A scarcity of integrity

There’s hardly a scarcity of truth. Of information. Of data.

Over the past five years, I've built my career on all things data. My startup Future for Us took the State of Womxn of Color program on the road to 7 cities in 2019, building community and grounding in data on the experiences of WoC at work. 

After every speaking event, women would come up to thank me for highlighting the numbers that backed their lived experiences. They thanked me for helping them feel sane. No, their experiences were not isolated. 

Since 2020, I've worked with companies on the promise that a data-informed approach to employee engagement, workplace equity, partner diversity was the right path to achieving gnarly DEI outcomes. 

My belief in this approach was so strong that in 2021, we stopped saying yes to clients who weren't interested in a data informed approach. 

I stand by that decision even today because unconcious bias trainings sure as h*ll haven't delivered the promise of belonging, of community, of safety or dignity.  

At some point on this journey it dawned on me that there’s hardly a scarcity of truth. Of information. Of data. 

Possibly the most scare resource in our world right now, are people with integrity.

Want does it mean to operate with integrity? 

In others, we often see integrity as the courage to speak up and show up, even in the face of an unpopular point of view. People with integrity are often the ones deeply accountable to themselves first. Not to be confused with people who have great discipline, i.e., to get up at 5am to train for a triathlon. 

Integrity is Amanda Seales using her platform and audience of millions to educate us about the multiple genocides being live-streamed and speaking truth to power. Risking what I can only imagine is are large and lucrative gigs. 

In others, we experience integrity as courage, lack of fear, freedom. We call people speaking up and showing up - brave.

In ourselves, what do we see when we opt out of integrity? When we take the path of silence, neutrality, or worse, standing on the wrong side? Who are we when we’ve made the choices to sit it out? 

How many times have we convinced ourselves that because of _____ (fill in the blank, though it's typically connected to our livelihoods and our sense of safety), being silent or neutral is still operating with integrity?

Every day I talk to people who have convinced themselves that they are good people, good citizens, even as they remain silent. Not just on the genocide in Gaza. On every tough-to-face issue at work, in their schools, in community, with their neighbors. 

The thing about integrity is that you don’t turn it on or off based on convenience. 

And I’m not just talking about the Brene Brown’s of the world, who four months into a genocide are still playing the “both sides” card. 

I’m talking about the big and small ways instances of looking away or being silent, that ladder up to the big moments we find ourselves in right now. 

It’s the CDC choosing to do away with their public health mandate, and cow tow to corporate interests. How many people at that organization decided it was simply not worth fighting for the health of our population as Covid continues to leave tens of thousands with long term harms, and expose vulnerable populations to unnecessary risks? 

Too many. 

It’s DEI practitioners pretending that a black history month panel will somehow right decades, nay centuries of systemic harms. How many have decided it’s easier to keep their job than to organize and push back against performative (and harmful) programming?

Too many. 

It’s companies spending millions lobbying to weaken worker protections while claiming to be the best place to work. Where’s the conscience of lobbyists, lawyers snd marketers who see the disconnect - and say nothing. Do nothing.

I wonder, whether the people deciding to opt out of integrity realize the price we all pay for their moments of comfort, the financial reward, being liked.

Do the string of people suggesting (or simply going along with) an end to Covid restrictions and requirements believe they are somehow immune from getting a disease that’s on a rampage? That they or someone they love will be saved from the impacts of long Covid? 

Are the practitioners putting on yet another panel on allyship think their jobs are secure? All evidence points to the contrary. The jobs, the budgets are disappearing faster than Stanley mugs at Target. 

What about the ones working behind the scenes to weaken worker protections? Will they be immune from stagnant wages, sh*tty healthcare, not having time for bonding with a new child or caregiving?

Every day, every single day we have the option to do what we (seem to) value in others. 

It starts with calling what is happening in front of us in Gaza a genocide. After all, the heads of every relief organization in the world can’t possibly be wrong, regardless of Brene Brown’s position. 

Not just in hushed conversations with people who are safe. Publicly. With friends and family. At work. In community. 

We can’t simultaneously complain about a world that’s unsustainable and be unwilling to be accountable to ourselves, our colleagues, our communities. 

Every day, we have the option to operate with integrity. 

Every. Single. Day.

The question is, will your exercise that option.  

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