Tamara Fields is the Office Managing Director for Accenture in Austin, Texas. She is on the board of numerous nonprofit organizations, including the Texas Conference for Women. A business veteran with over two decades of experience in management, she joins Steve Pemberton to discuss the working African-American’s experience, and the power of allies.

Don’t Be SilentTamara shares how Accenture is navigating the conversation around diversity, equity and inclusion. African-Americans have been taught generationally to not bring up taboo topics in the workplace such as racism, keep their heads down, and not make people uncomfortable. One of her biggest mistakes, she laments, is not sharing her own professional and personal experiences with regards to racial injustice. Remaining silent makes it harder for unconscious biases and microaggressions to be addressed. 

We Are Not ImmuneThe absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, Steve quotes. People often assume that because Black employees don’t speak about the injustices they occur in the workplace, that they don’t experience them. Multigenerational educated African-Americans are assumed to be immune from racial injustices due to their presentation and articulation, but it is their excellence that becomes a threat and makes them a target, he adds. 

Isolation Led to ConnectionTamara talks about her experiences of feeling like the odd one out. She was left out of lunches and gatherings, which isolated her from the rest of her colleagues. This led to her developing strong relationships with her clients out of a personal need for human connection, and it worked out in her favor as her business was successful because of it. 

What Happens NextIt is good that conversations are happening, but what is important is what is done with the information shared. Don’t confuse conversation with accomplishment, Steve says. The purpose of conversation is to study direction and then follow that direction with accountability and transparency. He and Tamara share recommended material for discovering more about the Black experience.

ResourcesTamara Fields on LinkedIn | Twitter | FacebookAccenture.com