Standing on Shoulders

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While you may find yourself as a lone Black man in senior leadership or even middle management, the reality is that you are standing on the shoulders of the Black men that came before you.

During the integration phase of US history, there was an influx of Black people into corporate America. The first people, or what we call pioneers, experienced a lot of overt and covert racism. They experienced traumas that ate at their minds and their emotions, and most of them that are still alive are healing in psychotherapy and other means to this very day.

Now, you may ask yourself why someone would become traumatized at work, and the same answers explain why someone can be traumatized in a family, a society, or any other sort of group. It comes down to poor treatment over a sustained period of time.

While these brothers may not have experienced physical abuse, but many of them have experienced mental and emotional ones that come from corporate psychological warfare over the course of decades in their lives.

Employee resource groups specializing in topics for African-Americans and Black people throughout the diaspora are a relatively new concept for many organizations, with most of these groups having been established only in the past decade or two.

Blacks at Microsoft (BAM) is one of the groups that's been around for quite some time and is still quite robust to this very day.

However, the pioneers were the first brothers in these organizations and had nobody to look up to for guidance; there were no Black groups inside of a company available for them to join; there weren’t nearly as many Black professional conferences and organizations as there are today; and there wasn’t somebody Black that told you about how to negotiate, how to interview for a mid-level or executive role, or how to win in corporate politics as a Black man when the rules are different for you.

If you get a chance to speak with these brothers, who are primarily retired at this time, it will be like listening to a podcast and reading a biography or a book about the intersection of Black male identity in corporate America at the same time. You will gain tremendous insights into how far the Black community has come inside corporate America, and you would recognize that you were in fact standing on the shoulders of the people that came before you.

So whether you are a brother who is a lone wolf proudly or you like to run in a pack, realize that you are part of a legacy and a lineage of Black men and people who have entered corporate America from previously segregated organizations and are making your future there in the footsteps of the brothers who came before you.

However, now it’s your turn, your time, and your moment to be a pioneer and breakthrough to the next level of success and awareness on how to survive the corporate gauntlet with optimal mental health, financial abundance, a lifetime of networking, relationships, and pride in the professional accomplishments that you achieve.

All of this will pave the way for the next brother in line.

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