Welcome to another Hoffy's Heart special edition panel episode where we bring in
five individuals from diverse backgrounds to discuss things that
people may not be talking about, but absolutely should be. Today our topic is
Black Professional Women. These lovely ladies are here to talk about their
experiences in the workplace, so let's meet our panel. Bambi, would you like to
introduce yourself? My name is Bambi McDougald. I'm an Intervention Prevention
Coordinator. I specialize in behavior management, in intervention and
prevention of drug abuse, dropout, high school dropout, teenage pregnancy and I
enjoy working with at-risk youth and at-risk communities. We appreciate that
you do that. My name is Krystina Murray. I am a digital content writer and I advocate for drug and
alcohol rehabilitation. That's wonderful. My name is Penelope Barrett. I am an
Orlando based attorney and mediator. I'm also licensed to practice in Illinois,
mainly Chicago, and I do a lot of litigation and a lot of mediation. Wow.
You guys are impressive. I'm Krista Price. I have a doctorate in education
and I coordinate disability services in higher ed. Oh, thank you. Hello, my name is
Vanetta Davis Felix. I am a math professor at Seminole State College. I've
started my 26th year of teaching this year. I also own and operate Devine
Designs which is an event planning and catering business and I
also am a Professional Development Coach. Wow. Anything else?
Wow, that's incredible. You guys are amazing,
amazing women. So, can you tell me anything about your experiences being
black professional women in your professions? In my profession, my current
profession, it's fairly comfortable right now because in the social services
industry I find that there are a lot of black women. However, over my career that
has not always been the case, whether in education or whether in criminal
justice in different fields, engineering in other fields I was definitely in the
minority and it was definitely a little harder. Ok, what made it harder if you
don't mind me asking? Well sometimes everyone is not quite
aware of your cultural experience, your cultural background, how to adapt to how
you work and the things that you do in your normal day-to-day environment
and having to adapt to the culture that you're currently in which is
America when you're not in the majority there are certain things that are
expected of you that you, that's not quite communicated to you until it's too
late. So, one of the big issues might be clothing having a different body type
and having to adjust to that or maybe even hair, having a different hair type
and having to adjust to what is the American norm of what's acceptable. Small
things it seems like, but they can become pretty big. So your hair is important? I'm
sorry, I'm naive. Tell me a little bit more about that. Krista what does that
mean, because your hair is beautiful and you all have very different hair styles
by the way I love it. We did not plan that. I think in this climate there is a
misconception or you know preconception I should say about hair and you know the
preoccupation with it, if you would. Ok. I mean because really this is just as
natural for me as it is your hair is for you and so I think that hair has become
more and more of a, you know, talking point if you would, because it's just
different you know. It's not what we would call, you know, as Caucasian because
it's not straight. It's not pressed out. it's a little more kinky and so it
doesn't you know for some doesn't seem to be as professional, you know, as they
would call. You're very cognizant of what your hair looks like in the situation
that you go into? Is that right? As an attorney, how do you deal with that in court?
I have been told by judges that my style is too aggressive
due to my hair. Your hair is aggressive? Right. As you notice, it's in a pony. It's in a pony
for a reason. I have been told that I could be too ethnic.
It depends, it does depend on the county that I am practicing in. I have found
that some areas are more fluid and more open. It's one of the reasons why I
choose to practice in Orlando. I choose to practice in Tampa. I will drive to
Miami, there are other counties that I won't drive to ever. And how did the
judges respond to you? It really does depend on the area most judges are not
black women. I'll just say that. So, if they're very old-fashioned and we do
have some very old judges in the state of Florida, they even may require that
you wear, they know it's inappropriate, but they'll require that you wear a
dress or skirt. So that adds another layer, so you know not only am I supposed
to be dressed in a skirt or a dress but I also should have straight hair and
that's if I can get past the bar, because several bailiffs and clerks will stop me
assuming that I'm not an attorney. Really? Yes. Oh my goodness that must be
difficult to deal with, but you're incredible and when you're in a profession that not
only as a black professional but as a woman sometimes, right? I mean so there's
a couple of stacks against you. I'd imagine, Vannetta, in the field of math are
there a lot of women particularly black women in your profession? No. I've been
the only from graduation, I graduated from Florida State University and I was
always the only black female and all my math club courses. When I went to grad
school I was the only black female as well and I'm the only black female math
professor on my campus. There's two of us at the college, total math black
professors, and females and when we were hired it
was a big deal. It was a huge deal. In 2001 we were hired and it was a huge
deal. "Oh the math department hired two black women." And it was a huge deal
around campus everybody knew us just because of that, but as far as in the
classroom I have not had any issues with my hair. Usually my students are
fascinated by my hair and sometimes it's long or short, it's with braids, without
braids. Does anybody ask to touch it? Yes, people don't know, you don't touch black women's hair.
Especially my students they just touch it. It is beautiful, but I wouldn't be inclined to just...
