The by week in America has been both gutting and revealing. It has laid blank a number of ugly truths that every corner of our guild is at present existence forced to reckon with.

I am an African-American writer, strategist, and the president of a branding and technology studio. Professionally, that means I spend my time helping organizations tell their stories, empathize their audience's hurting points, and consult with them on what relationship must be built, what pathways cleared, and what value must be exchanged earlier they can reasonably await any meaningful or lasting change in their audience's beliefs or behavior. I spend a lot of time asking a lot of questions like, What is the problem nosotros're solving? Are people even enlightened they accept it? Once they are enlightened, what do people need to know and feel in club to accept action? Most chiefly, what specific actions are we request them to accept?

I am also an African American female parent, married woman, daughter, and sis, which ways I am feeling the full weight of the moment we are in. It also means that unlike the branding, campaign, and consulting work I do in my professional career, my personal fate is direct tied to the change I am championing here.

For all of those reasons, simply specifically as a Black leader in this industry, I feel qualified and compelled to share my perspective in this open letter.

I've seen a number of bang-up posts about what white people can exist doing, in general, to actively combat racism in America. Lists like this and this are so important and I'm grateful for their circulation. I call up it's too really important to talk nigh what nosotros in this specific manufacture should be doing. It's important to examine the power we take and our responsibleness to wield it thoughtfully.

As image-makers, platform builders, conversation managers, and storytellers, we contribute to the images, messages, and perceptions that circulate inside our society and civilization. These images and letters have tremendous power. They take the ability to influence the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of our collective lodge today and for generations to come. They accept the power to make people see and recognize the humanity in others, or the power to objectify and dehumanize others. They take the power to make people feel fearful of others, or the ability to make them experience safety. They have the power to make people feel cute or ugly, seen or unseen, accepted or ostracized, revered or reviled. They have the power to celebrate our vulnerabilities, flaws, and imperfections, or to lull us into the false comfort and unattainable pursuit of perfectly curated, beautifully crafted lives and feeds. Most importantly, the words and images we create and choose to circulate create powerful mental associations that define how we perceive each other and the world around us.

We in the advertising, marketing, communications, media, and entertainment sectors are responsible for creating and circulating the very images that . . . influence whether someone lives or dies."

Why does that matter at this moment?

"Perception acts as a lens through which we view reality. Our perceptions influence how nosotros focus on, process, recall, interpret, empathize, synthesize, decide nigh, and human action on reality," Jim Taylor, Ph.D., wrote in Psychology Today. "In doing so, our tendency is to presume that how we perceive reality is an accurate representation of what reality truly is."

Perception affects whether you lot will be deemed a "skilful fit" for a job or pose "a threat" to law. Perception affects whether you are kindly offered a mask, or are harassed and beaten for non wearing one. Perception affects whether yous are offered h2o and medical attending later being handcuffed or left to die under someone'south human knee. Perception is a affair of life and decease for Black people.

Police force officers shoot unarmed Blackness men because they "feel afraid," notwithstanding calmly de-escalate conflicts with fully armed white men because they "knew they didn't pose a real threat." People clutch their purses or reach for their wallets when they run across a grouping of immature Black boys walking toward them, but relax into memories of what information technology means to be young and carefree when a group of "clean-cut" white boys goofing off bumps into them. The feelings are oftentimes real in both cases. The questions to inquire are, Why are yous agape? Why are you unafraid?

It all comes down to perception. Our perceptions are formed based on a combination of our existent, lived experiences, and the images and stories we've been exposed to that fill in the rest. If you have no real lived personal experiences with Black people (at habitation, in your friend circles, or at piece of work) to draw upon, then you're left with the images depicted in the media, in film, idiot box, and literature that you choose to eat. Conversely, if you accept real, lived personal experiences with a diverse range of Black people, and then it will finer balance or cheque any media images that contradict those experiences.

Much has been written about media portrayals and the impact they have on public attitudes toward people of color, nearly the history of racial stereotypes and how these stereotypes were deliberately crafted and strategically used to reinforce white supremacy either past excluding or minimizing the contributions of people of color or by depicting them as tearing, dangerous, simpleminded, greedy, untrustworthy, or lazy.

This collection of dehumanizing and objectifying stereotypes, and those that accept followed, take dominated the mainstream cultural tape of the lives and graphic symbol of Black people for centuries. At that place is a long, painful account of the evil deeds and destruction that can be washed to Black bodies with impunity when non seen as fully man.

Seventy-5 percent of white Americans report having social networks comprised entirely of whites with no minority presence, according to a PRRI American Values Written report. This lack of meaningful relationships with people of color means that the images that get circulated in media, Television receiver, and picture show carry all the weight in developing the bulk of white Americans' perception of people of colour. When those images are largely negative, diminutive or one-dimensional (considering the people creating them are as well drawing from limited meaningful experiences with people of colour), a cruel bicycle of stereotype-fueled perceptions is created and consumed, created, and consumed.

