Our Voices Archives

I was only five years old the first time I mentally code switched and went into another person’s experience. My father was never able to handle the pain caused by the sickle cell anemia I was born with, and it was in the throes of a painful sickle cell crisis that I learned he couldn’t cope with hospitals. Children are very perceptive to their parents’ emotions, and in that moment I could feel his terror and helplessness pulsing within me as if it were my own. During that experience I decided that I had to be strong for the both …

As a Black Woman, I’m Either Hyper Visible or Utterly Unseen Read More »

2015 brought us #OscarsSoWhite shedding light on the absence of BIPOC voices and representation in the Academy Awards; “an award given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry”. 2018 brought us another hashtag: #WellnessSoWhite. #WellnessSoWhite began making its way into the discussions of diversity, equity, and inclusion in health and wellness via popular social media platforms and has resulted in small, albeit marked changes in the United States’ multi-trillion dollar industry. “Wellness is about making healthy lifestyle choices and maintaining one’s wellbeing both physically and mentally. In recent years, more people around the world have begun to recognize …

Racism and The Wellness Industry Read More »

Black people are plagued by Imposter Syndrome, questioning their own competency and self worth; “Have I gained entry, or simply been allowed entry?” White people have deliberately set the bar low, yet maintain that BIPOC entry lowers it. – Dr. Dédé Tetsubayashi, Tech Ethicist In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, corporate America pledged to do better, saying it would diversify its leadership, encourage equity and take concrete actions to root out systemic racism. They revealed that while Black and Hispanic employees are often overrepresented as compared to U.S. census data on the nation’s workforce among the technicians, administrative assistants …

Black Excellence and the Low Expectations of White Supremacy Read More »

I am passionate about my work as a Product Inclusion Specialist, a profession where I build products that work for everybody, regardless of ability, gender, resources, culture, race, or class. I focus on building ethical products and processes that resist exploiting customers as merely transactional profit providers, because greed is the enemy of equal socioeconomic progress, and there is a middle: building equitably for both people and profits. As technology has exploded around us and demonstrated capabilities beyond our imagination, we’ve come to believe that building machines will relieve us of our own biases and shortcomings. Machines, we believe, won’t be flawed the way we are. …

From Invisibility to Radical Empathy Read More »

It has taken us some time to find the words to express our deep empathy, sympathy, and worry for Asian communities across the US. Acts of violence engendered by hate affects us all, so we did not want to comment until we ourselves were in a space where we could do so in a way that lifts the voices, struggles, and causes of our Asian allies. Incluu operates by educating and training folks to lead with curiosity and an open mind and heart; therefore, we strongly believe that education and learning on the perspectives of others is the best way …

We Stand in Unity with Our Asian Allies Read More »