Juneteenth is both past and present
The other day, I was reading an article that gave recommendations about how much time we should spend in nature. (The answer, if you're curious, is 20 minutes in regular outside minimally 3 days a week; 5 hours a month in semi-wild areas like parks; and 3 days a year as off the grid as possible.)
One big reason being in nature is so good for our mental and physical health is that nature is filled with fractals. Complex patterns that repeat over and over at different scales. Like a tree, where a trunk becomes a branch, and a branch becomes two smaller branches, and then those branches have twigs, and so on.
And apparently the human brain really likes fractals. They are both stimulating and soothing at the same time.
Fractals Picture by Tom Fisk / Pexels
I think about fractals all the time. Not in nature, but in human nature and human organizations. I see complex patterns that repeat over and over again.
At the national level.
At the state level.
At the city level.
Within organizations and companies.
And between individuals.
Expressions of bias that show up in an everyday interaction at work usually have the same skeletal structure and the same patterning as expressions of bias at the national level.
Like not letting someone be heard. Or taking credit for their work. Or getting more money for the same job.
What's more, complex patterns repeat again and again over time. So events of the past end up playing out the same way in the present.
Again and again.
This is one reason why I guide clients to develop what I call "bias interrupters." Because it's important to interrupt these repeating patterns. And shift into new ones.
Let me lay out the repeating patterns I see in our brand new federal holiday here in the States, Juneteenth. Because the actions – and inactions – around Juneteenth have parallels I see all the time in my work as an anti-bias consultant.
Photo by Magic Pattern / Unsplash
Statements
A white male leader makes a statement that directly addresses harm done to Black people. It says that their unfair treatment should be stopped.
He mostly makes this statement because of strong economic pressure, along with some social pressure from the outside.
It is not a binding policy. It does not officially change the status of Black people or the practices that harm them.
For Juneteenth, this is Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation.
Lincoln wrote and went public with the Emancipation Proclamation as part of his war strategy. It was designed to bring abolitionist France and England to the Union side, and to siphon off people and workers from the South and bring them to the North.
That's the past. And the present? Last year, I saw (white male) CEO after CEO publish seemingly heartfelt statements about George Floyd. Many of these statements said that the ongoing police murders of Black people was wrong, and that Black Lives Matter.
But the statements did not create binding policies for their organizations. They did not address the systemic bias and everyday unfair treatment faced by their Black employees and colleagues. And they did not commit to broader changes to shut down these extrajudicial killings and other unfair treatment.
Policies
Two and a half years later, after debates in which Black people's humanity is repeatedly called into question, the new policy is finally put into place. It declares certain forms of unfair treatment out of bounds.
For Juneteenth, this is the 13th Amendment. This amendment abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude, except in cases where people are incarcerated for crimes (and this carceral enslavement is another story for another day).
For present-day organizations, only a small subset of companies that made Black Lives Matter statements in May and June of 2020 actually worked to create new policies. There has been much debate in which Black people's humanity was repeatedly called into question. (See, for example, police violence against peaceful protestors and the All Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter movements.)
Many organizations promised large donations to organizations supporting Black Americans, but then never followed through. Others claimed they would work on unconscious bias and bring in trainers, but I'd say at least half of the companies who reached out to me in the summer of 2020 with a sudden urgent need for anti-bias training balked at the prices (which are just a tiny fraction of their annual costs from people who leave due to bias and unfairness). And they never followed through. I've heard the same story from many of my colleagues.
So these are some of the fractal patterns I see repeating again and again.
Throughout the course of American history. (Note that Black history is also white history - it didn't happen in a vacuum.)
And in everyday conversations, policies, and practices at work.
Until we buckle down and devote the resources (money, time, and energy) to combat bias and unfairness, those patterns will just go on repeating. We need to significantly interrupt bias in order for there to be real change.
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