I know that there is the anti-leader leader concept (not using titles, wearing hoodies and such) particularly in the tech & entrepreneurship world. At the same time, those are spaces that are not necessarily as woman or BIPOC friendly historically so the "casual" can be a trap
implicit, or frankly, explicit biases have not gone away. Except professionalism is also a trap - it is well documented in peer-reviewed publications and I've repeatedly notice with how multiple "professionalism" faculty fail to examine embedded biases & cultural chauvinism
In tightly controlled spaces there is a so-called right/wrong way to have one's hair, with "wrong" including natural hair if one is "ethnic", women must wear skirts and pantyhose automatically adding distracting details (do I have a run in my stocking? am I sitting okay?) &such
yet in these spaces where "right/wrong" hair is policed carefully, also not the same attention to correct identification of title, sometimes, even, identity. Getting someone else's evaluation is not uncommon for those BIPOC where time/attention re-routed to "this is not my name"
Who gets to control their own resources like time & attention? At school/work are you constantly explaining the most basic things or are you already seen as standard or the standard? Who can just be known for work without distractions or explanations? tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
Of note that last reference is about storytelling. They say a picture is worth a 1000 words but when the image of your face has already painted 1000 words through implicit and explicit bias, at 1000 words you are only at the break even point. Who uses the most words though?
Per work of @JulieSilverMD silver on #pediatrics and #WomenInMedicine, it is not women using the most words. Who is published in peer-review and who is chosen to write perspective pieces defines "professionalism" - it is not female and usually not BIPOC

@JulieSilverMD communicates her point above like #WomenInSTEM in a graph. But there is no great graph to walk someone through lived experience of being not "seen" or seen wrong as a woman, BIPOC, LGBTQ, disabled, etc. Sometimes the stories need to be told. It takes a lot of words
Which is also why the way peer review decides who speaks for a profession and who defines professionalism is a process itself that has many flaws and needs to be reviewed itself. How did it let both Wakefield and #medbikini through? - both unethical
bioethics.net/2020/07/medbik…
What I find deeply concerning is the people teaching or publishing on communication and professionalism or enforcing compliance whether #medbikini male professors or young or older women finding a career in the field (I have worked with SO many of the latter😲) bypass ethics
Of course someone has studied that too. Being an ethicist with an interest in defining rules for others, actually does not imply you yourself are any more ethical that the rest of humanity qz.com/1582149/ethici…
I need to call my mother more, also, before I say anything about ethicists. But maybe that would make me an excellent ethicist? LOL Not doing as you tell others to do might be a qualifying trait. 😂

theconversation.com/should-ethics-…
What I've actually found to be true Is that experts in such fields find ways to do mental and ethical gymnastics by manipulating already nebulous criteria and sometimes flat out made up non-standards

Further, most of is often Eurocentric. tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…
That's a very strongly worded piece. All is internally consistent as well as circular. There is gatekeeping to professional (thought) leadership by people using standards created in times of enslavement & colonialism thus embed cultural justifications for exclusion, not inclusion
But are "casual" #etch spaces full of hoodies and sneakers really more welcoming and safer from policing?

protocol.com/nda-racism-equ…
There are these experiences:

newyorker.com/magazine/2017/…

So this is the thing, how do you effectively disrupt those who already see selves as disruptors? And it is not like the rule based places of "professionalism" are safe either.

