Translator: Iván Torres Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs
My name is Leslie Wingo. I am the face of affirmative action.
Like many of us from different backgrounds,
I bounce between communities so much, I don't even think about it.
Let me give you a couple of examples.
When I was younger,
there was a song called "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith featuring Run-DMC.
That was my introduction into hip hop.
It's a true story.
Christmastime. My family, we love Christmastime.
I think it's mostly because we like to eat,
but our intention is to celebrate over 300 years of our ancestors through food.
So our dinners include, but are not limited to,
tamales, succotash, mac and cheese,
and y'all, it has a half a pound of cheese in it. It's delicious.
Sweet potato pie, and of course, Christmas would not be Christmas in my house
without canned cranberry sauce.
Going back to what I was saying,
when my husband and I decided to get married,
we had these mandates of what we wanted.
"What do you want?" "No, what do you want?"
So it just broke down into: I wanted mariachis, so we had mariachis.
My husband wanted to jump the broom.
He's Mexican American, so that's natural. We did both; no big deal.
And when Christopher and I are together, my favorite thing to do is watch people.
Study of human behavior - it's a normal thing.
Because it's interesting when he and I are together -
and we're at the center of my research -
it's wild to watch what people do and say to us.
So, one of the things they're trying to figure out is
what we are and where we come from, which is fine.
It's normal, and usually, based on my unscientific, very-biased research,
one, that question usually is, "Where did you go to high school?"
(Laughter)
And while the question is so, so simple, the answer is very loaded,
so think about this for a couple of seconds:
my one answer gives you a lot of insight into who I am,
where I'm from, obviously, where I went to high school, but of course,
but it also gives you some insight into my childhood,
my quality of my education and my socioeconomic status.
That one answer gives you a lot of information about me
and allows you to create stories about me,
put labels on me, and this is not normal; this is simply human.
My one answer is so completely loaded.
Being a black female CEO, I'm often asked a lot of questions,
but usually, there's strange questions that are presented to me like:
"Why are you so articulate?"
(Laughter)
"Well, you are so well-spoken."
And to that I usually respond, "Well, I hope so. I went to college."
(Laughter)
And every once in a while,
there's a follow-up statement that goes something like this,
and it's a disclaimer: "But you don't sound black."
And to that I respond,
"What does black sound like?"
That conversation right there, I find it to be mostly annoying
because it's based on stereotypes, it's based on assumptions
and that is not who I am.
These are the things people are willing to say to me, out loud.
I can only imagine what they're thinking about
when they see me based on my race and my gender.
The other thing that comes to mind is I was shopping; I like to shop.
I was at a big-box store, and it was the old-school version:
you went, got your groceries,
and somebody had to ring you up to get you out the door.
So I paid for all my groceries,
and as I moved through the line on my way to the exit,
I was pulled over by a security guard who asked to see my receipt.
I was so angry, I could just feel my neck turning red,
and I thought to myself, "What in the hell did I do to deserve that?"
And what I realized, and by realize, I mean many years later,
is that stereotyping - that pulling people out of line -
that's something that is taught based on a lot of assumptions.
From my view, I see a lot of women in different organizations
and different points of life where I intersect,
but I see very few of us in the C-Suite,
in places of power and executive boardrooms.
And one morning, I was having coffee with a friend of mine
as she was about to launch her new business.
And she said - her name is Anna, I'm going to paraphrase a little bit.
She said,
"There are more men named John as Fortune 500 CEOs than there are women."
And I probably had the "Whaaat?" look on my face
because I couldn't believe that number was in fact a reality.
Much later, I went home, and I did some research,
not because I didn't believe Anna. She's listening: I did believe you.
It's just that I was surprised that this number could be so low.
And what I found was a study done by McKinsey in 2017,
and according to their research, it's going to take over 100 years -
100 years - for there to be parity in the C-Suite.
A hundred. That is a century. That is not OK with me,
and that should not be OK with you.
And for the sake of this conversation,
when we look at gender in the United States alone,
51% of the population is women.
By ignoring and excluding this part of the population,
we're missing half of the ideas, half of the knowledge,
half of the solution to problems.
So as I looked at all these intersection points in my life,
I started thinking, "does this diversity and inclusion thing really make sense?"
And I asked anybody who would listen to me,
so my friend Rose responded with:
Lack of diversity and inclusion means lack of ideas and innovation.
I truly believe that our next geniuses are in the forgotten parts of the inner city
or out there in the very rural parts of the country.
Which is interesting to me.
