This question is one that I’ve been asked about many times in person, but I can’t recall anyone ever emailing me about it over the past few years of answering folks’ questions and posting them as blog entries. I thought this would be a good one for me to share on here just in case anyone else was wondering the same thing.
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MW wrote:
Hello Mr. Parker,
I would like to thank you for taking time out of your schedule to come and talk to us. The one thing I particularly enjoyed about your presentation was the emphasis you placed on not only building one’s career but also building personal relationships with those around them.
I was curious about your experience as an African-American in the workplace. I wanted to ask during the Q and A session however, my question only pertained to me and a few other students.
Thank you again,
MW
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My response:
Hi MW,
I’m sorry that it took me a while to send this response. I’ve been swamped lately and, with work travel, I barely have time to get to my emails nowadays. Now that I’ve got a few minutes free, I thought I’d crank out a reply before I get pulled into something else.
Your question is a good one and you likely wouldn’t be surprised to know that it’s one I get asked a lot, especially by younger African-Americans hoping to enter a career in business. In short, it certainly hasn’t been easy, but I’ve found that it has gotten easier as I’ve progressed along. Earlier in my career, it felt like I’d work and work and work and never get as far as I felt that I deserved. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make the right connections and didn’t have the mentors to give me the guidance that I needed to manage my career. During those times, I just knew that it was because I was one of the few Black folks in my work environments. More recently, I feel like I’ve been looked at more as a high achiever than as a Black dude in my professional life, which has been a welcome change.
Now that I look back at the age of 35, I can’t help but wonder whether a lot of that struggle was in my head. It might surprise you, but, in my opinion, one of the toughest parts of being a Black business professional is worrying about being a Black business professional. There’s a lot of pressure involved with being in that position and it can be a lot to take. In my case, every time I reached some kind of milestone or achieved something, I worried that the folks around me would assume that I got it due to affirmative action or some kind of unfair preference. When I experienced a setback or didn’t get an opportunity, I wondered whether it was because I was Black. Things get even harder when you hear older folks tell you that you will have to work three times as hard as your non-Black counterparts to get as far as other people. I’m not saying that none of these things aren’t true, but constantly having that as a backdrop to your every day work can be stressful and, quite honestly, make you old before your time.
I know some other Black folks who seem to get some sort of “fire” or extra push from feeling like they’re “fighting the powers that be” and, to be honest, I used to feel the same way for a long time, but that sort of thing can get really tiring. It got to the point where I could barely keep my head straight because I always worried about whether I was truly being recognized for my accomplishments due to my race and kept wondering if other people were getting opportunities that were being blocked from me. Seriously, that is no way to work and certainly isn’t a way to become successful. A couple of years ago, I realized that I needed to change my mindset or else I would drive myself crazy instead of being able to fully reach my potential.
For the past few years, I’ve worked hard to “keep my eyes” on the prize and have tried not to think about the implications of me being a “Black professional”…now, it’s all about me being a “professional” and focusing on building my brand based on my abilities, not on being a Black dude who happens to have some abilities. When you get to your mid-30s, you’ll realize that there are too many other things to worry about to use mental cycles stressing over race as a factor in career standing and progression. This may be a naive position for me to take, but, after spending too many years in my career thinking that I had no chance at an even playing field as a Black man in a “white business environment”, I prefer to think about my performance and aim toward exceeding expectations. If I can do that, I just hope that everything else will just fall into place and, so far, it’s been working out for me lately.
In fact, the folks who’ve had my back the most in the past couple of years have all been non-Black, so don’t believe the hype that you may have heard about “The Man” trying to hold Black folks down. Of course, there are people like that out there in the business world, but I’d argue that there are a lot of genuinely good folks out there who are looking to help talented people progress in their careers, regardless of the color of their skin. These are the kind of people that you should try to find in your career and to the best you can to align yourself with these kind of supporters. As long as you work hard and perform well, people like this will have your back when the chips are down and also when times are good. Folks like this will be the ones who you’ll thank 15-20 years in the future when you’ve become a big baller and are in the position to help younger professionals.
I hope this answer was along the lines of what you were looking for. It was good to see a few faces that looked like mine in the audience at my talk, so I wish you the best of luck as you pursue your undergrad business degree.
Marquis
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