What is the way forward?
This @techreview article I quote was loved by many #womeninleadership & #womeninSTEM yet this tweet was also cited by professionalism faculty at @USC who used this "evidence" of a woman "bully" - are women allowed to be out of bounds? Who defines limits?
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More from @usnehal

4 Nov
I literally have no election stress tonight. Met with a senior dean & a director to advocate for a peer. Wrote a 4 page executive report with 20+ references that was just emailed to 6 top brass leadership. No, it is not about loyalty. It is about correct application of standards
#MedTwitter is likely aware of my propensity to write detailed reports with a multitude of references emailed directly to deans. If there is a top, and if I am a tuition paying student or even just a concerned citizen, you’re gonna hear from me if someone is misusing rules.
My great grandfather, a Justice in the High Court, figuratively threw the book at a white barrister in Colonial times, telling him to learn the law. For standing up to a white British man as a brown Muslim man in colonial times he got the title Khan Bahadur. (Brave)
Read 8 tweets
20 Oct
I'm always amused by sales or marketing or communication professionals attempt to sell to me how I need their help, how I need their protection, etc or it could be "mutual benefit" to connect. Oh, then what is your rank for what you are paid to do and attempting to charge me for?
Why am I able to outpace, by far, sales, marketing, and communication professionals? What is it they are teaching you wrong in school and/or you are unable to apply for success in real life?

Likely, the answer is: authenticity
Lived experience
Open communication
Values
Yes, metrics matter
Yes, reputation needs to be protected
But as we see happening with Dr. Fauci, those who wish to suppress science-based information (that they find embarrassing or wish to hide) will malign the person speaking about verifiable facts. Blowback does happen.
Read 28 tweets
19 Oct
OMG. How amazing! Turn jumbled thoughts on #AI & #FutureofWork into vision, articulate, recruit superstar team, pitch to @MITvsCOVID19 & get included, hundreds sign up + #blackexcellence on systems thinking @MIT @MITSloan #Hack4theFuture #COVID19

mitsloan.mit.edu/press/mit-sloa…
Mea culpa: Rulebreaker/boundary-defier of the cookie-cutter #marketing best practices (yet am a top 1% influencer status for #healthcare so 🤷‍♀️) yes, I admit we have a range of logos within a color family. If you are bothered, I invite you accept a diversity of colors ;-)
Read 6 tweets
19 Oct
Much of this is familiar: "This made me that Black, gay resident once again. The same attending ..called me by the wrong name.. confusing me for the only other Black resident in our program,,When I approached him about it privately, he 'didn’t want to speak about this.'"
I have never been in a setting where my name was correctly used without my being interchangeable with another BIPOC. Every single workplace, I am not me. My name is not mine. My identity is not mine. It is whatever others need from me that moment for their work/metrics.
What #Blackexcellence experiences on top of what all BIPOC experience, of being an object, token, dehumanized, is the long history of legal dehumanization through slavery that remains embedded today in institutions and cultures. That's why #BLM has to be said specifically.
Read 6 tweets
19 Oct
So true. The #pandemic has revealed whose inability to cope with disruption & loss of (false sense of) control results in their need to assert online control of others

I see so much uptick of low value & harmful policing behaviors. It is waste

We could solve problems at scale
I fully believe that those who harm others through control are suffering themselves. Most forms of abuse, including overcontrol and overpolicing are from own anxiety, fear, inability to feel safe -> control over others

But instead of spreading fear, could focus on solutions
It requires a tolerance of risk and growth mindset to thrive and stay creative in chaos, disruption

..amid constant failure of what should be trusted systems and authorities

Those who experienced the least harm from (even then harmful) systems are the most unable to cope now
Read 5 tweets
19 Oct
Stuff like this makes my day.. week
Teach girls & women to try & fail
Be brave, not perfect

(Women have joined the team then had to step away. I support their having tried)

I hate saying no

So if I could not support her to participate, created an alternate opportunity
This is the @TEDTalks by @reshmasaujani
ted.com/talks/reshma_s… - as a South Asian woman I especially love this as both heritage & "model minority' teaches perfection (which is a fear-based goal, fear of failure with metrics that are external rather than internal mission/goals)
It is my personal mission to teach girls & for model for
women not to allow anyone to box them in or define the boundaries of their talent, achievement, humanity
Expand
Be messy
Try & fail
Start something & leave it unfinished
Write code that does not run
Be "too"..
..big
..much
Read 5 tweets

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