Redefining What Professional Looks Like

[Music]

i’m cece gonzalez the director of client

services for a creative management

agency

i travel around the country to music and

art festivals working with the biggest

names and entertainment while working in

areas related to content creation brand

integration and investment management

wait i need to get comfortable with you

guys real quick hold on

i’m simara nexa gonzalez the director of

client services for a creative

management agency and this is me

the first version of

the first version you met on stage was

the version that i’ve conditioned myself

to become in professional settings

especially when my colleagues are

predominantly white

it’s the one that makes me feel like i’m

playing a character in the worst way

possible because that’s really the only

way i can make a decent living

is the one that most of us expect when

we hear the word professional

now let me ask you this which version

are you going to hire cc or sumara

according to a study by done by

researchers in northwestern university

harvard and the institute for social

research looked at every available field

experiment on hiring discrimination from

1989 through 2015 and yet there was no

change in anti-black racism and hiring

since while yet oni anza latino has only

somewhat decrees

chances are majority of you in this room

would have only hired the first version

of me but why is that

it’s me when i co-switch to fake white

professional standards and it’s me when

our talking look like this

cubics an international assessment and

solid development consultancy

conducted a survey in 2016 and found

that 84 percent of employers strongly

focused on cultural rufey which was

defined by values visions norms working

language symbols belief systems and

habits of staff along with their

agreements to set of acceptable

behaviors

their study of 55 large organizations

found that nine in ten rejected

candidates due to the fact that they

didn’t have cultural fit even if they

possessed the necessary skill set for

the role

now there’s even data from the implicit

association test that shows more people

in the united states have a pro-white

preference

this is also supported by a study

published by researchers at

arizona university

that concluded that white men with a

criminal record had better responses to

job applications than black men with no

criminal record

why am i on stage telling a bunch of

stage strangers about these studies

because this has affected me in my life

i’ve been told that the way of talking

is too aggressive when i’m just talking

and expressing my ideas that my braided

hairstyles and curly hair aren’t

professional enough even though braids

are part of my culture and the curls i

cannot control the way it comes out of

my head

that my earrings and cuban links aren’t

appropriate enough for the workplace

but why not

i’ve been qualified for positions but

probably not hired because of the way i

look and talk

but

the way i look and talk is just so much

as a part of who i am

and the things i’ve learned along the

way

so if i don’t emulate whiteness do i no

longer know these skills

many employees like to boost up or i

like to say hype up the fact that the

commitment to diversity but when

somebody like me shows up they’re not as

interested

it’s like almost as if they want

employees with different skin tones and

colors but they want us to act the same

and behave the same and forget the fact

that we all come from different cultures

and we go through different experiences

and that’s why we show up the way we

show up into life

and sometimes we focus on toning

ourselves down to limit our authentic

self-expression and to fit the mold you

know

but it our creativity often suffers

which can make our job performance

sub-optimal

not much sub-optimal where current

professional standards but self-optimal

to what it could be if we showed up as

our true authentic selves

with the freedom to bring every part of

ourselves

think about all the fresh talent and

perspectives many employees employers

are likely missing out on because

the rockstar employees are walking and

talking looking like me

if we don’t change what we’re looking

for we may never find who we are looking

for

and we’ll never know a stranger in gold

hoops

what they have to bring to a table if we

don’t let them pull up a chair

the company that i currently a few years

ago i would never have expected where

i’d be today

i come from humble beginnings i grew up

in the hood

living with my

mother’s best friend until

14 years after that i found out that

that wasn’t my biological father

i didn’t know who i truly was as a

person i didn’t know why nobody told me

sooner everything felt so fabricated and

planned

i was bullied in school i got into a car

accident i almost died and then i had

body issues you know i had struggled

with body image issues it took me a lot

of time and self-exploration to accept

myself for who i really am today

but i’m alive today to tell you that’s

why it means so much to me

that’s why it means so much to me to

show up today as my true authentic self

no matter what situation i’m in

the ceo of the company i currently work

for

welcomed me to pull up that chair he

encourages me

every day to bring my true self

i don’t spend my time nor my energy

focus on how to be something i’m not

especially if if it’s for a check

i’m valued as a professional my ideas my

work ethic and approach to working for

our clients are valued

i’m valued as a professional

me sio mara nixa gonzalez just out here

doing me while getting the work done

and this is what a professional looks

like and now i urge you guys to

reconsider what it looks like for you

[Applause]

[Music]