It’s no secret that the tech industry has a diversity problem. Dr. Dédé Tetsubayashi, a product equity, inclusion and tech ethicist, joins to discuss how the lack of representation within tech adversely impacts product equity and user experiences, and how tech companies can be more inclusive. Dr. Dédé also shares how she educates and empowers individuals, groups, and communities through incluu, a Black-woman-owned consultancy transforming organizations to be more inclusive in product design and processes. 

Topics Covered:

• How Dr. Dédé got started in the field as a technologist
• Causes for gender and racial gaps in the tech industry
• Barriers to entry for black women in tech
• Resources to support your professional development in tech
• The rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) in our everyday lives
• How AI perpetuates racial and gender biases
• How to make AI systems more inclusive
• Why Dr. Dédé founded incluu
• How incluu addresses gender and racial biases in the tech industry
• How incluu helps organizations develop trusting relationships with communities of color
• The business argument for diversity and inclusion

Find links and show notes at https://breakconcrete.com/bc054.

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From a newly immigrated nanny to CEO, Jackie Glenn has embraced life’s challenges with boldness and humility, always being true to herself and giving back to those who come after her. It’s this commitment to helping others, which led Jackie to write her instructional biography, Lift As I Climb: An Immigrant Girl’s Journey Through Corporate America. Jackie discusses how she climbed her way up the corporate ladder and the character gems that brought her and other immigrants professional success in the American workplace. 

Topics Covered:

• Why Jackie decided to write Lift As I Climb: An Immigrant Girl’s Journey Through Corporate America
• Workplace challenges Jackie faced as an immigrant in the U.S. 
• How your accent can impact you in the workplace
• Defining authenticity
• How to turn your unique attributes into an advantage
• Jackie’s experience moving to the U.S. as a young single Black woman from a predominantly Black country
• Confronting microaggressions in the workplace
• Getting out of your head
• Resilience in the workplace
• How to address being passed over for a promotion
• Soliciting feedback from others

Find links and show notes at https://breakconcrete.com/bc053.

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Women of color face unique gender and racial barriers to their professional advancement and are less likely to move into leadership roles. In today’s bonus episode, we speak to the women of The FLI Collective, a lifestyle podcast that deals with the experiences of being first generation and low income in academia. We examine some of these challenges and discuss strategies for advancing women of color, including when we should pursue stretch opportunities and how we lead and bring others along with us. Welcome Drs. Marlette Jackson, Edritz Javelosa, Nidia Ruedas-Gracia, Miranda Stratton, and Courtney Pena!

Topics Covered:

• Defining FLI - first generation, low-income college graduate
• Navigating privileged spaces as a class migrant
• What stops women of color from applying to jobs
• Why women discount their qualifications when job hunting
• The power of networking
• Defining stereotype threat
• What women of color should do when considering a new job
• How women of color lead and navigate leadership
• Recognizing the invisible labor women of color managers undertake
• Why women of color are not promoted into senior positions
• How to self-advocate in the workplace

Find links and show notes at https://breakconcrete.com/bc052.

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Stuck on how to turn your passion project into so much more? After more than a decade in accounting and finance at companies like Morgan Stanley, Viacom, and Johnson & Johnson, Beth Diana Smith left her six-figure salary and the corporate world to launch her own interior design firm, Beth Diana Smith Interior Design. Her style is modern and eclectic with luxurious finishes and custom furnishings. Above all, her work is client-centric as she helps each homeowner hone in on their own style and create a space that inspires them and enhances their lifestyle. Beth chats about how she turned her side hustle into her full time gig. 

Topics Covered:

• Cultivating your skills and passion in a different industry while working full time
• How Beth transitioned from a career in accounting and finance to interior design
• Steps to take when launching a new company
• Lessons Beth learned in launching Beth Diana Smith Interior Design
• Planning for entrepreneurship
• Where Beth gets inspiration for her designs
• Developing your personal style
• Identifying design faux pas
• Tips for working with clients during the coronavirus pandemic

Find links and show notes at https://breakconcrete.com/bc051.

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With rising costs of living, steadily increasing debt, and stagnant wages, middle class Americans may find themselves living paycheck to paycheck. But is there even a Black middle class? Imari Smith, a doctoral student in Duke University’s Joint Program in Sociology and Public Policy, argues that the Black middle class is a “subaltern middle class”, just one tier of a marginalized group. The Black middle class has never reaped the benefits of their middle class status and continue to be subjected to the same harms faced by Black Americans of lower economic status.

Find links and show notes at https://breakconcrete.com/bc050.

Topics Covered:

• Defining middle class and wealth
• The hollowing of the middle class 
• Drivers of increasing household debt
• Defining the “subaltern middle class”
• How middle class status insulates from adversity
• Barriers Black families face to accumulating wealth
• Closing the wealth gap 
• Building Black Americans’ assets and wealth
• Identifying who should benefit from reparations

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Every year women perform thousands of hours and trillions of dollars of unpaid work. You’ve likely heard of the invisible daily household work women perform, but what about unpaid community activism performed by Black and Brown women? Dr. Nina Banks, an associate professor of economics at Bucknell University, argues that this collective activism places additional burdens on women of color that often go unrecognized and uncompensated. Through recognizing how Black women challenge racial oppression in their communities, we can reconceptualize Black women’s labor and their impact on the economy.

Find links and show notes at https://breakconcrete.com/bc049.

Topics Covered:

• How the lack of diverse economists impact theories around social outcomes
• How Black economists contribute to the field 
• Understanding women’s invisible work
• Acknowledging Black women’s hidden and unpaid work and why it has been overlooked
• Examples of Black women’s unpaid work
• Recognizing community activism as work
• Dr. Banks’s research about the first African American economist, Sadie T.M. Alexander

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Many employers require their employees to follow workplace dress codes. Employers can regulate employees’ clothing, makeup, hairstyles, nails, and more. Your employer might even be able to regulate your weight. Although the line between discriminatory and simply burdensome may seem blurry, today, Professor Stacy Hawkins, Vice Dean and Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School, joins to explain just how far a company dress code can go before crossing into unlawful discrimination.

Find links and show notes at https://breakconcrete.com/bc048.

Topics Covered:

• Defining authenticity
• The importance of bringing your whole Self to the workplace
• How authenticity impacts productivity and company culture
• Identifying discriminatory workplace dress codes
• Hair discrimination in the workplace
• How workplace standards of professionalism discriminate against women of color
• How companies can embrace employee authenticity instead of conformity
• Promoting authenticity in the workplace
• Leading with authenticity
• Deciding when to conform to workplace norms
• How employees can hold their companies accountable for promoting authentic workplaces

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After spending over a year working from home, returning to the office and readjusting to your company dress code can be challenging. Today, Doreen Pierre, a Brooklyn based fashion writer, visual content creator, and events producer chats about how restrictive dress codes inhibit us from bringing our true Selves to work. Doreen’s work centers people of color and queer communities and has been featured in The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Virgin Media, DapperQ and more.

Find links and show notes at https://breakconcrete.com/bc047.

Topics Covered:

• Exploring the connection between fashion and identity
• How Doreen embraces the many aspects of her identity through fashion
• Fashion as protection
• The importance of authenticity in the workplace
• How dress codes reinforce problematic standards of professionalism 
• How company dress codes may exclude workers
• Supporting employee authenticity

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