Again, Sharon, while I can't speak for anyone else, those of us who do not choose to want to be anesthetized against what is wrong, ill, and deeply sick in society are probably not newly "woke," if you will. The moral outrage that was so obvious right after George Floyd struck me as fashionable, and about as useless as putting a black square on a Facebook page. The real work takes blood, sweat and tears, and years. We love our moral outrage; it seems to serve the White Savior, Justice Warrior narrative.

But real work takes moral courage.

The other day I introduced my supremely talented buddy Rosenna to a corporate client. To points I've made earlier, if we want to be allies, we have to goddamned well invest time and effort. We promote people, and that includes pushing better talent than we are in front of our powerful friends. For that is how we change the conversation. Rosenna has skills I do not. While we are most certainly discussing working together, it doesn't threaten me in the least if she gets work I won't because of that introduction. While this goes for all of us, all colors, the message, to my mind, is that this is one key way we acknowledge Black Excellence: we ensure its visibility, and we also work to ensure that such Excellence gets opportunity. That's part of the yeoman's work. We share. We elevate. We promote. It would be hard to express how utterly delighted I was that our zoom call was an unmitigated success. What so many of us simply don't understand is that when we elevate Black Excellence we elevate ourselves in the process. This is not a zero-sum game.