Today’s Qualified at the Intersection is a continuation of yesterday's because I am still blown away by SHRM’s decision to platform someone like Robbie Starbuck.
If you missed it, I did an emergency newsletter yesterday because, honestly, I lost it. The head of SHRM has courted this administration and even wanted a Department of Labor position. So people say, What did you expect? Well, I expect you not to platform. I expect you not to be an organization that makes millions of dollars selling certifications and accreditations and then puts on your main stage someone who has none.
No certification. No accreditation. No training. No experience. No education in this area. Yet SHRM calls him a “trusted voice” on diversity and inclusion. That is insane.
And what Robbie Starbuck has said is not casual commentary. He claims that disadvantaged people—which always means Black people—are being artificially raised to the level of white men. The assumption is that white men are naturally superior and everyone else is naturally inferior. That is the logic of colonialism. That is slavery. That is Jim Crow. That is the KKK. That is apartheid.
How could anyone in their right mind platform this person as a trusted voice?
This is not a free exchange of ideas. It is unleashing poison into workplaces. SHRM members pay for certifications and qualifications, but apparently, none of that matters on their main stage. If credentials do not matter on their platform, what exactly are they charging members for?
I have multiple degrees, a law license, a certificate in nonprofit management, a long career across nonprofit and for-profit sectors, years of consulting experience, and I spent two years researching and writing a book about race in the workplace. Yet, organizations like SHRM would say that I am not qualified enough. They would not put me on their stage. But they will pay a 36-year-old influencer with no relevant background because he brings a deep hatred of inclusive policies and a racial superiority narrative that fits a political agenda.
This is textbook competency checking. Black professionals, especially Black women, are told we need more degrees, more credentials, more proof. Meanwhile, with none of that, others are given the microphone and the paycheck.
It is not a coincidence. Over 300,000 Black women have been shed from the workforce in the last four to five months. That is the emergency SHRM should be talking about. That is the crisis that deserves their stage, their money, and their attention. Instead, they put workers in danger by endorsing the idea that Black professionals are not qualified.
The real data says otherwise. Black professionals are more educated, more experienced, and still underemployed. White people with only a high school diploma or an associate’s degree have more wealth than Black people with master’s degrees or PhDs. The premise that inclusion is about lowering standards is a lie.
So this is not about differences of opinion. These are facts. And SHRM’s choice to ignore those facts is obscene.
I said before that when CNN gave Jillian Michaels a platform to dismiss slavery, it was unacceptable. She had no expertise or credentials, yet she was framed as an authority. Meanwhile, I submitted an op-ed to the New York Times about my family’s history with slavery and received nothing. No publication. No acknowledgment. But Jillian Michaels gets a glossy spread.
This is what America’s so-called merit system has always looked like. It is not about merit. It is about protecting certain identities. Whiteness has always been the strongest identity politics in this country. And merit only becomes important when outsiders—Jewish people, immigrants, women, Black people—demand a place at the table. Then, suddenly, you must be qualified.
That is what SHRM is showing us in real time. They sell credentials to members, but their stage tells you the truth. Qualifications do not matter. Only identity and political usefulness do.
And that is dangerous.
