Originally published on Medium and The Good Men Project
I met LaKay Cornell on the Ladies Get Paid Slack in 2019, and though she has been for much longer, she declared herself a writer. Thanks to meeting Lakay early on in my solopreneurship, I found my voice and made the same declaration. She validated that I was worth listening too — THANK YOU! — and something everyone needs.
She did so again in this piece last year, which — she does not know — I have read several times. She probably thinks few have seen it, and maybe that brings her down. Reading the piece, you’ll see this thought is meta.
It’s not just the Medium stats or the challenges with other social media sites that make it hard. She grew up as a woman in America, and that alone makes it easy to be worn the hell out from trying to be heard.
🔥Hot Tip: Leave comments for writers, share, quote, and always give credit! Lakay’s piece might be long, even by my standards, but you will blow right through it. Why? Lakay is speaking to you, and me, and Audre Lorde as she navigates the hard side of being a creator and empath in a difficult world built for neurotypical white men.
She writes poetically, as she often does, and I was immediately sucked in. Her deeply personal storytelling, interesting and intentional grammar rule-breaking, and her way of weaving in culture and connecting ideas past and present can have that effect.
Another reason you will be hooked: Lakay knows her voice and it rarely wavers — something all creators, leaders, and brands should be jealous of, and many probably are. I have come a long way in finding my voice, but still have so much to learn about owning it and using it unapologetically.
Talking about culture, feelings, and ideas that have value, is important work. Doing so unpaid, for a long time, can be quite depressing — something Lakay’s piece articulates well. Publishing all our heartfelt, well-researched, interesting thoughts for not much more than a teeny dopamine hit sucks. It’s a wonder that working in patriarchal capitalism is not always fulfilling, no?
Sarcasm aside, “posting” is not always an easy or quick process, and it’s usually unpaid work for “The Man.” (If you’re lucky a whopping $9.16 Stripe payment is headed your way this month from Medium). Even thinking about that is more emotional labor, labor with a high cost that remains invisible and unrewarded too. We wish we could care less. As creators and social justice dreamers, we spend our “free time” caring for others. With little to show for it we get the feeling we are invisible. We who live under the weight of living in a man’s world spend our time strategizing, plotting, and planning what will make the world better for everyone. We do this on top of doing ALL THE THINGS, especially more care and domestic work, for less pay. We wish we had more help, too.
Reading Lakay’s piece about finding work with purpose in a world designed for us to fail, I was struck by how this wears on the soul…the very one dying to create against all odds. It also somehow (sadly) makes the work better, but I refuse to glamorize the struggles of the starving artist; people deserve compensation for their creative labor too.
Having something to say and having it seemingly fall on deaf ears can be soul crushing…Publishing ideas on the internet is like telling a kid to pick up their coat for the 200th time. You think they can’t hear you, that they’re not listening because you keep shouting into a void.
But you know they can hear. The truth is, the internet has got dog ears, especially the big dogs. I’ve had times when I feel like no one is listening.
Does this sound familiar: 3+ hours to write a post. Find the best pic. Schedule it at the optimal time. Tag just the right person, pick the perfect hashtag. Hit Publish…
2 likes from your mom and partner, (if they even read it this time)?
We lament if we should give up already, and there’s no shame in quitting. With no “engagement” to speak of, except from your karass (from Vonnegut; it essentially means “your people”) or occasional hater, self-doubt creeps in.
All the negativity makes you wonder: “Maybe my ideas aren’t that good after all?” Somehow deep down you still KNOW your work is more than good. You know it and they know it…“The people will come Ray,” and they sure do.
The reality is while we feel invisible… they are listening, a lot. “The Powers That Be” are taking what we have to say to the bank. They debate your points before figuring out how to spin it as their own. For their concept or product they got $1.3 million in a seed round, investment-worthy ideas they got from you. Sure, they didn’t hear that from us.
For plausible deniability, they must feign ignorance, but people are listening. They’re reading. Pressing play. Taking note. Synthesizing. Lifting our ideas and throwing them into academic journals, pitch decks, highly SEO-ed blog posts, Twitter threads, and McKinsey’s Insights.
One regular reader outspoken women and non-binary writers have is the bro troll. These detractors find ways to disagree with statements like “Women are paid less” or “Our voices are not valued and respected.” Oh the irony! They’re showing up to bicker for attention while, intentionally or not, they start to absorb your content. (At least they boost your signal?)
