I’m going to tell a story that I think is interesting. I was living and working in STL at an organization that was around 85% Black and 85% female. I know I wasn’t a “minority” but it was a different experience than I was ever used to.

Anyway, my boss (a Black woman) was great.

But one day, she came up to me and said there was a problem.

She said that people were talking and didn’t like the fact that at meetings, I was always sitting next to other white people.

At first I was angry, which obviously my boss saw.

I said “How is this my fault? I get to meetings early. I can’t control who sits near me!” She said “I’m just telling you what I heard, it’s up to you to decide what to do next”

So from then on, I’d arrive to every meeting a minute before it was supposed to start and...

sit next to a Black person. It had just never occurred to me to ever think like that. Honestly, I’d prefer to sit by myself, and that was always my hope at those meetings.

Like I said at the beginning, I’m not sure what conclusions there are to draw, other than...

Just sitting back and hoping for diversity doesn’t work.

Thanks for reading!