Missed Opportunity

I have been thinking about my next blog posts and I realized that I needed to come clean about a diversity and inclusion opportunity that I let slip away. I love music, from old school R&B to 80s-90s rock (big hair rock) and everything in between. The only genres I do not care for are hard-core rap and rock. At any moment of the day, you may find I am listening to the elements (Earth, Wind, & Fire, for those of you who do not know) and come back a few hours later and I have Enya playing. Music speaks to me, it touches my soul and I like the journey that music takes me on.

Country music is one of my favorites. In high school, my best friend at the time, Angie, introduced me to Garth Brooks, Dixie Chicks, Collin Raye, and many more. (Honestly, if Collin Raye’s Love, Me doesn’t have your eyes sweating, something is wrong with you.) Out of all of the country musicians that she introduced me to Garth Brooks was my favorite. His song Unanswered Prayers spoke to me. So, you can imagine my excitement when I heard he and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, were coming to Charleston, SC. Now, I knew my husband would most likely not want to go to a country music concert and I knew that I would have to get a friend to go with me and I was okay with it. The trouble came in when I realized that I would not feel comfortable going to a country music concert.

It was 2016 and I did not feel comfortable attending a concert. Don’t get me wrong, I was used to being the only female or only person of color in meetings and such but when it came to being in the North Charleston Coliseum, I lost my nerve. I didn’t feel that it would be appropriate for me to attend. I didn’t feel like I would be welcomed there and I wasn’t willing to place myself in that situation.

I was comfortable fighting the fight of diversity and inclusion in business; however, I had no backbone for a simple music concert. I think about that concert a lot (I heard it was awesome!). It was an opportunity to show that although I looked different from those on stage and the majority of the crowd, I appreciated and supported great music. You may be thinking to yourself, “well there were other people of color there” and I am sure there were. However, for me at the time, I felt that the chasm of diversity was too great to cross.

I also feel shame in that a simple concert had me retreating. When I think about those who came before me fighting for equality, dragged from their beds and hanged, water hoses turned on them, and I let a simple concert defeat me. I let my feelings of possibly being uncomfortable defeat me.

Have you missed an opportunity regarding diversity and inclusion? Have you not hired a perfectly qualified candidate because you felt that they did not have the “right look” for the environment? Have you not hired a candidate because you did not understand their disability? Are you currently wrestling with a decision that could challenge the current culture? Do not look back in regret, go forward and do what is right.

“The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtues consistently.” – Dr. Maya Angelou