How Racial Equity Elevates Our Creativity with Jennifer Ekeleme & Jezz Chung
WORKING NOT WORKING
The creative industry is in a state of disarray as we experience painfully necessary shifts in the ways we think, the ways we work, and the ways we collaborate. As the movement for Black Lives amplifies the systemic inequities that show up in our day to day lives, we passed the mic to Jennifer Ekeleme and Jezz Chung to breathe honesty and humanity into the dialogue. Jennifer Ekeleme is a brand intuitive and high vibe visionary who elevates creativity with wellness solutions to help individuals and businesses transform from the inside out. For nearly a decade, she’s lent her strategic vision to Fortune 500 brands and entrepreneurs in the branding and wellness space. She now counsels individuals and businesses who aren’t afraid of an unconventional approach to creating sustainable solutions. Jezz Chung is a Brooklyn-based writer, public speaker, and DE&I practitioner with experience building multimedia campaigns for brands like Apple, YouTube, and Sonos. Jezz was the first-ever head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at global creative agency Anomaly, and is a 2020 Adweek x ADCOLOR Diversity & Inclusion Champion.
Jennifer and Jezz held a poignant one-hour conversation about the ways racial equity elevates our creativity. They discussed the importance of interrogating whiteness, the knee-jerk reactions of the advertising industry, why it’s still too early to start praising companies that “got it right,” and how to hold your peers, employees, and employers accountable. You can watch a recording of the event below.
While the event was free, donations were accepted. We raised more than $2,400 for Ethel's Club and Fokus. Ethel's Club is the first social and wellness platform designed to support creatives of color. Fokus works with people of all ages to access their creative talents through educational community events. It’s obviously not too late to donate to either organization.
Jennifer and Jezz concluded the event by answering a few questions from the audience, but there were plenty of great ones that they simply didn’t have time to address—it’s tough to contain a conversation this essential within a one-hour timeframe. Thankfully, Jennifer and Jezz have generously offered more of their time to respond to a few additional questions that round out the discussion.
The topics in the additional Q&A below range from problematic portfolio school tendencies, anti-Blackness within Asian communities, amplification versus tokenism, the business value of DE&I, and what to be mindful of in the early stages of diversifying your team. We thank Jennifer and Jezz for taking the time to provide such thoughtful and thorough responses, packed with a ton of resources for readers to further educate themselves.
Q&A
Portfolio schools feel like part of the problem especially to those of us who didn’t attend one. Exclusivity, cronyism and a cost barrier for many talented people. How do we make them part of the solution or should we just stop hiring from portfolio schools all together?
JENNIFER: This is a great question, especially since I’m also a portfolio school graduate (go VCU Brandcenter!) I definitely agree with the perception of portfolio schools' lack of diversity, in addition to the other issues of exclusivity and high (financial) barrier to entry. What we need to recognize is that these schools also are a product of the insidiousness of systemic racism. While most creative schools aim to foster creativity and innovation -- they all still operate within the oppressive and non-inclusive models of for-profit education. So to answer part of your question, I don’t think we should get rid of the schools...the schools are merely a reflection of the people who run the curriculum, teach the courses, and walk through the halls.
Simply put -- systems don’t change themselves-- the people do.
That’s why it is so important for portfolio and art schools to have inclusion and equity not only as a core value in their ethos but also as a key metric and goal for operation. If I had to give recommendations to portfolio schools that want to do better, here’s a list of marching orders that I would suggest they implement:
Have a diversity consultant evaluate the entire program. It’s important to review the ethos of the program, the curriculum, the faculty and plans for inclusive recruitment. All of these elements are foundational to running a successful program and if done well can set them apart from other portfolio schools.
Evaluate the Board of directors or Advisory board. This is such an important part of maintaining a competitive edge as well as keeping the balance of perspective in how the school runs the program. Having an effective board means being able to leverage the collective wisdom of the brightest and brave in the industry. Each board member can help the school develop a unique offering but also help faculty navigate recruitment, keeping the curriculum fresh, student engagement, and management of financial investments. Knowing how critical a board is to an institution’s success, you can see how important it is for the board to be incredibly diverse across experiences, skill sets, gender, ethnicity and of course race.
Candidate recruitment and review of incoming students should be evaluated by a Black Alumni Council. This could be an effective strategy because most Black alums have access into BIPOC communities and schools; unfortunately, most portfolio admissions directors do not.
I think now that everyone is conscious about the composition of our organizations, we are going to begin to see the ripple effects in educational spaces as well.
