Some time ago, my wonderful friend and facilitator colleague, Sandhya, founder of Sagebrush Limited, asked me what I do to guard my mental health being a professional, black, Muslim, woman especially in the context of my #equity work.
I didn’t have an answer because, quite frankly, I consider myself as someone that isn’t held back by any limitation😤💪🏾but this book made me question this thinking.
This book made me cry. Not because it has stories of abuse, neglect, and naïveté but because when I picked up this book, I was looking for a book of inspiration and therefore was expecting another one of those condescending books that make Black people and immigrants seem superhuman, thereby feeding my stereotype. That is not what this was.
I used to love the term, “Black Girl Magic”. Black women, by the very nature of their existence, face the stark reality of experiencing double oppression:gender discrimination on one hand and racism on the other, then sprinkle the #immigrant experience in there and #islamophobia, my defense was to become numb to it; I’d credit any “success” to this this mystic “Black Girl Magic” and I used to say this to my fellow ambitious women too!
I am not special, nor am I “magic”(thanks anyway, Mom!🥰)
I am actually quite ordinary 🤓, which is why systemic change and providing pathways out of poverty for people with less privilege, or people of the global majority is important.
Wes is one of Canada’s most successful business leaders, the founder of the BlackNorth Initiative and as a big fan of Dragon’s Den, when I saw him as the newest and first Black Dragon on the show, I just knew this rags-to-riches story would be good. I just didn’t know that it would also carry a profound message of hope and change…
Why is this book important for Leaders? It taps into the power of stories:
🥾 Gain Insight and Develop Empathy and Connections:
Stories are much more powerful than statistics.
It is one thing to hear about statistics involving discrimination and denied access to opportunity, it is another thing to read about the experience of how Wes a wealthy Black immigrant was denied a small bank loan.
If we hear the story of one example of how discrimination surfaces and how it has impacted one person,the emotional response is vastly more powerful than simply relaying statistics and numbers.
🥾 Information Doesn’t Lead to Realization:
Information informs, but decisions come from somewhere else. And sometimes, those decisions defy statistics. For example: what influences you to make necessary change, or to simply sit back when you’re aware of the consequences?
🥾 Context Over Content: The story around the numbers is what makes the data relevant. meaningful, and powerful. That means that context conquers content, if you wish to influence and lead others.