Oh yes, they touch it. So, Krystina, how about in your field? In my field we don't really have
a lot of problems with people making assumptions based on hair and your
character. I would say that there's a fair amount of black and white women
working as digital content writers, but in the past I have had people make
really ignorant comments. My parents are Jamaican, so people assume
that I'm supposed to have dreadlocks and for a lot of women with dreadlocks it's
difficult for them to be compatible with the cultural norm in a professional
setting, because people don't think that's a professional hairstyle. Ok, so
I was going to say, if you did wear dreadlocks people might have a comment
about that. Absolutely. Absolutely. So how about your personalities when you're in
the profession? Are you always aware and do you act differently at your job
compared to at home or with your friends? You are all so kind. I'm always
cognizant of you know who I am and where I am all the time. I often say I'm Kris
at home and I'm Krista at work, you know, because again it has to... there there's an
expectation I guess when people look at a black woman, who they are and how they're
gonna be, with the expectation. Even right down to the name, you know, you know
depending on what my name IS. My name is Krista very European, you
know and so you know people don't know what they're getting when I'm coming
through the door kind of thing, but on the other side is in terms of my
professionalism I'm always cognizant when I'm having to
present and instruct. It's one of those kind of things that I feel like I'm
always having to kind of be a step above, you know, if you would, because again
there's an expectation that I may not be as smart. I'm not as quick witted. I'm not
as eloquent with my words and so those are things that I'm always kind of
trying to you know be aware of and make sure that I present myself well. Wow.
Bambi. Yes, well I would say that my mom named
me Bambi and sometimes it's a blessing and a curse, but when it comes to the
workplace it's a little bit of a blessing, because people don't know who's
going to walk through the door. If you put Bambi on a resume you're
probably gonna get a little bit more callbacks and you get a chance to make a
first impression, as opposed to if my name might have been on Kesha or
Shaquita and those are things that we are aware of constantly and if you
haven't noticed my voice is deeper and I do have an accent, so I am constantly
aware of when things become very tense or when there is an escalated situation
that I have to remain very, very calm, because I don't want to be seen as the
angry black woman or being aggressive or getting very loud even if I'm talking
just like this. Sometimes even being more eloquent with my words still comes
across as me being challenging and combative and not being able to get
along well with others. And that terms come up a couple of times already.
Aggressive, aggressive hair, aggressive attitudes. And this is why we need
conversations like this. This is exactly. This is exactly what makes my job in
particular very hard, because I am in court. I am supposed to be advocating
as hard as I can for my clients and yet I cannot do that when I have another
person on the other side. They can, you know, I've been called names in the
middle of arguments. I've been degraded. You have to argue. That's your job. Exactly. It's
my job but at the same time I have to keep my composure and use my case law
and use my facts and basically you know my job is to slice them in pieces.
I can do that and that's what I have to do, because I cannot I can't be loud. I
can't be overly expressive, so a lot of my litigation work has to do with me
using my words and my facts and my case law and standing very still while
I do that. I've learned. You learn quickly to fight with facts and not
feelings. Exactly. Yeah. And I think that is something
we could all learn, but the fact that you guys have to be super cognizant of it
and super careful. It's just... it's 2018. I tell myself, it's unreal. And if you're
working with another black woman, you know, you have that pressure to make
black women look good. People expect you to be a representative of your race, so
if you carry yourself in a more emotional manner or you lose
consciousness of where you're at as a professional black woman you can make
other black women look bad, you know. Even though they might be very supportive as
a black woman to you, you're still like other people are looking at me they're
expecting me to slip up and act "ethnic" or to be a stereotype and that's
not what I'm here to represent. So do you find that typically within your
professions that other black women support one another or is that? I
think so. I think so. I think for me my biggest challenge is with my older
Caucasian students and maybe the women. It's like I have to prove that I know
what I'm talking about and that's been the biggest challenge for me. So I kind
of dispel that early. I tell them who I am, my educational level and I have six
degrees. I've been teaching for 26 years so you have a great teacher in front of
you. Yeah and I have to do that at beginning because that's been a
challenge and I'll still have some that you know, they have a problem with a
black woman being their instructor. I guess they're
old school, as we would say, but as far as with administrators and people that I
work with that's not a problem. It's more so my students that I have to instruct
sometimes. I have an issue where I have there's very few black female
lawyers in this area and so we all support each other simply because there
may be issues in the courtroom that may prevent us from doing our job if we
don't support each other. Like I explained, there's several times where
I've been stopped by a clerk or J or a bailiff
from passing the bar so I can check in for my cases or something and if there's
anothe,r you know, black female lawyer in the room that knows me or even doesn't
know me they understand that experience and they will help me to pass that extra
hurdle you know and it's nice to have that support because we can, we can
relate and understand each other. Now when we talk to each other outside of
court, you know, yeah we can get loud, but inside the court it's "yes, hi, nice to
meet you." So it's definitely, we do a lot of code switching back and forth you
know and a lot of side eye, you know like we're looking forward, but we're looking
at each other like "did you see that?" "yes I did." There's an underlying connection
automatically, because you know some of the experiences that each of you have
gone through. I was very, very blessed to be raised by a mother who walked around
her whole life saying, you know, "I don't see color" you know and I think that was
great and it taught me a lot, but for my children as I'm raising them and you
know in this day and age, I want to change the verbiage on that. I want to say
you know what I do see color, but I don't let it affect the way I judge or think
or respond to somebody. And that's okay, because we should all revel in who we
are and be proud of our color or our backgrounds. Thank you guys so much for
being here. You are all incredible, amazing women and I appreciate you
sharing your experiences with me. Thank you. Thank you
so much for watching. Please subscribe to our channel so you don't miss out on any
of these incredible panel episodes. Take care of yourselves and remember to take
care of each other.
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