Focusing on themes from her memoir, "The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation,” activist and author Raquel Willis will intertwine personal experiences with the professional realm, highlighting the necessity of recognizing and addressing the nuanced ways in which identities and systemic oppressions intersect within the workplace. She will share insights on how gender, race, and identity impact our quests to be fully seen and respected in the workplace.
Raquel will touch on…
- The Personal is Professional: The influence of diverse identities on workplace experiences, using specific examples to illustrate the replication of systemic oppressions.
- The Personal Isn’t Always Institutional: The tension of navigating institutional critiques, emphasizing the importance of course corrections.
- Responding to Moments and Movements: The importance of acknowledging workplace injustices, the effects of silence and burnout, and the fallacy of claiming neutrality.
- Overcoming Resistance: Confronting both personal and institutional resistance to DEI initiatives.
- Organizing for Change: The necessity of finding values-aligned colleagues and forging pathways to leadership for marginalized groups.
- Empowerment and Action: Advice on creating an inclusive environment through her signature 3C approach: Commitment, Culture, and Content.
Raquel Willis is an award-winning activist, journalist, and media strategist dedicated to collective liberation, especially for Black trans folks. She is an executive producer with iHeartMedia’s first-ever LGBTQ+ podcast network, Outspoken, and the host of Afterlives, a podcast centering the lives and legacies of trans folks lost too soon to violence. She is also the author of The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation.
Recorded: March 26, 2024
(2024 Virtual Inclusive Excellence Summit)