A Year After George Floyd’s Murder, What Have You Grown?

Every time I would think about what it means to be Black in America, I would dig a hole in my garden.

After 38 years, I moved out of the city and into the country. Only an hour, but as a Black woman who has lived in cities her entire life, it sometimes feels like the moon. I moved to a house with a disturbingly large garden plot and many weeds.

I have never gardened before. But, boy, did I take on this challenge on with gusto! Look at me in my gloves and boots and overalls. Look at me chopping down weeds! (Reader, they were not weeds.) I have never in my life seen the reason for loving to garden. But this year, I joined the other 18 million new gardeners and decided to forge a life that provides both glory and frustration.

Glory and frustration. I’m a diversity consultant. Those two words can also describe the past year of the work. I have spoken or consulted at around 200 companies since May 25, 2020, the day that George Floyd was murdered and the fight against racism changed. The three steps forward where you believe people get it. The two steps back where you realize they may get it, but they still won’t change it. The one step forward again where you realize that many of them will. The two steps back where you find out that the…