Bigger organizations with tons of cash pay consultants to surf the web for new ideas. They spend all damn day listening to you. Culture and Business “experts” are reading your work too…they aren’t amplifying, sharing, or boosting because your idea — it’s about to be expertly repackaged.
They hold back any support or kudos but they’re ready with tons of virtual high fives for another CEO bro who posted “Fuck Hustle Culture. People should rest,” and is suddenly a genius. (The credit for that, by the way, goes to the creator of The Nap Ministry and Black women activists, not the guy in Seattle claiming he invented fair pay.)
“Thought Leaders” and Brand experts show up to a Clubhouse or Spaces with an entourage, saying a few things that sound awfully familiar about building inclusive brands.
(True story.) After their talking points, a highly paid person(ality) who drew a crowd, evaded answering an audience question: “Who is one woman of color in the brand or startup space you follow or we should know about?” He’s stumped. Asked to back up his soundbites with substance, and coming up empty, his handler pops in to remind him they “really do have to go. One more question.”
This is THE guy? He is innovative? He is the expert on branding, and teamwork, and brains in the workplace, and creating cultures of inclusion, and following your Why!?? Why?! WHY AM I SHOUTING?
Meanwhile, we gifted the world (and these guys) the roadmap to saving the planet and humanity, as we try and claw our way out of another hole, the result of their “innovations.”
We get rejection after rejection, yet keep building “bootstrapped” businesses by leaning on partners or borrowing from family, if we even have that luxury. Others put our vision on hold as we care for others (especially moms).
A lot of us try to make it work, but ultimately we’re forced to go work for The Man again. We don’t have much of a choice. We need insurance (in a pandemic). We need income to cover rent and our small business loan. We also need to get some goddamn sleep.
We apply to hundreds of jobs with demoralizing interviews. We get a job and instead of growing our own brand, we give discounts to give our thoughts away at scale, sometimes under someone else’s name. Some of us end up living in a car with a dog, putting a kid through college, applying for jobs from coffee shops.
Ironically, while we fit our brilliance around everyone else, they have significantly more time to think. They can problem solve for hours. They have the privilege of sitting at a desk instead of hiding in the bathroom for uninterrupted time. We work in fits and starts losing weeks (years) of sleep.
Yet, they get to live and sleep and rest and run and f&%k and parent and dream without the added dread of fitting in paid work…because they’re writing with income through book advances. We’re lucky if we get advanced notice we did not qualify, once again.
Men don’t get DMs to be a guest on yet another podcast, “paid in exposure.” Men get to think and speak and write as their only job. They’re employed by large donors and Think Tanks, musing all day on what would make the world even better…for them. Men get the credit.
The kicker: we have the answers to problems they created, and they grab them and say yoink and we’re too tired and too insignificant (in the eyes of the algorithm Gods) to have any recourse.
We write as if we’re Hamilton daily, because we actually are running out of time, again. It’s almost pick up, dinner, time to call your mom, time to post, to send that email and birthday invite and time to pack for a household to take a “vacation” when you know it’s really a trip.
We do this for free because we really are that passionate about our mission (dismantling the very $%it we write about. It’s so damn meta. Oh they lifted that word too to use as a name brand. Meta was stolen from a small business to cover up huge corrupt failures. What’s that saying about when people show you who they are?)
As I said before, the Takers gonna take. Let them. We know in our hearts our words are worthy; our ideas are innovative; our art is beautiful. As much as we wish we didn’t give a crap, the fact that we care is a feature not a bug. One day all this “work” and caring will pay off. Until then, if you find our work, credit us and pay up. Better yet, hire us first.
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Emily Weltman is a writer, social entrepreneur, and intersectional feminist Leading with Purpose and founder of Collective Flow Consulting and the FLOWLab and cofounder of Rage 2 Rainbows.
For more on gender, racial, and economic justice, and ideas on reinventing the workplace: subscribe + follow + sign up.
Previously published on The Ascent on medium
Emily O. Weltman, September 19, 2020
“If you don’t vote, you don’t exist.” — Gloria Steinem
American freedoms have yet to be universal. As benefactors of the patriarchy, white women have contributed to the persistence of white supremacy. We have aided in the oppression of others for several hundred years. This country was not created in our image; white women worshiped it anyway.
