Welcome to Break Concrete
A space for Black women professionals to share their experiences navigating race and gender in the workplace
The speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And at last you’ll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking.
– Audre Lorde
recent podcast episodes
BC 054 - Building Inclusivity in the Tech Industry
It’s no secret that the tech industry has a diversity problem. Dr. Dédé Tetsubayashi, a product equity, inclusion and tech ethicist, joins to discuss how the lack of representation within tech adversely impacts product equity and user experiences, and how tech companies can be more inclusive. Dr. Dédé also shares how she educates and empowers individuals, groups, and communities through incluu, a Black-woman-owned consultancy transforming organizations to be more inclusive in product design and processes.
BC 053 - The Immigrant Experience: Challenges, Opportunities, and Impact in the Workplace
From a newly immigrated nanny to CEO, Jackie Glenn has embraced life’s challenges with boldness and humility, always being true to herself and giving back to those who come after her. It’s this commitment to helping others, which led Jackie to write her instructional biography, Lift As I Climb: An Immigrant Girl’s Journey Through Corporate America. Jackie discusses how she climbed her way up the corporate ladder and the character gems that brought her and other immigrants professional success in the American workplace.
BC 052 - Overcoming Barriers to Career Advancement as a Woman of Color
Women of color face unique gender and racial barriers to their professional advancement and are less likely to move into leadership roles. This bonus episode features the women of The FLI Collective, a lifestyle podcast that deals with the experiences of being first generation and low income in academia. We examine some of these challenges and discuss strategies for advancing women of color, including when we should pursue stretch opportunities and how we lead and bring others along with us. Welcome Drs. Marlette Jackson, Edritz Javelosa, Nidia Ruedas-Gracia, Miranda Stratton, and Courtney Pena!
BC 051 - Turning Your Side Hustle into Your Full Time Gig
Stuck on how to turn your passion project into so much more? After more than a decade in accounting and finance at companies like Morgan Stanley, Viacom, and Johnson & Johnson, Beth Diana Smith left her six-figure salary and the corporate world to launch her own interior design firm, Beth Diana Smith Interior Design. Her style is modern and eclectic with luxurious finishes and custom furnishings. Above all, her work is client-centric as she helps each homeowner hone in on their own style and create a space that inspires them and enhances their lifestyle. Beth chats about how she turned her side hustle into her full time gig.
BC 050 - The Elusive Black Middle Class
With rising costs of living, steadily increasing debt, and stagnant wages, middle class Americans may find themselves living paycheck to paycheck. But is there even a Black middle class? Imari Smith, a doctoral student at Duke University, argues that the Black middle class is a “subaltern middle class”, just one tier of a marginalized group. The Black middle class has never reaped the benefits of their middle class status and continue to be subjected to the same harms faced by Black Americans of lower economic status.
BC 049 - Valuing the Work We Do: Black Women's Unpaid Labor
Each year women perform thousands of hours and trillions of dollars of unpaid work. You’ve likely heard of the invisible daily household work women perform, but what about unpaid community activism performed by Black and Brown women? Dr. Nina Banks, an Associate Professor of Economics at Bucknell University, argues that this collective activism places additional burdens on women of color that often go unrecognized and uncompensated. In this episode, we chat about the many ways Black and Brown women contribute to their communities and how we can place value on that labor.
BC 048 - Discriminatory or Simply Burdensome? Workplace Dress Codes
Many employers require their employees to follow workplace dress codes. Employers can regulate employees’ clothing, makeup, hairstyles, nails, and more. Your employer might even be able to regulate your weight. Although the line between discriminatory and simply burdensome may seem blurry, Professor Stacy Hawkins, Vice Dean and Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School, explains just how far a company dress code can go before crossing into unlawful discrimination.
BC 047 - The Problematic Politics of Style and Gender Identity in the Workplace
After spending over a year working from home, returning to the office and readjusting to your company dress code can be challenging. In this episode, Doreen Pierre, a Brooklyn based fashion writer, visual content creator, and events producer chats about how restrictive dress codes inhibit us from bringing our true Selves to work. Doreen’s work centers people of color and queer communities and has been featured in The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Virgin Media, DapperQ and more.