Race/Racism

Performative Diversity, a Juneteenth Tragedy, and a Virtual Walk On Black Wall Street

Stephanie Siek
Momentum
4 min readMay 28, 2021

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Your cheat sheet for the race and racism news of the past week

A middle-aged man with a beard and a middle-aged woman high-five each other in apparent celebration inside of an office.
Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash

In this week’s roundup of race-related news, we’ve got questionable allyship, lying law enforcement, and (metaphorical) ghosts. We’ve got people fighting against lipstick-on-a-pig corporate diversity efforts and sunlight revealing ugly truths that lay buried for years. But don’t give up: We conclude with a heart-warming story of how one man is using his love of birds to heal both wounded raptors and wounded people.

Why buy into diversity, equity and inclusion when you can rent?

Diversity initiatives and consultants have become big business in the aftermath of last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests and the murders of eight people at Asian massage parlors in Georgia. But what is really being sold here, and who’s getting paid? The Cut’s Bridget Read delved into the multi-billion-dollar “diversity boom” and what it is and isn’t doing to make workplaces more inclusive and less, well, racist. As you might guess, the credibility and efficacy of different diversity, equity, and inclusion purveyors vary widely. This piece is definitely worth a read, especially if you’ve ever WTF’ed your way through a cringey…

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Stephanie Siek
Momentum

Stephanie Siek is a writer and editor who loves cats, cookie dough and aborted alliteration.