Discriminatory practices persist like the layer of mycellium over our planet, touching everything. Antiquated racist and sexist policies stand. If the patriarchy is the microbial layer, racism is the earth’s core.
100 years ago, Black women suffragists fought for us all to exist. Let that sink in. A century ago, only years after slavery ended, Black women chose to help white women win our freedom. They did so despite white women’s persistent mistreatment.
100 years ago, Black women suffragists fought for us all to exist.
In 1920, after taking care of our homes and families, they marched with us. Black suffragists taught white women movement-building tricks. The Patriarchy used tricks of their own (poll taxes, “grandfather clauses,” literacy tests) to prevent new voters, (tactics invented in the 1870s to prevent votes from freed Black Men).
White men’s fear tactics, like lynching, successfully suppressed votes again. But many Black women voted anyway, before being disenfranchised for decades by racist, sexist, and classist laws. Fannie Williams, a Black suffragist, taught Missouri women how to get around roadblocks meant to stop their vote. The results: “nearly every woman in the city, Black or white, registered that season,” (National Geographic, 2020).
Survival, persistence, and resilience in activism all came from Black suffragists like Ida B. Wells. Black women knew they would not benefit equally from their emotional and physical labor; they stood by us anyway. That is allyship.
After the 19th Amendment, most white women went back home as our nation repeated its offenses. As Kimberly Jones put it, “[They] are lucky what Black people are seeking is equality and not revenge!” Indeed, we are lucky. Despite exhaustion and “broken social contracts”, they battled injustice again and again.
Black women like Pauli Murray, Adelene McBean, Irene Morgan, Jo Ann Robinson, Sarah Louise Keys, (and many more) worked to simply sit beside us. Until 1956, they spent another 36 years forced to sit in back on public transportation, (Civil Rights Teaching, Hipkins). We were not moved by this injustice.
In 1963, women like Joan Trumpauer sat with “steadfast, non-violent courage” at lunch counters to fight for Black women to eat by our side. They were dragged down and beaten but got back up, (Civil Rights Movement Archive).
Later that year, Black American’s joined MLK at the Freedom March in Washington D.C. Their demands for equality led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
In the decades to follow, progress was made; but the dream was not achieved.
“The 1970 Women’s Strike for Equality was the largest women’s rights demonstration since the era of suffrage — and more inclusive than anything that had been seen before.”–The New York Times
In the 1970s and 80s, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an ACLU lawyer, won 5 landmark cases on equality before the Supreme Court. In 1993 she was confirmed as a judge, and “believed that the law was gender-blind and all groups were entitled to equal rights.” Her work overturned laws that benefited all women (History.com, 2020).
RBG was not perfect, but she was a pioneer for civil rights. She brought people with her, listened, and learned. She corrected mistakes. Can all women say the same?
In 2016, over half of white women failed us all. Thanks to myopic views of equality, the struggle for Black women to simply exist continues.
In 2020, more white women have been moved. In Portland, (a liberal sanctuary city), moms lined up in solidarity to protect BLM protesters from federal troops. Sadly, too many white women still missed the point.
We must stop showing up only when our gender is threatened.
It’s truly remarkable how quickly times change, yet how long progress takes.
In August, Black Lives Matter was chanted across the country. A new generation stood in solidarity for racial justice in front of the Lincoln Memorial, picking up the fight from their grandparents. Yet, 57 years after the Freedom March, inequality remains a national emergency.
“There is no civil rights movement, no #MeToo movement and certainly no Black Lives Matter movement without brave Black women. When Black women championed equality for the least of these, they championed for us all.”–Kellie Carter Jackson
It’s truly remarkable how quickly times change, yet how long progress takes. All summer white women declared Black Lives Matter. Did we mean it?
In the weeks to come, the evidence will be in our actions. Anti-racist voters can choose with their money, time, and ballots. Listen to Kamala and “recommit to fight for [RBG’s] legacy,” and the legacy of all suffragists.
Tweets are not enough. As Tuck Woodstock noted, “Portlanders unable to take to the streets have also created roles from themselves within the [BLM] movement.” Begin making reparations, often without leaving the house.
Don’t just study the true history of being Black in America; use it to act.
