[hover id=”33428″]
– President Maurice Hampton
In June, we hosted an hour-long webinar with our leadership: President Maurice Hampton, President-Elect Nykea Pippion McGriff, Immediate Past President Tommy Choi and CEO Michelle Mills Clement, moderated by Executive Vice President Zack Wahlquist. Together, they shared their experiences with racism and unconscious bias throughout their leadership journeys, and how that’s impacted their experiences and careers. We recommend watching the playback on our video resources page here, but here are some learning moments: “People think we’re pulling from the system, yet we’re actually giving into the system,” Hampton said. “Nykea and I work on a side of town where the average price point isn’t where [the rest is]. We have to do twice or three times as many deals to earn the same income as our counterparts. When we take this time away from our business [to volunteer], we’re sacrificing our family, our retirement, our business, everything else, only for someone to look at you as if you don’t deserve to be in that spot.” “Are you intentionally looking at your leadership, and does your leadership look like the communities you serve? I’m the first [Black female president-elect] in 136 years, but more importantly, I’m not the last. We should all be actively looking for talent in the communities we serve. We should all be coaching and helping that talent move to whatever goal or next level they are interested in. We should always be listening to the needs and talents of the members. That’s keeping the pulse on what’s happening in our marketplace. The policies that were invented in 2015 may not apply in 2020 in our marketplace. As a volunteer leadership, we should always be focused on that, because diversity and inclusion are important, but building equity is the piece we are missing.”[hover id=”16798″]
– President-Elect Nykea Pippion McGriff
“It’s interesting too, how people pick and choose what they wanted to see, By the feedback I was getting, members were only paying attention to the ’fun stuff’ — and I was posting more of the work we were doing. It was interesting how people picked and chose what they wanted to see.”[hover id=”33419″]
– Immediate Past President Tommy Choi
“We’re holding events where we didn’t hold them previously, we’re talking to members we didn’t typically connect with — for some people, that’s a little too fast, too soon. I get feedback that we’re pushing my agenda or the diversity agenda. I don’t hide behind the lens of diversity and inclusion. I’m very clear that I’m talking about racial equity at times. It’s not that it’s too fast or soon — it’s that it hasn’t been [happening]. I get calls about the pictures I’m posting on Facebook because my leadership is full of minorities, and people say I’m always posting with the same people — but any other AE would be posting the same photos. Until we’re at a place where I’m not being talked to as less, or not being recognized as less, or have a staff team that’s uncomfortable or members treated differently — we will keep talking about it and pushing forward, because CAR represents the entire city of Chicago and we want every member to feel welcome.”
[hover id=”25889″]
– CAR CEO Michelle Mills Clement