Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1276583
D E PA R T M E N T 21 KEYFRAME DISCUSSING RACE IN THE WORKPL ACE IF YOU ARE A PERSON OF COLOR, YOU MIGHT BE THE GO-TO COLLEAGUE FOR ALL ISSUES RACE-RELATED, OR YOU'RE SUBJECTED TO CONVERSATIONS YOU DON'T HAVE THE TIME, ENERGY OR INTEREST IN HAVING. IF YOU'RE WHITE, YOU MIGHT FEEL AWKWARD ABOUT DISCUSSING RACE OR CONFUSED ABOUT HOW TO BE AN ALLY TO YOUR COLLEAGUES OF COLOR BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START. Much of the former can be attributed to misguided good intentions, while the latter is the product of a longstanding culture of silence. Both can undermine the potential for meaningful, action-oriented conversations. To explore this, we reached out to three distinguished experts dedicated to anti- racist education and racial equality: Assistant Professor of Management Stephanie Creary, an identity and diversity scholar at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; Monique Marshall, a career educator with expertise in multicultural and diversity leadership; and Taylor Shaw, the founder of Black Women Animate. Together, they share some ideas to consider when discussing race in the workplace. DON'T LET THE BURDEN FALL ON YOUR COLLEAGUES OF COLOR. Creary says that historically it's not uncommon for companies to leave the responsibility of figuring out what to do or say in regard to issues of race on employees of color. As Marshall adds: "There's a trend of asking the people of color to teach everyone else about race and racism." Not only does this create an extra, unpaid "job" for that person, it also can affect their mental health and productivity. "Creating art is a beautiful, intimate and emotional process," says Shaw, "and creators of color should be able to focus on that." Focusing on their job can be difficult, Creary explains, when "you have this person who is underrepresented, sitting at work observing all these problems. Or they're thinking, I'm really having a hard time being present at work today because I just spent all this time on social media watching another killing of an unarmed black man, and I have to act like this isn't happening. You've got people who are carrying their internal experiences and the outside experiences, and that's contributing to their own self-questioning around, is this a place for me?" Wherever the stresses originate, the employee should never feel obligated to talk about them, according to Marshall. At the same time, they should be able to talk about their experiences if they choose. In order for a person to make this choice, they need to feel safe. If a true sense of safety is absent, "you don't get the best out of your talent," Shaw says. "When the onus is on the artist, that's when we start to see burnout. That's when we start to see the retention of people of color within animation drop off. Our FALL 2020 21 HOW TO LAY THE GROUNDWORK FOR MEANINGFUL, ACTION-ORIENTED DIALOGUES BY KIM FAY