Pay BIPOC creators and artists, via Venmo, cash app, or “Buy me a Coffee” links. It is appropriate and more than welcome to pay them for their labor.
Spend at local Black women-owned businesses and share lists like these.
Follow and pay Black independent journalists and photographers.
Fulfill urgent needs from mutual aid orgs like Snack Bloc and the Rural Project of Oregon.
Donate supplies to local activations. (Refer to local lists requesting individual needs like this one).
Give to local Black-led organizations like Don’t Shoot PDX or the Black Resilience Fund whose efforts directly help Black communities.
Support Black candidates: Volunteer, canvas, and finance grassroots campaigns.
Fight for Black women’s suffrage. Bring them to the polls or watch their kids so they can go vote.
How many times have we declared Black Lives Matter? In the weeks to come, our actions will determine if we truly mean it.
Most of all, stop centering. Use our privilege to center Black women’s cause and pass the mic. They clearly deserve the power to fix things.
We can no longer claim we are The Best. This land of freedom and opportunity is losing big time. A recent report placed the U.S. 31st for Human rights violations out of 35 nations, partly from systemic racism (Forbes, July 2020). While touting out choices, we are “continuously ranked as one of the world’s worst countries for women and girls,” (Leading with Purpose: A Womanifesto, 2019).
Ideologically, Americans hold democracy’s free vote on a pedestal, a panacea to avoid dictatorships.
Ideologically, Americans hold free elections on a pedestal, a panacea to avoid dictatorships. We often oversee the first “free” elections of these “liberated” nations when spreading democracy. Yet democracy in the U.S. is not ideal. We rank 26th of 32 countries from abysmal voter turnout (Pew Research, 2018).
In 2018 the largest turnout since 1914 helped elect progressives. According to the Electability Myth, from 2015–2019 women increased 9% in elected positions and only 1% were Black women. Midterm elections are evidence: functioning democracies can course correct.
Grassroots campaigns proved progress is possible. But, with a Blue Wave still short of impeaching #45 in both the House and Senate, that “progress” was not nearly enough.
“The right to vote is something most Americans hold as sacred. But the Constitution is clear on the matter. Although the 15th, 19th, and 26th Amendments say voting rights can no longer be limited based on race, color, prior status as a slave, sex, or age, none of these amendments affirmatively state that a citizen of this country will be allowed to vote.” — Caleb Gayle, Boston Globe
States, he continued, have “significant discretion to establish specific eligibility qualifications to cast a ballot.” Basically, they can bypass “rights” to suit their ideology.
Loopholes from a century ago, created to prevent votes from Black Americans drag on, preventing millions of votes today. In Florida, prisoners won their right to vote. So Republicans found a workaround, which the Supreme Court refused to intervene in the case “particularly fraught with partisan overtones.” Voters rights 0; The supremacy 1.
More than halfway through the “Last 100 Days,” our upcoming election looks nothing like the democracy we pedal globally. Gerrymandering and epic USPS interference seem to all but guarantee an election that is anything but free or fair.
Dictatorship feels imminent. Voter suppression is at a fever pitch.
As Martha S. Jones, whose recent book on the history of Black women’s fight for equality and voting, notes, “The history of the 19th Amendment is more than a myth; it is a cautionary tale for our own time.”
In addition, Jones points out, no one is actually guaranteed the right to vote by the U.S. Constitution (National Geographic, August 2020). With all 27 constitutional amendments, equality is also a myth.
By default, our democracy is anti-woman and anti-black. White men exist; everyone else has been a footnote. America was built for one purpose: to make money for white men. It’s why our president focuses on economic recovery while lying about job losses.
Stories about our founder's fight for freedom against tyranny are equally false. The independence sought was primarily economic: to avoid taxes. (Ironically, the current leader of the free world is acting like a ruthless king and avoiding his taxes.)
By default, our democracy is anti-woman and anti-black. White men exist; everyone else has been a footnote.
Faced with a history of half-truths, and our present-day election nightmares, I did not celebrate “winning” the vote. Instead, like the 4th of July, I commemorated the 19th amendment with reflections. I acknowledged our nation’s gross missteps which continue to disenfranchise Black families. I reminded myself, and my kids: In America, “freedom” is conditional.