CP: Yes to Jezz about Asian households, that is how my parents are right now. It's been crazy hard trying to open my parents’ minds about how we should look past [an Asian vs Black dynamic]…They don't have empathy, even as immigrants to this country themselves. I was hoping if Jezz or Jennifer has tips on this. I know it may take a while as it doesn't help that my parents are also Trump supporters *smh*.
JEZZ: Thank you for sharing your family’s story. I grew up in Georgia and Texas in a first generation Korean household, so I understand how frustrating it can be to address anti-Blackness within Asian immigrant and Asian American culture. Sharing a Huffington Post piece from a few years ago that addresses this. In reading your question, I think about the tension that formed between Korean business owners and Black Angelenos during the ‘92 LA uprising. I also think about the Latasha Harlins case in ‘91—I recommend looking up her story if you aren’t familiar. Korean American filmmaker Justin Chon made a film called “Gook” about the LA uprising; watching this may also help process some of the emotions you’re feeling. I share these resources to say that 1) you’re not alone and 2) there’s a wealth of knowledge we can learn from history. Immigrants from Asian countries often bring with them a survival mindset that can manifest as racism and bigotry, and understanding the cultural context can help us identify the most impactful ways to have conversations that address years of built up bias.
Addressing anti-Blackness within our families can be a lifelong practice and it’ll require patience and resilience. So as we have those conversations, a reflection that might help is in thinking— where is my biggest area of impact? What can I do to build a stronger armor of information to show up to these conversations without being overwhelmed by frustration? How can I let go of guilt and shame around not doing “enough” with my family, and instead focus on using the power I have in the positions I’m in to create a foundation to liberation? Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs are two Asian American activists from the Civil Rights era whose work I see as a blueprint for the ways we can show up for Black liberation.
I also recommend following @jointhecosmos, @aafc.nyc, and @17.21women as they have community meet-ups to process these experiences in safe containers and share information that equips us to become more empowered in our identities, our voices, and our advocacy.
Stay resilient and stay lifted! Your voice is needed, so finding the areas where change is manageable might help keep the momentum going.
“Addressing anti-Blackness within our families can be a lifelong practice and it’ll require patience and resilience. So as we have those conversations, a reflection that might help is in thinking— where is my biggest area of impact? What can I do to build a stronger armor of information to show up to these conversations without being overwhelmed by frustration?”
AA: Thank you for hosting this talk! I’m a white copywriter at a small agency with only 3 people of color. I’ve been trying think of ways I can better show up for these coworkers and amplify their voices, but admittedly I’m worried of coming across as tokenizing them. Do you have any advice for initial steps I could take?
JENNIFER: I’m glad that you are invested in holding yourself accountable; having this awareness is a great first step.
There are a few steps you can take to make your agency a safer space for your BIPOC colleagues:
Before you do anything, ask them how they want to be supported. Take the time to first understand your own interests and intentions for giving support. Then set up time with them individually to get an understanding of their experience (deep listening) and discuss your desire to support and advocate for them. Approaching this conversation with mindfulness is key— and know that being an ally to them in the workplace might require hard conversations on your part, especially with other white colleagues.
Hold your other white co-workers accountable when there are instances of anti-racist behavior. This looks like:
Mindful correction. “...Please use respectful language, what you said was inappropriate.”
Curious questioning. “ ...What do you mean when you described this as ghetto? Were you trying to make a point but didn’t have the appropriate words?”
Remove harmful stereotypes and racial tropes from your vocabulary. Especially as a writer, it’s important to be mindful of outdated assumptions that people use in our language.
Use your privilege for good. When you can and when it’s appropriate, find ways to advocate for your BIPOC colleagues. Push for opportunities to showcase their talents on important projects; make sure they are included on important emails or company news; and always make space for their voices in meetings and discussions, especially in front of other colleagues.
Lastly, it’s also important to remember that it will take time for you and your Black colleagues to build trust...so make sure you set proper expectations for yourself. But I’m excited and proud of the work you are willing to do already. Onward!
AA: You talked about hiring more Black people as being only the first step to equity. What steps should companies take to make sure these new employees really feel included and are supported to succeed?
JENNIFER: This is a great question! As a freelancer, I’m privy to many agencies and their process of welcoming new people. There are two important steps I think companies can make in helping their new BIPOC employees feel welcome:
A comprehensive, mindful on-boarding process. Depending on the industry, the level they came in, and size of the company, this part can vary. But what always helps people feel special is how much attention is paid to preparation of their arrival. Having official manuals made and ready on their first day, official introductions with their immediate team members, and then facilitation of individual meetings with other important people in the company is key.
