Buffalo Response – Relentless Optimism

Pictured above: My foster parents – Rev. Frank and Dr. Mary Wilson

Relentlessly optimistic – the words our CEO Shankar Narayanan used to describe what he heard during our company’s healing session following the Buffalo Tragedy. He used that summary after stating that he knew he could never have any comprehension of what it has been like to be Black in America over the past centuries but that what he heard from the Black employees who shared during the healing session was relentless optimism.

I was asked to provide opening comments for the Healing Session and I want to share some insight into what he heard from me:

"My emotions this past week have run the gamut from outrage to defiance to resilience.

I encourage myself during these times: As Black people, we have been experiencing these domestic terror acts in the United States for 400 years – and yet we survive and thrive.

I truly believe good will overcome evil. Personally, I rely on my faith during this time.

I sustain and engage my spirit which is so critical during unsettling times. I know that if you don’t engage your spirit you will give up, you’ll quit before you experience the victory and triumph over evil acts and people and groups with evil intentions.

I’m not trying to take you to church, but this is why as we consider advancing inclusion and diversity, it is so important to understand the cultural relevance of people’s faith.

I believe our faith and tenacity in resisting and fighting evil has sustained Black people for over 400 years and we need to rely on it now.

One of my favorite scriptures is: …having done all to stand, STAND. Stand here is defined as "remain victors on the field."

We are victors and not victims. We continue to rise and overcome, and we will not be destroyed by evil people and by acts of evil.

I know what overcoming looks like. As a child, I saw my foster Father, Rev. Frank Wilson, a Baptist minister, and my uncles putting their lives on the line to run for various political offices in a small heavily segregated town in the South. I saw my foster mother Dr. Mary Wilson, the first special education teacher in our region, volunteering to be the only Black person at the polls to make sure that Black people who couldn't read were given appropriate instructions to vote. I saw the Black church praying, organizing, leading the resistance. We are instructed to fight and pray. From their faith and their prayers they drew strength to actually go out and fight back in non-violent ways to keep advancing. I saw the amazing result of our town featured on 60 Minutes for electing the first Black Sheriff in the United States. 

We all have people who risked their lives for us to have equity, access and a future and we are not walking away from that. Lynching was a very real thing in the deep south. My foster parents and their community had a choice to cower in fear in their homes or go do something about their and their children's future. Fear is a real challenge to overcoming. But sometimes you just have to do it scared! They didn’t succumb to fear. They were resolved. And so should we be. We will not be denied. And I know, we will not be destroyed, we will keep rising, we are not going anywhere. We will be right here, thriving with our children and grandchildren, generations thriving, protected and covered. That’s what’s really up! 

We were not alone in this fight. That is why allyship is so important. There were white men and women who were right beside those Black leaders. Jewish people risked their lives marching with Dr. Martin Luther King. Many races aligned globally around Black Lives Matter. That is why I am committed to inclusion and health equity to make sure everyone is advancing. We are all in this together and together we can overcome evil with good and make a difference. 

Fight hatred. Resist evil. Do it scared! Do it together! Be resolved. And yes, let’s all remain "relentlessly optimistic."