All over the constitution, our oppression is written by omission. Article II, Section I states “Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office…” Women’s existence was never considered. Elsewhere, articles talk about taxing human beings. How can anyone “amend” a White Supremacist Patriarchy?
Letty Cottin Pogrebin’s poetic words perfectly describe why we continue to be plagued, even now. “Mindful of that history, I know enough to not underestimate the stranglehold of patriarchal institutions and death grip of male hegemony.”
The judges and juries that define human rights are not our peers. We are born, live, work, vote, and raise children in these patriarchal institution’s “stranglehold”. Each part of the system favors white privilege and is rigged. It keeps marginalized people subservient, with fewer resources, unpaid Board Membership, Jury Duty, Public School funding tied to property tax.
This same system led a known “pussy grabber” to win the country’s highest office. This system and its “due process” allowed a sexual predator to face zero consequences; instead, he was appointed to our highest Court. After defending himself through rage-filled indignation, he is now the gatekeeper of our Constitution and the last chance we have protecting our rights to choose.
Patriarchy led to a virus out of control. One, because a misogynist worried wearing a mask made him look weak. And two, systemic racism led to worse health and economic outcomes for Black Americans. Thanks to persistent cis-male “hegemony” (dominant social, economic, and political culture) 200,000 Americans have perished from Covid-19. Compounding problems from discrimination led Black Americans to represent disproportionately high numbers.
100 years later, with three Amendments addressing gender and race, America continues its death grip, because racism’s roots have never been addressed.
When do we declare “Enough!” and actually deal with it? It’s time to shift power to Black women. Start protecting our most marginalized populations. America: Time’s Up.
Our planet is in peril and our souls just as fragile. Losses keep coming. The fear over reproductive rights is not abstract (with forced hysterectomies and limiting access to birth control).
With the world literally going up in flames, we all need something, anything, to remind us, our existence matters. 2020 is not lost. Change can still happen. There is hope. Progress is possible. We need to believe this to keep fighting, together.
Progress often challenges the status quo. Moreover, it requires groups to align their efforts with a common purpose. Oregonian women, specifically, have a great deal of collective power. According to The Womxn’s Foundation of Oregon, we vote more than men statewide, and more than most women nationally.
The patriarchy’s narrative to counter our collective power: Your votes won’t count. Nationally, they’ve sown doubt about election fraud.
In Portland, we are told we must not risk splitting the votes for mayor; stick with the progressive white woman on the ballot. How is that progress? If we default to choices created by a biased process primary, without listening to Black women now, we are complicit in continuing colonization. As Token Rose said in her Op-Ed: “It’s funny, people like to dismiss write-in candidates as a ‘protest vote,’ but after the events of May, we are all protesters now. We cannot allow an establishment politician or any other savior to co-opt this movement.”
What now?
Do we listen to a defeated voice inside saying “It’s already over; fascism is here”? A white guy tweeting about rational choices, gaslighting us in plain view?
Not today ladies, gentlemen, and nonbinary citizens. Our options are not as limited as this system would have us believe. We choose. We know who should lead. We vote and act for Black Lives, come hell or high water.
Our democracy is hanging by a thread; so are we. The pandemic is out of control; we feel that too. But, now is not the time to retreat, shrink, or sleep.
Our democracy is hanging by a thread; so are we.
It’s time for reinvention and radical change. Take cues once again from Black activists who recognize why democracy is broken and how to fix it.
Black women like Jessica Byrd, founder of the Electoral Justice Project at the Movement for Black Lives can “reinvigorate democracy” with solutions not found “in traditional party politics, which asks us to hold our nose when we cast a ballot.”
Progress means a more inclusive, responsive co-governance that engages marginalized communities. Representation matters because “the electoral system [is] binary; the entry points are two doors expected to fit the voices and policy needs of hundreds of millions of multiracial constituents.”
White privilege can no longer be a weapon to diminish others; it must be used to concede power to the ones who lifted us first. As several famous Black change-agents said, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
White privilege can no longer be a weapon to diminish others; it must be used to concede power to the ones who lifted us first.
Compensate activists for teaching safety and providing care. Listen to organizers; know your rights; come prepared.
Participate in your neighborhood association.
Follow the Community Charter Review process in PDX.
Join and ensure boards hear from the most marginalized, then act accordingly. (Often when BIPOC women join these organizations, they do lots of invisible labor and still end up ignored.)