Setting personal check-in meetings to gauge their integration process. This is about you and the team getting to know them personally. Have them take a Gallup Strengths Finder test or the Myers-Briggs. The goal is to have the employee, manager and team members understand their strengths and how they can best work together; doing this in a workshop session can be a great ice breaker and fun way to integrate a new team member!
There are more ways to do this but they will all be custom and based on the existing culture of your company.
Above all else, make sure that people feel comfortable voicing their concerns; this is a simple yet important step to making BIPOC people feel comfortable in agency settings.
“What always helps people feel special is how much attention is paid to preparation of their arrival. Having official manuals made and ready on their first day, official introductions with their immediate team members, and then facilitation of individual meetings with other important people in the company is key.”
MH: How do you prove to (cis white) leadership the financial return on DEI? Feel like these budgets are often the first cut when agencies suffer major client losses. Sad that there even HAS to be a business case, but thinking about strategies in ‘speaking’ leadership’s ‘language’.
JEZZ: I acknowledge how frustrating it can be to fight for something that feels so obviously needed. And I’m sending you strength in this fight as it’s necessary to keep pushing for change! The gaps we’re seeing between the people in decision-making power (across all organizations in a society founded on the principles of white supremacy) and the people being led (who are increasingly multidimensional across race, gender, sexuality, ability) comes from differences of values, perspectives, and language. You called it, leadership speaks a different “language” and it’s one that we’re often not privy to learning.
I recommend looking up Culture Amp’s D&I Starter Kit. It includes some helpful scripts, frameworks, and resources to make the business case and work towards leaders to “buy in” to the importance of investing in DE&I.
Something that can also be helpful is listening to what the leadership prioritizes. What are the main organizational issues? What do they see as their leading values? What does the company need the most right now? What is being repeated across all departments and levels, what is the emerging pattern or theme? This can help you frame DE&I work as a strategic solution. Building equity within an organization is about building a sustainable future. It helps us flex our creativity across content production & problem solving, helps attract and retain more multifaceted talent, helps us work better as teams, and helps attract clients who are more collaborative. Every DE&I initiative is an investment in the future of an organization and it’s cheaper to be proactive than it is to be reactive.
Sparks & Honey has helpful resources that speak to changing demographics, shifting consumer patterns, and the power of the emerging generations if you need more “data” to make your case. Though I have my thoughts on why we need so much data to prove the importance of acknowledging people’s humanity! Thoughts for another day :)
Remember, people in leadership positions are no better, smarter, or more worthy of making decisions that influence the career trajectories of the people they lead. We have power to have a say in those decisions too, and make the voices of the silent heard. Keep going, you got this!
“Building equity within an organization is about building a sustainable future. It helps us flex our creativity across content production & problem solving, helps attract and retain more multifaceted talent, helps us work better as teams, and helps attract clients who are more collaborative... It’s cheaper to be proactive than it is to be reactive.”
TSL: What are some tips on how to create a safe environment to speak up in a professional environment if our leaders are not creating that space? Especially considering some of us may not be US citizens, or feel on edge about our jobs during a pandemic, etc?
JEZZ: This is a tough but suuuuuuuuper important question. And something we should all be thinking more about— how can we cultivate an environment of psychological safety where people are open to expressing themselves when they’re not being treated equitably? How can we create an environment of vocal equity inside an organization that breeds fear to maintain the status quo? I’ll be honest, I’m still figuring this one out. But I can share some things I’ve noticed and pose some additional questions that could help us identify the opportunities for change.
What we’re learning from organizers and activists on the frontlines of the BLM movement is that it’s difficult to change an oppressive system without completely dismantling it. And the revolution that needs to happen within our political structures has to happen within our corporate structures too. The rules need to be rewritten. The values need to be reevaluated. Demands need to be made, and there needs to be a fire held to people in leadership positions to maintain accountability. Because we’ve seen so many band aid solutions over the past few years. A mentorship program. A recruiting initiative. A hiring spree. And none of these addressed the root cause of the inequities, because complete transformative change is expensive, energy-consuming, and intimidating for most leaders.
Still, there’s been lots of movement over the years. And more people of non-dominant identities (POC, queer-identifying people, disabled people) have built equity within organizations. Is there an opportunity to work with them to lean on their learnings and relationships with the most senior leaders? Maybe there’s a way to organize thoughts as a collective and whoever feels safest in the group brings them up to leadership with a clear outline of what needs to change?
