07/21/2023
“I try to strike a balance between being a human being and being employable”
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This quote front conversation with Camari has been on repeat like Sade’s first album. Because it just so neatly tied together so much of my life. A life I have slowly divested and transitioned out of. It is a privilege, a lesson, a journey, a blessing, an honoring of my ancestors, my birthright honestly. To divest from capitalism. By version of human being is not employable. Not in the sense that Camari was speaking to. The kind of employable that we as Black neurodistinct people are too familiar with. You can see it in our masks. The neurodiversity in the workplace movement has been largely focused on the ways in which neurodivergent people can be positioned as employable. And this makes it quite a white-centered experience because Black folks are already viewed as “unemployable”. If it’s not our hair. It’s the way we speak. If it’s not that it’s we have an attitude. And the list goes on. Neurodiversity in the workplace should be about how do we make this balance of being human being and being employable nonexistent. How do we ensure the Camari’s of the world can exist and not “feel like a secret” (words inspired by check-in member).
More thoughts on this to come.
ID in comments.