Vote for the Black activist candidate for Portland mayor. Write-in Teressa Raiford.
Follow endorsements of Black Lives Matter with updates from BLM’s #WhatMatters2020.
Challenge broken systems, however large. Question everything, including voter suppression tactics.
Take your mail-in ballots directly to collection sites or mail-in early.
“Pledge to Vote” on progressive issues that help Black Americans.
Donate to Oregon Justice Resource Center for reform and support legal services for BIPOC citizens.
Check out this comprehensive list of organizations working to ensure voting access. Give to movement builders like POPMOB.
Share information about election tallying. 45 intends to rush a call before all votes are counted.
Election results will likely be challenged. Make a family plan should 45 refuse to concede.
Document abuses of power from authorities as evidence to support prosecuting misuses of force or teargas.
If harmed, join class-action lawsuits to hold officers accountable.
Challenge every racist rule, one by one, as Pauli Murray, RBG, and others did for sexist and gendered laws for over half a century.
I will not squander my chance to make an impact, however small.
I decide how I exist, not the patriarchy. That is my human right.
While I still have “permission” my vote is my power. (Whether that vote gets counted remains to be seen.)
I decide how I exist, not the patriarchy. That is my human right.
We wouldn’t be where we are today without Black women’s ideas, paving the way for equality. It’s time white women act accordingly. We can and should scream “the house is on fire”, as Black women did first.
Like civil rights leaders before us, we must fight for Black women’s rights. Fight for their freedom, not more privilege for ourselves. As Teressa Raiford said: “If we elect another [white] person we don’t trust then that’s the same outcome.”
White women must “do the work” including questioning bias, self-examination, and reflection.
Channel your rage against the patriarchy and show up for Black lives.
Always listen to Black voices for guidance first (not only from books).
Give them the floor. Quote them often; credit them, always.
We wouldn’t be where we are today without them. It’s time white women act accordingly.
We show everyone: we are suffragists.
We stand up. We say, “I exist.”
We stand up for our communities as Black women did for us.
We stand with others simply to serve and support their needs.
We do not sit by while the existence of Black people is snuffed out and hard-won freedoms are annihilated.
We persevere when we are ready to quit. We leverage every tool available until we are all equal.
We lift up others. Lift every voice. (If you’re white and don’t know what this is, google it).
If this democracy is to survive another 100 years it must serve and represent everyone.
Giving up is not an option. Period.
Black women, as Carter said, follow a “long legacy of Black women who built America.” I stand on the shoulder of my ancestors, Jewish women like Ginsburg, fighting for justice. With her passing, I commit to continue her legacy. I will use my dying breath to stand up for ALL women.
As Janelle Monae said, “The baton has been passed to us. I will keep fighting in your honor.”
Do you still doubt one voice matters? Question the feasibility of collective action to create progress or write-ins campaigns? Ask yourself why.
What patriarchal rules do we still believe cannot be broken? Which rules no longer apply?
What is “electable” or “likable” or “normal” or “professional” or “angry” or “proper”? Whose rules define “belonging” or a “cultural fit”?
Why do I question my right to be counted?
Why do we still define other women or our own ability by standards created by slave-owning white men and complicit white women 400 years ago?
Holding anyone to completely broken sexist, racist standards is not simply unfair; it is unjust.
If American democracy is to survive another 100 years, it must represent and serve everyone.
White women: stop assuming we know better. Don’t expect anyone to conform to only white-able-body-cis-male ways of being in this world.
Learn from Black women. Protect Black activists in danger, like Ragina Gray. Protect Black women like Dawn Wooten who speak out and get censored.
Stop policing made-up boundaries of political imagination.
Listen to AOC: “We don’t give up when people need us most. That’s not who we are.”
What will you do?
In case you hadn’t noticed, we are all running out of time.
Emily is a writer, advocate, and entrepreneur. She is the founder of coFLOWco, a social enterprise consultancy, building the Future of Work grounded in gender equality and racial justice. Emily “Leads with Purpose” because the patriarchy isn’t going to fix itself.
Emily O. Weltman, March 31, 2022
The public ran out of patience around by Spring 2021. You’re in a race against time and burnout in your job.
