Photograph of Phyllis Fletcher

Ask an Expert: How Progress Begins With Each of Us
Phyllis Fletcher, Managing Editor, Northwest News Network

I used to come out as a black person.

In the 1980s in Wallingford homes, on yellow school buses to Wedgwood and the Central District, in my childhood church in Fremont, and even on the job, I would find ways to let my white friends and neighbors know.

My timing was tight like an ‘80s sitcom. Before someone could say something racist, after it was too late but when I had a quick exit, or when I saw any opening at all, I’d say it almost too fast. But at least it was out of the way and I could move on—to being questioned, avoided, or—on a good day—accepted.


At the University of Washington my racial identity is known by many colleagues and fellow alumni, and has been incorporated into my academic work and my public service. That’s my story; it’s not everyone’s.

We all come to work with identities, life events, statuses, and roles that shape how we interact. Whether our staff members embrace their identities publicly or privately, it’s our obligation and opportunity as supervisors to make our workplace free of biases and inequities that persist elsewhere. As the UW Race & Equity Initiative reminds us, “This is not somebody else’s problem.”

What I Learned in My POD Class

If you took the POD Supervisory Skills Certificate you know the required class Supervising in a Diverse Workplace. Maybe you saw that, threw a classic side-eye and said, “I know this stuff already!”

Then maybe you walked in and were greeted with the pilot episode of NBC’s “The Office,” which features cornball office manager Michael Scott making every diversity faux pas the writers’ room could imagine. That was my experience in the class taught by the great Eric Davis.

My favorite exercise in the class was when Eric gave us each several pieces of paper and, on each piece, had us write a different role we have outside of work. “Mother.” “Sister.” “Wife.” “Daughter.” “Friend.” “Book club member.”

Eric had us pick one and destroy it. Then another. Then Eric walked around the room and, at random, took pieces of paper away. Some people were left with nothing.

I think some of us surprised ourselves with our tears.

We were all many things before we came to work for the University. And before we were spouses, we were people’s children. Before we were anyone’s parents, we were someone’s friends. Before we were minorities, visible and otherwise, we were people.

Does my book club membership carry the same import or cultural significance as my being biracial? No. Book clubs don’t have the same baggage as our legacy of slavery, Jim Crow laws, segregated schools, and the like. But these are all parts of me. We all want to feel valued for who we really are; we all deserve to be able to bring our whole and genuine selves to work.

Lessons From Journalism

As a journalist in public radio I have interviewed hundreds of people on every topic from race and racism to landslides to K-12 education. The lesson I still learn every day is to listen.

One of my most memorable lessons in listening was when I interviewed a public figure for maybe our 20th time. To test my recording I asked him a question I thought I knew the answer to: “what’s your name?”

He pronounced his last name completely differently than I’d been saying it for years.

“Wait. What?” I listened again, and repeated his name back to him. “I’ve been saying your name wrong!”

“Oh, yes. My children hear that all the time and say, ‘why do you let them say our name like that?’”

It wasn’t his mistake; it was mine for not asking or not really listening to the answer before. He had grown up in a different country and while he may have been used to people mispronouncing his name here, his children regarded it as a sign of disrespect. As bosses we may not always be the subject of glowing conversations around the dinner table, but I certainly don’t want my staff’s family members pointing out that I can’t even say their names right. I resolved to do better, and I believe I have.

A Supportive Workplace

When you lead with openness and empathy, your staff is supported in their intersectional identities. That means you’re recognizing individuals’ various intersecting social identities as well as the oppressive systems, phobias, and historical injustices that accompany those identities. Operating with that kind of awareness means you’re also contributing to the work of the UW Race & Equity Initiative.

A supportive workplace recognizes that even people who are very private have roles and identities that are core to who we are. While there are times that we prioritize our work, we also have to be able to tell our colleagues when another role is more important—or is not being respected in the workplace. And we have to be able to come away from those conversations knowing it was safe and productive to speak up.

When someone hears what we are really saying about ourselves, and reflects back to us that they hear us loud and clear and want to meet us where we are, whether we’re claiming identities, our family roles, or saying our own names, we feel acknowledged, supported, and recognized. We don’t have to wait, cringing, for that moment that makes us question whether we belong. We don’t have to time our exits.


Phyllis is managing editor of the Northwest News Network, a collaboratively funded news service to public radio stations. Her reporters are heard on public radio stations throughout the northwest and appear nationally on NPR programs like “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered,” and “Here & Now.” Phyllis is also a UW alum and served on the UW Department of Communication Alumni Board. During her more than 10 years at KUOW, she edited the “Black in Seattle” series and her work won multiple national awards in broadcasting.  

Spring 2016 | Return to Issue Home