That'southward where this community comes in.

We in the advertising, marketing, communications, media, and entertainment sectors are responsible for creating and circulating the very images that either contribute to or gainsay the perceptions that are conjured up in the mind of an officer during a divide-second reactionary fright-based moment or in a cold-blooded, dehumanizing 8 minutes and 46 seconds. They influence whether someone lives or dies.

And then what can the creative community, content producers, and leaders of agencies exercise with this power? What practice nosotros have the responsibility to practice?

  1. Work to learn and empathize the history and legacy of systemic racism in America.
  2. Work to learn and empathize the history of racial stereotypes in America. If you are responsible for creating or distributing content in America, this is as important as mastering Sketch, landing sponsorships, perfecting your editorial agenda, or mastering Premiere Pro.
  3. Examine how these images accept evolved but are still difficult at work in our society and culture largely affecting how people of colour are perceived today (meet: Heineken, Volkswagen, Gucci, H&M, Abercrombie & Fitch, Pepsi, etc.)
  4. Follow and amplify the voices of people of color in our manufacture. Seek out designers, writers, technologists, strategists, content creators, and idea leaders. They are out there.
  5. Exist intentional virtually hiring and building diverse teams. Not but is it essential to open up up an industry that is overwhelmingly comprised of white people (which is a trouble for all the same reasons), but because having these voices and perspectives in the room leads to amend and more resonant, ideas, work, and work culture.
  6. Make a meaningful delivery to hiring diverse teams. Adding a token Black person to the squad doesn't bank check the box. Calling in that one Black person in your office to review the campaign at the last minute, after millions of dollars in media and production have already been spent, volition not defend against these kinds of narratives from existence perpetuated. When faced with the selection of speaking up and potentially risking their chore (or future mobility inside the company) or lightly objecting and so slowly receding out of the conversation while bad ideas get feverishly greenlit, a solo Black person may non have the financial luxury of making the noble choice. When unabridged teams are meaningfully diverse, people of color feel supported and protected, or at the very least respected, in their dissent, because they share a common experience of being marginalized or stereotyped. The burden of being the sole litmus test to police creative and "represent the race" is misguided, to begin with, only is also just too bang-up to bear.
  7. Foster a civilisation where all employees feel safe and supported for calling out racist jokes, sentiments, or requests–whether made past a colleague, supervisor, or your largest client. Make information technology clear to your employees that their job is not on the line when being vocal about these insidious transgressions. On the opposite, publicly commend their deportment every bit an instance of your core values.
  8. Get in articulate to your clients that while they pay yous to produce work, you won't compromise your values in order to be paid.
  9. Do the work to understand racially and culturally various audiences. Spend the fourth dimension and endeavor to understand their diverse circumstances, interests, questions, and the context of their challenges in gild to communicate with them in ways that are meaningful, relevant, affirming, respectful, and dignified.
  10. Source stock imagery or produce original content and cast talent that reflects the diversity of audiences. Understand that these images and narratives need to reverberate the diverseness within races, genders, and cultures, not just diversity amid races, genders, and cultures.
  11. Diversify your sources of inspiration. As creatives, we need inspiration. Examine where yous're looking for it. Order mag subscriptions, coffee table books, and artwork for your part that feature and are created by people of colour. Seek out films and literature featuring Black actors, directors, and writers. Subscribe to podcasts published by communities different from your ain, on topics that fall exterior from your own world view. This will give you access and intimacy to issues and perspectives that you lot might not currently have in your personal, lived feel.
  12. Diversify your sources of cognition. Invite speakers and idea leaders from a diverse fix of backgrounds to propose, offer guidance, and share their subject matter expertise with yous and your team.
  13. Create "Commitments to Action" for departments within your organization and make them public:
  • Design — How, where, and what imagery do we source? Whose cultural frame of reference are we designing from? Whose tastes, needs, and problems are we solving for?
  • Story/PR — What stories are nosotros telling and from whose point of view?
  • Strategy — What assumptions are we making well-nigh our audience? Do we know their true pain points? Have we sought their directly input?
  • Product — Who are nosotros casting to act, write, and direct? How are our requirements for these roles serving to dismantle or perpetuate negative racial stereotypes?
  • Executives — How is race factoring into who we are hiring, firing, recognizing, and promoting? Are nosotros creating a civilisation that values independent thinking, encourages people to speak up against Racism and racial stereotypes, and expects our work to reflect racial diversity?
  • I want to be clear. This is not about pushing a shiny, highly curated narrative of Cosby Show-esque Blackness exceptionalism. Although, after centuries of these destructive images circulating in media and culture being perceived as fact, I practise believe we take to overcorrect. Being narrow in any one depiction would also defeat the point. This is about getting to know the depth, dazzler, dimension, and range of Blackness people.

