, and we've had clients who have pretty much said, 'No, we don't want to bring that up." I don't think you can have conversations about calling out the fact that a power dynamic is at play. We can talk about cultural competence and implicit bias all day, but if we're not adding an overlay of, you know, some biases are more harmful than others and some biases have more harmful implications than others, then the work is for naught, right?

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