Kitha Larie
@chitchatwithkk · 4:59
African Americans in the corporate world: Can you be true to self or do you have to change to adapt ?
It's a little bit of an argument because we're kind of in the middle and we have to weigh ourselves, whereas other cultures, not so much so. But anyway, I just want to bring this topic up, and if you have some insight or you want to talk about it, please do. But I'm talking about african american women and men in the corporate world. Do we fit in normally, or do we have to force it. Thanks so much for listening
J.L. Beasley
@Her_Sisu · 4:52
My position of self actualization is to be a VP of a hospital as our health system. As time progressed, I started to say, I can see me taking on that role, maybe keeping it for two weeks to 30 days and then stepping down. And I had someone, and I was comfortable saying that. And it was one day I said it to a colleague and they said, so it sounds like that is not your position of self actualization. And I said, what do you mean?
J.L. Beasley
@Her_Sisu · 4:47
You know it's yours. You know it's yours. Hands down, girl. Do you know this woman sat me in the office and brought up all of that old stuff from year one and then said, you know, your team, you just had a successful year with your team. Move year with your team. I'm sorry. You just completed a successful project with your team that has spanned a number of years. So you guys have grown so much
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
And, you know, as, you know, somebody who's in that corporate environment, it's. There's always awareness about who you're talking to and how you're talking to, how you're going to be perceived and how are they going to look at you because. Because of how your hair is done, how your dress, and it's. I don't have any answers. I really don't. But it's
Kitha Larie
@chitchatwithkk · 4:52
And it's hard when you have parents who are hard headed and you have to weed out the ones who don't really want to be complying and you have to show them new rule sets because they got to do whatever. So that's like a lot of stuff that I had to deal with. And so I was working with that. But overall, like, the parents, I've had some parents that didn't like me, I've had some that do
Kitha Larie
@chitchatwithkk · 4:42
You remind me of a foster parent that I have that is a realtor, and she carries herself very well. And I tell her all the time, you are beautiful. Like, because she is. She is. And, you know, she loves me. She calls me, and we communicate. And anytime there's something going on, I had to meet with her over something that she did one time, and she cried. And I told her, I said, you know what?
Sandie Smith
@AKAMsSmith · 3:36
Her work is sloppy, but she's fitting the mold, I want to say, and that taught me that sometimes when no matter what you're doing, it's not good enough. I spent a lot of time trying to ingratiate myself with these people, to get into these spaces that I was not necessarily welcome in. But nevertheless, I never let it stop me from doing the things that I wanted to do. And I persevered. I just say to you, always be your authentic self
Kitha Larie
@chitchatwithkk · 3:17
And while, you know, that's not a problem because we have families that take them, but we have to constantly educate them. And in Louisville, we have one of the highest. Like, my foster parents, all of them are black except for two. So, you know, but I don't make a difference in that because I enjoy working with people in general, and I do love what I do
Kitha Larie
@chitchatwithkk · 4:59
We don't have a lot of men that are in leadership roles. We have more. Well, we do, but they're higher. We have about what we had. We used to have third me, and now we got one because the other two quick. And we have mostly
J.L. Beasley
@Her_Sisu · 0:55
You and all of the things that God has portioned for you, has portioned for me in abundance. We will achieve as long as we keep believing in ourselves and taking action
Kitha Larie
@chitchatwithkk · 1:17
I do try to seek the best in everyone, and I try to see best in every subject, and I try to support everyone. You're right. Even if I don't believe or even if I don't feel the same way that they do. And I do get my opinion, because this is a platform. That's what it's for, for us to interact. And we're going to have people who like what we got to say and we have people who don't
Tanya Coles
@MsColes77 · 3:05
And it's a shame that it came to that, you know, because even in the military, you know, I know in the military, they're strict about everybody's hair, but I understand the need to be professional. You got to be able to put your hair up under a hat. You can't have anything crazy going on, color wise, style wise. And that's across the board, no matter what your race is
Kitha Larie
@chitchatwithkk · 4:35
But I have worked for different cultures as well, in practice and in the hospital, like where you are, that was the biggest variety of culture because I used to work with Indians and Africans and some Asians and white and black, and it was a good mix of people. So I learned a lot there, a lot of different things about how people live, what they eat. You know, I went to a lot of parties, indian parties, which are fun