Expected to Excel

Hello friends,

Some of you may know that my sister Lisa Hurley has a book coming out in May. It's called Space to Exhale, and it's a "practical guide to help Black women - and everyone that needs to - remove their superhero cape, embrace rest, and create lasting life-work balance". The reason why this book and those spaces are so needed is explained in Chapter 8 of her book, titled Working While Black, and I've got permission to publish a couple of excerpts, which deal directly with the racism many Black people experience. Here's the first one.

“You can't sit here. You have to sit at the back of the bus.”

I looked confusedly at the driver, genuinely wondering if he had lost his mind. He must have, right? There's no way he could be compos mentis. I mean … what in the Rosa Parks was this??

Like mine had, the bus dispatcher's jaw dropped. She was also a Black woman. Everyone else on the company shuttle looked exaggeratedly up at the ceiling, down at their phones, or out of the windows, trying to pretend that they had not heard this ridiculousness. None of them intervened – but hey, that's the norm. So much for allyship. Bystanders be bystanding.

I remained seated.

The dispatcher walked over – eyes squinted, lips tight, jaw clenched – and showed her support. “You can sit anywhere you want,” she said in a tense, staccato monotone, addressing me but keeping her unblinking gaze firmly fixed on the driver. She spoke with just enough bass and emphasis to let him know that when necessary, she was about that life, and he better not try nothin’. Clearly, she was team #FAFO.