There are numerous content creators and curators doing beautiful important work to combat negative or 1-dimensional stereotypes and to bring along the full humanity of people and communities of color. It's important to recognize that these sources are largely created for communities of colour by people of color, as a means to promote healing, pride, and self-worth, non in an attempt to proceeds the approval of the white gaze.

Black people take long resorted to looking in for solutions to their ain racial trauma. Whatsoever other expectation would exist foolish at this point. Regardless of their intended audience, these are but a few examples of the imagery, narratives, and resources that are lacking in general circulation:

TONL
Getty Images Evidence Us Project
Blvckvrchives
CRWNMAG
Men Thrive
Girl Trek
ARRAY
Code Switch
The Sojourn Project
The Gordon Parks Foundation

As a Black adult female, I realize that deeply knowing the fullness of the humanity of Black people is a gift I take for granted. I intimately understand the style, as James Baldwin describes, "When the dark face up opens, the low-cal seems to go everywhere." I have experienced the soul-healing power of our laughter. I take been energized and empowered by the gift of our quick wit, vehement truth, and timely sarcasm; used both as a release valve and a tool. I have known how information technology feels to exist deeply held in an comprehend that lingers and sways, back and along, back and forth. I have been surrounded and uplifted in a chorus of affirming "mmm-hmm," "yup," "yup," "that'due south right," "yep, indeeds" when sharing my pain or testimony within my sister circle. I have known the complexity of Black fathers, uncles, and brothers. Black men who are as "street" every bit they are strategic. Brilliant thinkers and poetic speakers whose beautiful ideas ofttimes multiply in their minds and threaten to consume them for lack of resource or access to the infrastructure through which they can be realized.

I have experienced the quieting depth of my grandfather's voice. How our family gathered around him when we were cleaved or shaken and how his stabilizing prayers and lectures pieced us back together and made united states feel whole. I accept known the gentleness and force with which he helped raise united states. I take known the furthermost stare in my grandmother's optics, recounting in her mind the horrors of the Jim Crow S, the formative experience of witnessing a lynching and leaving everything she knew to observe a better life up North for her children. I have known the honey and respect they displayed inside their marriage, the dutiful, disciplined cadency with which they created shopping lists, paid bills, and planned meals. I've witnessed the gentle intimacy with which they spoke to each other.

I have known the unconditional dear and generosity of my mother's spirit. How it remains like an unlocked door, open to whoever needs shelter, regardless of whether they deserve it. I take reveled in the soothing condolement of my Aunt'due south intellect and energy. Her incense, crystals, and drove of Blackness literary greats like Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Maya Angelou, adorning her Victorian dwelling. I have known the pride and joy of our people at church on Dominicus, oiled scalps, pleats pressed and dressed in their best. A congregation and community recharging their weary souls together earlier starting another long, brutal week.

I have known the silliness and #blackboyjoy of my brothers. Telling jokes and reciting all the words to Coming to America by center, barely able to get the next line out. Their laughter exchanging punches, doubling them over in hysteria. I've likewise experienced their vehement protection of me as a kid, and now, the reversal: my daily concern for their safety as grown Black men. I have been unconfused by their wide-ranging talents and interests, their tenor and bass voices beautifully singing to the collection of Andrew Lloyd Weber followed past Run DMC in the same 1989 afternoon.

These personal, lived experiences have served as important counterweights to the ane-dimensional stereotypes that this state seems to perpetuate and then consistently. These lived experiences as a Blackness person, among Black people, allow me to see the total humanity of a human going for a jog or one begging for his life.

My hope for this customs of creators is that past recognizing the connection betwixt our own work and the cultural perceptions that affect Black lives, by acknowledging the complicit and overt part our manufacture has played for centuries in the dehumanization of Blackness people, we tin can agree each other accountable to creating and circulating imagery and narratives that aim to reflect and restore the total range of Black humanity inside our social club and culture.

When our full humanity is widely reflected and personally known, perceptions shift, separate-2nd decisions that were in one case driven past fright tin be overridden past empathy, policies designed to oppress tin be redesigned to uplift, talent, and contributions deemed not personally relevant, can presume their rightful place equally essential treasures. Blackness lives tin can begin to matter.

It is not the responsibleness of Blackness people to pb and do this work. Despite centuries of crushing dehumanization, institutional oppression, racial violence, and trauma, Black people have mustered upwards the resilience and cocky-worth to Continue. Showing. Up. with our immeasurable talent and ingenuity, hard work, and humanity in full view for the world to run into. Information technology'southward well-nigh time for everyone else to tune in and share out.

Let'southward get to work.