This is also where an outside DE&I facilitator or racial equity facilitator can come in and guide the conversations. There’s a book by antiracism educator Lee Muh Wah called “The Art of Mindful Facilitation” that has powerful tools in guiding conversations that bring up a lot of emotionally-charged topics. There’s an art to setting guidelines, intentions, and ground rules so people feel safe speaking up without fear of consequences. Maybe there’s also a way to collect feedback anonymously so people can share their thoughts without fear of being fired, especially in this economic crisis.
Didier Sylvain (pronounced DEE-DEE-AY) and Jason Rosario are two NYC-based facilitators who have experience facilitating conversations with collective empathy and they both approach their work through the lens of healing, to move through the pain associated with racial trauma to reach transformation. As with every DE&I practitioner over the past few weeks, they’ve been fielding a lot of requests so I ask that if anyone reading this wants to reach out to them, they do so with a clear purpose after opening up internal budget conversations to respect their time. And remember, this work involves heavy amounts of emotional labor and should be compensated appropriately :)
And a TLDR answer: approach with humanity! Let’s infuse more empathy into the workplace by meeting people where they are and seeing how we can make more room to listen to each other. Especially people of dominant identities— what are the privileges we carry that we can use to influence our relationships and create openings for change?
“What we’re learning from organizers and activists on the frontlines of the BLM movement is that it’s difficult to change an oppressive system without completely dismantling it. And the revolution that needs to happen within our political structures has to happen within our corporate structures too. The rules need to be rewritten. The values need to be reevaluated. Demands need to be made.”
JG: How can companies avoid “tokenism” when in the initial stages of diversifying their creative teams (or any teams)?
JEZZ: First, I acknowledge the step it takes to consider this question. It means we’re actively questioning our biases and creating the opening for our perspective to shift. Second, I acknowledge that this is gonna take some work! We tokenize and stereotype because we’ve been programmed to see people unlike us as “others,” especially for anyone who grew up in homogeneous environments. So I think having that patience with ourselves is key, while maintaining a commitment to engage in critical reflection. Maybe it’s about asking ourselves—why am I asking for this person’s opinion? Am I including them in all the meetings, or only meetings about what I perceive as their topic of interest? Am I creating an environment where they feel safe to speak up if they’re working on something that makes them feel silo’d? This also involves a lot of listening. Noticing their behaviors, their body language, their levels of engagement. Because the burden shouldn’t always be on the team member to speak up. The responsibility should also be on the team leader and other team members to recognize and speak up. And that may involve building our cultural competency muscles to learn more about their culture, their history, their tastes, their passions and interests, on our own time so we can approach interactions with a deeper level of empathy. And if this feels laborious, understand that people of non-dominant identities have had to learn the culture of the dominant identity in order to survive in corporate America! But as we shared in the talk, this makes us better :) It expands our creative palette and ultimately helps us communicate with each other more authentically. It’s gonna be a messy process with missteps and fumbles, but meeting each mistake with compassion and commitment to growth will help us take the necessary steps towards progress!
Jennifer Ekeleme is a brand intuitive and high vibe visionary who elevates creativity with wellness solutions to help individuals and businesses transform from the inside out.
For nearly a decade, she’s lent her strategic vision to Fortune 500 brands and entrepreneurs in the branding and wellness space. Classically trained and intentionally directed, she now counsels individuals and businesses who aren’t afraid of an unconventional approach to creating sustainable solutions. If you’re looking for holistic strategies for lasting impact for yourself or your business: she’s here to help you awaken your holistic potential, co-create a powerful vibe, and thrive off of your greatest currency – energy. Contact her by DM on Instagram at @_jennzen_ or via email at jennifer@jennzen.com.
Jezz Chung is on a mission to build equity through conscious creative expression. She’s a Brooklyn-based writer, public speaker, and DE&I practitioner with experience building multimedia campaigns for brands like Apple, YouTube, and Sonos. Throughout her career in advertising, she's made multiple pivots from strategy to account management to copywriting before pitching a role as the first ever head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Anomaly, a global creative agency. She was recently honored as an ADCOLOR and Adweek Champion and featured on the April 2020 cover of Adweek for her efforts to create more equity in the creative industries. Her work has been featured in Huffington Post, The Drum, Fast Company, Washington Post, Mashable, and Campaign Live.
Jezz is combining her passion for writing with her experience navigating the advertising industry to write her first book, a guide to empower people of color navigating the workplace. She's currently looking for a literary agent. If you know anyone who could help her bring this project to life, reach out via DM on Instagram @jezzchung or via the contact tab on jezzchung.com.