In July 2017, I wrote a blog titled “Women of Color in the Workplace.” In that Blog I described briefly one challenge I encountered working in one organization as an African American Women. As I strolled through October 2017 issue of Fortune magazine I ran upon an article titled, “The Black Ceiling.” I’m not sure if you have ever felt this way, but I like having my experiences and feelings validated. The article reinforced what I have felt for years. African American women are rising to the top, just not to CEO jobs. In my July 2017 Blog I mentioned Ursula Burns, former CEO of Xerox, who retired last year. She mention in this month’s Fortune that there are currently zero African –American women running Fortune 500 companies. She went on to highlight her own personal story and reasons why she felt other African-American women haven’t emerged to fill the void she left behind. It’s been well documented that black women are graduating from college in record numbers, not enough are coming out of the education system to get them to the C-suite. She like most of us know that the influencer's are close to the product and the money. “Black women are the most education group in the nations,” this is supported by the 2011 U.S. Census data.

Burns continued to highlight that there are plenty of things corporate American could do to support African-American women in-line for executive positions.  Our hats come off to Xerox. According to this article research, drawn from a group of survey respondents Catalyst has tracked for years, shows that black women often grow demoralized in the workplace. They report environments that they feel continually overlook their credentials, diminish their accomplishments and pile on cultural slights- about their hair, appearance, even their parenting skills, the article highlights.  Including troubled relationships with white women, who tend to take the lead on issues of women and diversity. The article stated that Dnika J. Travis, an executive and researcher at the Catalyst Research Center for Corporate Practice, called an “emotional tax’. “The burden of being on guard all the time affects our lives in really negative ways.”
What I now know and is validated in this article is that young black women need mentors to help them navigate “the culture of unspoken expectations.” Check out #BlackWomenAtWork, started by Educator and activist Brittany Packnet.

While the struggle continues be encourage, stop being afraid of what could go wrong and think of what could go right.