It’s a sticky position: caught between healthcare, the Feds, Big Pharma, capitalism, The President, and Americans wellbeing. It looks like you’ve been set up to fail since Day 1, pushed into a job you weren’t sure you even wanted.
No one above you seems to have your back. Biden and Fauci still expect you to act like a good “company man” and are nonplussed whenever you don’t toe the line. It’s a safe bet you’ve been bullied by more than one person, possibly to make statements you don’t agree with.
Even when you stand your ground — to work hybrid flying back from Atlanta to your family or hire your own advisors — and still somehow manage to protect their precious economy, they throw you under the bus.
The New York Times noted, “Biden has presided over a series of messaging failures that have followed a familiar pattern, with Dr. Walensky and her team making what experts say are largely sound decisions, but fumbling in communicating them to America.”
Repeated by every outlet this past January, they emphasize your lack of government experience, (as if that were bad — our government is nothing to celebrate at the moment.) CNN echoed you’re “a well-regarded infectious diseases expert with no prior government experience, [who is] now responsible for explaining that decision and other Covid-19 guidance both in public and in briefings with top White House officials.”
They went on to say “During Friday’s briefing, Walensky said that she is working to improve the quality of the agency’s communication with the public.”
How is that going so far? The virus doesn’t care; neither do most Americans.
I cannot stand the narrative the media spins about you, repeatedly centering “no prior government experience” when freaking Donald Trump sat in the oval office, winning on a message of “draining the swamp” and vowing to bring in outsiders. The sexism is blatant (and the antisemitism, more subtle, but ever-present.)
The CDC has become the butt of too many jokes. When Trump gutted it like he gutted all essential government agencies, he made that fairly easy. It’s not like Americans had oodles of confidence with the CDC before Coronavirus.
“What the CDC does isn’t trying to make a product more appealing to a theoretical consumer. It’s to help save lives, to keep people from unnecessarily dying from this awful virus. Walensky isn’t hocking the “ShamWow”; she is a medical doctor telling America how to stay safe.
The problem then isn’t “marketing.” It’s clear communication on, literally, a matter of life and death.”–Erie News, January 2022
With a pandemic that became partisan, being inclusive can be hard. But, if your Q1 2022 media blitz was supposed to be an opportunity to provide clarity to everyone in America… whoops.
Like all women in high positions, you cannot win. What now?
For the remainder of your tenure, however short lived that may be, let’s explore an alternative approach.
Consider your job is talking to people, not at them, and far more often. Put another way, “One problem is, the CDC usually functions more like an academic institution, excelling at producing detailed reports months after an outbreak or episode. It wasn’t built to provide real-time analyses or communicate complicated, fast-moving science to the public.” — Why Does the CDC Keep Screwing Up?
Just as it’s hard for you to watch people ignore science, or for men to push stupid healthcare policies to save The Market, I cringe watching repeated comms and PR debacles. When I see smart women in leadership “fumbling” I cannot sit on my hands.
Why do I care where you spend your budget or who your advisors are? Like you I am smart and practical. Like you I don’t shy away from an impossible job.
Personally, I am invested in seeing you succeed, as a woman, a Jew, a mom, and as a neurodivergent, chronically ill American citizen with multiple invisible disabilities. I don’t want long covid (though I probably already have it) because I already have many of the symptoms and problems associated with autoimmune diseases.
I want to make an impact, too. We both know rebuilding an org that the last administration completely abandoned is tough. We know what it’s like to fight to be heard, even when we’ve been saying the right thing. And, you know as well as I do, without funding, mission-driven work doesn’t happen.
I too have a visceral need to shout, “Please listen to the experts; not political pundits or strategists.”
As a designer passionate about accessibility and the “Future of Work” I want all Americans to have safe, healthy, and inclusive workplaces.
The social and environmental impacts of using weak messaging, backed up by moderate policies, funded by wealthy (white) institutions passing money back and forth will not help you. It will not help Americans. It will not save our democracy. We the people and our planet deserve to survive, and thrive.
As Biden’s transition advisor for the Covid-19 response, Celine Gounder, said, “…one of the most important tools of public health is communication with the public and explaining the why…This isn’t just the CDC … our government is stuck in this very outmoded sort of antiquated approach, which is more about public relations than it is about real communication and education.” — Politico, January 2022
You want people to see you, hear you, and act accordingly. Don’t we all? You must build respect through education, not just PR. We excel at having the hard conversations. We center the most vulnerable and embed equity and inclusion into all content and every action.
