I want to address something while it's still fresh: we've been seeing a lot of new mentorship opportunities for black creatives pop up recently. While I'm glad to see it, I think it's important to recognize the shortcomings of these efforts. Where are longterm corrective plans?

Mentorship is a first step towards addressing one specific problem, specifically unequal access to mentors, equal peers, and education. But what of hiring? What of making workplaces safe and equitable for black hires? What of offering pay and healthcare to sustain their careers?

There's a laundry list of things POC face that are amplified for black creatives. How are we going to address things that kill longevity:
- Hostile workplaces with no support
- No consequences for damaging behavior/speech
- Wages that do not account for high living expense

- Misogynoir (compounded sexism + antiblack racism)
- completely white-led diversity efforts
- retribution for speaking up

The list goes on and on. The main question is: how are we going to protect these black creatives through their entire careers? Plans need to start NOW.

If you are in a position of any power within a creative industry it is on you (and I include myself in this) to get together and seriously brainstorm how to prevent what are obscene and understandable black creative burn-out/drop-out rates. Or all this mentoring means nothing.

The problem was never, and is never, going to be finding skill or fostering talent. The problem is ALWAYS how fast creative industries shut doors or open them and do NOTHING to make that workplace welcoming. It's not sustainable, and frankly I'm ashamed of it.

Your workplace must be consistently anti-racist. It must be consistently anti-abuse. You must protect people who speak out about problems and you must enact changes they need. You must always be acting from a place that asks "okay, let's do more now" and follow through.

It's not "sexy" work. It's not easy work. For many of my white colleagues, they don't even see that there's a problem sometimes. But there is one, and action is what fixes it. Not one-offs. I'm going to do what I can. I hope I see more of you on this train.

All of this is to say: please. Keep offering mentorships, portfolio reviews, what have you. I'm doing those, too. But within the workplace, start taking a stand for concrete measures as a bulwark against losing the black creatives you find.

And to add: none of this will mean shit if someone's dead. At the very very base of this all, we MUST push back against police brutality and antiblack racism in our communities, our medicine, our lives––everywhere. Can't uplift someone when they're gone.