Now, these are my stories. I'm not alone nor am I unique,
and I've talked to lots of people from different backgrounds and experiences,
and they're the only ones in their organizations,
the only ones in their neighborhoods, the only ones in the places they work.
And here's what's also interesting to me:
while the details change, our stories remain the same.
Now,
I often wonder what could be possible
if we brought all of these other "only ones" to the table.
I looked back, and I did some research on World War I and World War II,
and I wonder if the outcome of those wars would have been different
if we didn't have the code talkers, a group of 33 Native American tribes
that came together and created a code so secret
that it could not be broken by the enemy.
I also wonder if NASA would have had a different legacy
if it weren't for Katherine Johnson and the other hidden figures
during the 1960s space race.
Thank you.
(Applause)
Oh, I'll take it!
Y'all might get mad at me in a minute, so y'all keep clapping.
Here's the thing: people don't like to be uncomfortable.
They just don't, and here's what I know:
People hate two things: change and the way things are.
And if we want to have a real conversation
about how to create change in this environment
through diversity and inclusion,
we're going to have to have "that" talk.
That talk about race, class and sexism.
It's the elephant in the room, that thing that nobody wants to talk about.
of course, until there's a problem.
But before we can have "that" talk with somebody else,
we have to have an honest conversation with ourselves.
You know that conversation where you talk to yourself? I do it all the time.
It's a debate between me, myself and I; it's usually in the car.
People think I'm crazy or I'm talking on the phone, whatever works,
but we have to be able to ask ourselves individually,
"Am I willing to have a conversation with a human for understanding
and not defend my point of view?"
If the answer is yes,
then there's two key things that we need to be willing to give up:
we need to be willing to give up power,
and we also have to be willing to give up control.
You may be saying to yourself,
because this is what I would say to myself, "well that sounds great!
But who in the world am I going to have that conversation with,
and how am I going to have that conversation?"
I'm going to get to that in a minute.
By having this courageous conversation,
we also need to realize it's going to be uncomfortable,
it's going to be weird, it's going to be awkward, and that's OK.
That's completely OK.
It's going to be telling our brains
to literally do something that it doesn't want to do,
and that is to be very, very uncomfortable.
It's like crossing your arms in a different way,
so everybody cross your arms.
Now cross them the other way.
It may feel a little awkward; it may feel strange.
For some of you it may be uncomfortable, but it's not impossible.
It's not impossible.
So, when we have these conversations, just know that this might be how you feel.
And the way we see the world, how we see the world is based on our beliefs
and our experiences.
And as Americans,
we are all entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
which is great, in theory, until my point of view differs from yours
and vice versa.
So take this into consideration:
you have two men who are both Christian,
who are both [pro] life, who both played football
and both, at some point, who kneeled on a football field.
Now, the first guy believes life starts at conception, and he is seen as a hero.
The other guy believes that everybody should be treated equally
and protests against racial injustice.
Now, one is seen in a positive light,
the other is not.
I know I may have just made some of y'all mad because y'all didn't clap,
but here's what's to get here:
we may never agree, and that is OK.
The critical point is this: the difference is simply a point of view.
The difference is simply how you view the world,
and based on your experiences and your beliefs.
Now, by being me, I, like many of you,
are in the middle of a lot of these interesting conversations,
and, like me,
like many of you, I am an only one.
I'm the only one in my neighborhood.
I'm the only one in a lot of the events I attend.
I'm the only in many of the organizations I'm in.
But here's the beauty of the only ones:
we don't fit in anywhere; we fit in everywhere.
It's going to take more than one box to define, label and understand us.
It's going to take more than one box.
We are a global tribe, we are a community and we are changemakers.
It's through our experiences and our beliefs
where we learn how to hustle,
survive and see the world from many different perspectives.
As my grandfather, Arthur Hart, would say,
"You can't come from where you've never been."
So if we can come together and have debates over Taco Tuesday,
because I've seen the posts on Facebook,
chicken and waffles,
and have the biggest debates over who has the best cocktail,
then certainly we can come together to understand one another.
So I owe you a couple of answers to things that I brought up
in our conversation today.
The first question is, "Where did you go to high school?" Would you like to know?
I'm a proud graduate of Eastwood High School
located right here in El Paso, Texas.
(Applause) (Cheers)
The second set of questions I posed was, "How do you have 'that talk'
and who do you have that talk with?"
I suggest and encourage each of you to reach out to somebody you don't know,
who is nothing like you, face to face, in person and have that conversation.
And that doesn't mean putting it on social media for debate,
but meet in person and have a really honest conversation for understanding.
I am the face of affirmative action,
and you can be too. Thank you.
(Applause)