It’s not too late to leave a legacy and a story you are proud of, but it will take some investment and even more chutzpah.
Before a solid campaign, like Wellbee from the 1960s, the CDC needs a full brand refresh, starting with the basics: audit and review all content. Redo the core messaging: mission, vision, and values. Truthfully, it’s way past time for an overhaul of all of the CDC’s content, the full website, and social media, looking at everything from accessibility to visual language.
Don’t skip over the “Pledge to the American People.” To shift your communications (and beliefs) to meet this Pledge, you need to make some significant updates to graphic design, social media strategy, UX, and ensure conscious, inclusive language is used throughout. You’ll also probably have to change policies, but let’s focus on brand communications for today.
“We were there” (with its horrible graphic and military typeface) is one of many examples of outdated content. How can you usher in the “Future of Work” at the CDC with a series like this? It lacks any compassion or accountability for the CDCs many past mistakes. No shade, but it feels like an intern created it.
Image from “We Were There” video series on CDC.gov
The CDC needs a full and deep brand and business audit to review key documents still easily downloadable with outdated information. Most importantly, to remedy the confusion that continues to plague its credibility, the CDC needs an entirely new Communications Strategy.
I am an SME (subject matter expert) and know a lot about communications. My expertise lies in words — just ask my mom. Jokes aside, I can help you level up the messaging externally and provide clarity on messaging externally.
As your advisor I would ensure obnoxious men who think they know better were aligned on your message before you put yourself on the line. I can navigate the most patriarchal of agencies and the hardest of DEI conversations: I worked in Advertising for 🦊 sake.
To be clear, I am not a marketing person. People don’t hire me to sell their ideas. They hire me to tell their story so their ideas sell themselves. As a social entrepreneur and brand strategy consultant, I help authentically build justice into every organization.
After conducting a light Discovery phase, reading through a great deal of CDC content and listening to you speak, I have gathered a ton of valuable observations and created a quick list of suggested areas to revisit and revamp.
First and foremost, you must start by acknowledging that everyone’s life is equally valuable; then shift the CDC’s content to support that.
Of course, I prefer you hire me for my valuable perspective and experience before I do what women always do: give any more ideas away and labor for free trying to prove we’re qualified.
Second, stop hiring the well-connected in Washington D.C.
To communicate with Americans you don’t need a DC political strategist with a pedigree similar to yours, any more than Biden did for his State of the Union. A moderate approach to this will not work.
Sure the CDC has money to keep McKinsey consultants gainfully employed, leading its pandemic communications. The same management consultancies and establishment guided every decision for our government based on The Market. Every aspect of our future was not decided from a wellness lens, but a Wall Street one.
You need someone to help you bridge the academic world and the real world; move from PhD language to IRL language.
If you are serious about building trust between Americans and America’s public health industrial complex, hire new consultants. Period.
Third, align the CDC’s mission and brand communications, moving from purpose and PR to policy and practice.
You have a unique opportunity to not only fix a broken institution and improve healthcare, but improve the mental and physical health of the 99% of Americans who work for small businesses (many with no healthcare).
Fourth, decide what the CDC as an org really does; decide who it serves. You cannot have a successful company or civic entity when it’s unclear who your primary customer is: Big Pharma or all Americans.
Fifth, use your budget to help those left behind by bad economic practices of the previous administration. The CDC is a very well funded part of the federal government. As the Director, you can use procurement to shift dollars and help the SBA fund diverse small businesses as promised.
We are an SBA Certified Woman-owned business and registered on SAM.gov. Had it not been for a Global Pandemic setting us back a year, we would be B Corp certified. We are experts in designing for inclusion and accessibility. Many of our partners have DMBE certifications and have passed all Federal A11y training.
Are you ready to define your Value Proposition, revise your Mission Statement, and audit all of the CDCs digital communications? Do you want a fresh visual language that disrupts the monotony of the CDCs sad Twitter feed?
Want a new brand guide with all your comms policies and documents in one place? Need all of your websites pages around communications, policies, and mission updated where needed by 2024?
Want to reimagine healthcare communications and design at the CDC?
Hire us first.