Confessions from Your Token Black Colleague

True Stories & Candid Conversations About Equity & Inclusion in the Workplace

By: Talisa Lavarry

Narrated by: Dakasha Cater-Carter

Length: 3 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

In the aftermath of the George Floyd killing in 2020, as US society takes a deep look at its racist underpinnings, corporations are among the institutions being called on to revamp their treatment of Black people. Confessions from Your Token Black Colleague: True Stories and Candid Conversations About Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace provides a firsthand account of the discrimination endured by author Tali Lavarry while working for corporations that failed to rise to the occasion when it came to creating and fostering a sustainable work environment for diverse hires.

Revealing the injustices and hypocrisy that prevails, she makes a case for business leaders to examine their own unacknowledged biases and take action to address systemic racism. Through conversations with progressive white business leaders and professionals in the fields of human resources and diversity and inclusion, with their help, she demonstrates what has to be done to create real solutions that protect and fortify people of color and other marginalized groups.

Part memoir and part blueprint for change, this book lays bare the mechanisms of workplace racism, from microaggressions to false accusations. Relentless oppression, at a series of corporate jobs, led to her nervous breakdown and confinement to a psych ward. This experience served as the catalyst for a period of soul-searching that resulted in the biggest revelation of her life and the formation of her own diversity, equity, and inclusion consultancy. In this book, she articulates the attitudes and behaviors of corporate staff that need changing if equity is to be achieved. Through a series of “Proposals for Atonement and Reconciliation”, she introduces a strategy that opens the door to the possibility of intrinsic change.

©2020 Yum Yum Morale LLC (P)2021 Yum Yum Morale LLC

Very Applicable!

This story resonated with me so much, thank you for writing it. Definitely a story all supervisors and mangers should read or anyone that has BIPOC staff under them.

Powerful

That was hard to listen to, but also comforting. I have also experienced racial abuse/ discrimination at work.

Required reading!

This heart-wrenching book demonstrates the racial trauma that Black women often experience in the workplace. While some of the stories may seem unbelievable, those are exactly the kinds of stories we need to believe because they happen all too often in our workplaces.

I sadly relate

I loved that Tali was so honest in her experiences. I definitely don't feel alone in corporate America. She endured more than I have, but the sentiments are the same.

Incredible experiences!

This book opened my eyes to the devastating and incredible experiences that many Black women endure daily in corporate America. Climbing the corporate ladder is fraught with many obstacles - some blatant and most shrouded in coded language and behavior. Be prepared to experience anger and frustration and then do some self reflection in an effort to support positive change.

Robotic Tone

I very much wanted to listen to this book but couldn't get passed the reader's monotonous, robotic tone.